As 2013 came to an end ‘9/11’ continued to cast a violent shadow in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet the US response betrayed a failure to understand its origin.
This tragic historic clash - the product of centuries of virulent European antisemitism at home and rampant imperialism abroad, crowned by double or, in this case, treble dealings - is the root of the conflict. Almost everything else has been grafted on retrospectively.
The Baathist regime is indeed guilty of great war crimes, but the human cost of a failed state would be a greater catastrophe. Washington should have learnt this lesson from Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq.
What if Edward Snowden was made to disappear? Whistleblower Peter Van Buren examines how the control exerted by governments on the internet is a threat to the very notion of human memory, social and cultural capital.
This week’s talks, like the previous rounds, will happen behind closed doors. The negotiating texts will be kept secret from the public but not from the ca. 600 corporate representatives who have been named ‘cleared advisors’ for the United States.
Detroit was the cradle of Fordist capitalism and the American dream. Then it became their grave. But now, amidst the ruins, something is moving. Is there an end to the city's decline?
The U.S. Congress is fighting over how much to cut food assistance to needy families. Everyone knows that women and their children are the poorest people in America, but strangely, the faces of women have disappeared from the debate and have been absorbed into abstract “needy families.”
Undiscussed in Seymour Hersh’s article are the motives of the other players in this conflict who also have sarin.
The purview of the US criminal justice system appears to be widening: from school child 'bad behaviour' to a tenant's rent arrears. Chase Madar tracks the increasing involvement of police in everyday life.
Like most Europeans, Spaniards were shocked by revelations of extensive US spying on European citizens. Yet, there has been little or no public debate on state surveillance in Spain since then. Why not? (from our new Joining the dots series)
The fallout from these abuses of labor and freedom of speech casts a long shadow on Yale-NUS' hopes to become an international hub for liberal education.
