Archive for May 17th, 2009
Obama Not to Touch Israel’s ‘Nuclear Nerve’, Iran War Not Off the Table
Death From Above, Outrage Down Below
by David Kilcullen and Andrew McDonald Exum
17 May 09 | NYT
It would be in our best interests, and those of the Pakistani people, to declare a moratorium on drone strikes into Pakistan.
Imagine, for example, that burglars move into a neighborhood. If the police were to start blowing up people’s houses from the air, would this convince homeowners to rise up against the burglars? Wouldn’t it be more likely to turn the whole population against the police? And if their neighbors wanted to turn the burglars in, how would they do that, exactly? Yet this is the same basic logic underlying the drone war.
Sri Lankan Rebels Offer to Lay Down Their Arms 26 Years After Brutal Civil War Began
17 May 09 | NYT, BBC, AJE and VOA News
Fierce fighting was reported Sunday in Sri Lanka in what appeared to be a final battle with Tamil separatist guerrillas as the country’s president declared that the quarter-century civil war had ended. Read the rest of this entry »
Afghan Civilian Deaths: Who is to Blame?
Analysis by Laura King
17 May 09 | LAT
Commanders and villagers give conflicting accounts of the attack that Afghan officials say killed 140 civilians, two-thirds of them children and teenagers, in what may prove the most lethal episode of civilian casualties since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 — a toll disputed by the U.S. But injured girls make clear the costs for two families.
