The New White Man's Burden and the value of a life
Submitted by gjohnsit on Fri, 09/18/2015 - 6:36pmIn February 1899, British poet Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem entitled “The White Man’s Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands."
War
What exactly is Obama trying to accomplish in Syria?
Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 09/12/2015 - 8:26pmRussia is set to start flying combat missions in Syria in support of the Assad government. The Obama Administation has pulled out all the stops to keep this from happening, including having Bulgaria and Greece block Russian flights over their countries.
When a frenemy isn't a frenemy
Submitted by gjohnsit on Fri, 09/04/2015 - 4:01pmWe are at war with ISIL in Syria and Iraq. Homeland Security considers America jihadists that return from the middle east to be enemies and "major threats".
But what about when they aren't from the United States? What about if they go to Ukraine instead?
Evening Blues Preview 8-21-15
Submitted by joe shikspack on Fri, 08/21/2015 - 3:09pmThis evening's music features Texas by way of Louisiana multi-instrumentalist bluesman, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown.
One year and 6,000 airstrikes later
Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 08/09/2015 - 1:33pmOne year ago yesterday President Obama ordered the bombing of ISIL.
That's enough time to take stock of what we have and haven't accomplished.
There's been 5,946 coalition airstrikes, almost all of them American, nearly evenly divided between Iraq and Syria.
Open Thread, Friday, August 7, 2015
Submitted by NCTim on Fri, 08/07/2015 - 5:53amHiroshima at 70: Why attitudes are changing about the first atomic bomb
On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped one of the world’s first atomic bombs on the seaside city of Hiroshima, killing anywhere between 66,000 to 150,000 people.
Open thread 08-06-15
Submitted by shaharazade on Thu, 08/06/2015 - 6:00am(Hey! It's Shahryar, with internet problems on my computer so I'm using shaz's. )
Really! Those people who rule the world should be ashamed of themselves but of course they're not.
In 1939 MGM made a movie called "Idiot's Delight". You might have seen it. We never had until last night. It's Europe on the brink of war. Hollywood's designated "peacenik actor", Burgess Meredith, delivers this line:
US Intel Agencies: ISIS No Weaker After Year of US Bombings
Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 08/01/2015 - 10:53pmThe agony of Fallujah
Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 07/16/2015 - 2:43pmAmericans are intimately familiar with the city of Fallujah. It's where the Sunni resistance to the occupation of Iraq was born, and where nearly 100 American soldiers lost their lives in the bloodiest battle of the Iraq War. More than 1,500 civilians were killed and over 70,000 buildings were destroyed in those battles.
A New 'Gaza' in Yemen
Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 07/09/2015 - 1:14pmOne year ago yesterday, Israel conducted an assault on the Gaza Strip. The Israelis bombed Gaza infrastructure, like power and water plants, and deliberately targeted civilian housing.
The Israeli attack brought international condemnation.
