The UN is debating whether to withdraw its observers from Syria, given that there is no point in deploying observers if they are just going to witness the violence. The point of the observers was to enforce a cease-fire by moral suasion, but there is no ceasefire. Meanwhile, the UN has found evidence of a […]
Archives for May 2012
The Great Landgrab (Oldroyd)
Rachel Oldroyd writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism The latest book by science and environment author Fred Pearce is a breezy waltz through a key global problem that has yet to register with most people. In 2008, food prices around the world spiked, tipping many on the edges of poverty into crisis. But the […]
Omar Khayyam (134) “When life has been drunk to the dregs”
When life has been drunk to the dregs, whether at home or abroad; and its full measure used up, whether it’s been bitter or sweet; have some wine, since after you and me, the moon will go on waxing and waning from crescent to full. Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield […]
How Obama changed definition of ‘civilian’ in secret drone wars (Woods)
Chris Woods writes at the Bureau of investigative Journalism: Two US reports just published provide significant insights into President Obama’s personal and controversial role in the escalating covert US drone war in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. In a major extract from Daniel Klaidman’s forthcoming book Kill Or Capture, the author reveals extensive details of how […]
My Last Phone Call from Charles Taylor, Or how Qaddafi Plagued Africa (Pirio)
Gregory Alonso Pirio writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: Charles Taylor would call me on regular basis in the early 1990s. It’s not that I was a friend of the former Liberian rebel leader and later president, whom the International Criminal Court recently convicted for his role in aiding the bloody Sierra […]
The Secret Army inside the Army (Bacevich)
Andrew J. Bacevich writes at Todispatch.com: Unleashed Globalizing the Global War on Terror By Andrew J. Bacevich As he campaigns for reelection, President Obama periodically reminds audiences of his success in terminating the deeply unpopular Iraq War. With fingers crossed for luck, he vows to do the same with the equally unpopular war in Afghanistan. […]
Syria: Famine and Civil War
The Syrian government massacre at Houla has probabaly killed the faltering Annan peace plan, which envisioned a ceasefire between the Syrian Baath army and the rebel Free Syrian Army that would be monitored by UN observers. The ceasefire not only has not held, the fighting has intensified as the regime has insisted on using tank […]
Omar Khayyam (135) “You … checkmated the king of Babylon”
Your cheek is fairer than a wild white rose, and your face outshines those China dolls. You flirted with your eyes and checkmated the king of Babylon, after you took his pawns, bishops and rooks away. Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 135
In Race against Carbon Catastrophe, Solar Power is Making Strides
The world probably needs to get back to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere if truly radical climate change is to be avoided. But we are going in the wrong direction fast. In April, the Mauna Loa observatory measured CO2 in the atmosphere at about 396 parts per million, the highest […]
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