Fear and loathing in America on July 11, 2017 Fear, in one form or the other, has been a major characteristic of American society. Fear largely helps the powers that be command the ‘bewildered herd’ — to borrow Walter Lippmann’s term. Immigration and xenophobia have crossed paths several times in American history. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and […]
Is the US strike on Syria legal? on July 2, 2017In April 2017, the US attacked Syrian forces. The justification for the attack was the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian forces that killed 80 civilians — the same people President Trump banned from entering his country through an executive order. The decision to strike was made at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, which […]
From nationalism to democracy, with hypocrisy on June 22, 2017If only would we read history, we would not only fathom the Qatar crisis well but also be able to predict it. No wonder that understanding the present and knowing the future requires the knowledge of history. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt ended diplomatic ties with Qatar. The four Arab states cite Qatar’s support […]
Things they hide on June 6, 2016Lords of Secrecy? Author: Scott Horton; Publisher: Nation Book; 2015; Lords of Secrecy — The National Security Elite and America’s Stealth Warfare is a thought-provoking book penned by Scott Horton. It is a book for all generations and all democracies. Horton questions the unelected elites inside the US government who make major decisions affecting […]
A leak, a drone, and a democracy on May 28, 2016The debates about whether or not the man killed in the US drone strike in Balochistan was Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour is over. We are not in the next phase of the cycle where arguments about violation of sovereignty, legality of drones and counter-productivity would be vivid in the media chatter. The last phase of […]