An Illegitimate Supreme Court Accelerates the Decline That Began With Gitmo
WIB politics October 15, 2018
Amid the emotional hubbub over the predictable confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, there has been a largely overlooked casualty. The American judiciary. It’s not the end result alone — his addition to the highest bench in the land where he will sit for life —... Read more
The New Islamophobia Looks Like the Old McCarthyism
WIB politics October 10, 2018
It’s hard today even to imagine that, in the late 1980s, the right-wing Christian Voice Magazine published a “candidate’s biblical scoreboard,” urging its readers to rate their politicians by how “biblically” they cast their ballots in Congress. One key measure of this — did that legislator support the anti-Communist... Read more
America Is Winning in Afghanistan
WIB politics October 10, 2018
October 2018 marked the 17th anniversary of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Despite near unanimity when the war began, mainstream political opinion now seems to be that the United States has “lost” the war. “Seventeen years into the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, Americans remain pessimistic about U.S. efforts... Read more
The Royal Touch
WIB politics October 5, 2018
It was May 2017. The Saudis were growing increasingly nervous. For more than two years they had been relying heavily on U.S. military support and bombs to defeat Houthi rebels in Yemen. Now, the U.S. Senate was considering a bipartisan resolution to cut off military aid and halt a... Read more
For North Korea’s Denuclearization, Look to South Africa
WIB politics October 4, 2018
Much of the debate about diplomacy with North Korea has revolved around whether it will give up its nuclear weapons. Despite Kim Jong Un’s announcement that he intends to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear arsenal by 2021, questions and ambiguities still surround the diplomatic push aimed at getting Pyongyang to pursue disarmament.... Read more
Insider Attacks Are the Ultimate Treachery
WIB politics October 2, 2018
He was shot in the back, the ultimate act of treachery. On Sept. 3, 2018, a U.S Army sergeant major was killed by two Afghan police officers — the very people his unit, the new Security Force Assistance Brigade, was there to train. It was the second fatal “insider... Read more
The Dark Logic Behind Armies That Rape
WIB politics October 1, 2018
In the era of #MeToo many are looking to science to better understand sexual violence—whether its why victims don’t come forward or why perpetrators commit such violence. Here I try to utilize social science to better understand why sexual violence is so pervasive during civil war. This truly horrific... Read more
To Understand Venezuela’s Crisis, Look to the Past … and the CIA
WIB politics September 28, 2018
On Sept. 11, 1973, a military junta headed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet completed a coup against the left-wing government of Chilean president Salvador Allende. Allende had given hope to many leftists around the world that socialism could come to power peacefully and coexist with liberal political institutions. The chaos... Read more
Donald Trump’s Space Force Is a Scam
WIB politics September 27, 2018
On June 18, 2018, Pres. Donald Trump announced he was directing the Pentagon to develop a new branch of the U.S. military, a “Space Force” that would give the United States “dominance” in that realm. It would be, he said — and here he used a classic phrase from... Read more
Hurricane Maria Killed as Many American Citizens as 9/11 Did
WIB politics September 20, 2018
On Aug. 28, 2018, the Milken Institute School of Public Health released a study concluding with 95-percent confidence that Hurricane Maria had led to the “excess” deaths of between 2,658 and 3,290 U.S. citizens on the island of Puerto Rico. It so happens that the average figure of 2,975... Read more
