On 12th September 2009, hundreds of thousands of people gathered for a “taxpayer march” in Washington, DC. The Tea party has focused public anger at Obama’s reforms and forced the political establishment to take note in the run-up to the midterm elections. But is it any more than a knee-jerk response to a Democrat president? Perhaps those who will find life most difficult will be Republican moderates. In the age of the Tea party, the bad news is likely to keep coming, and a comeback for moderate Republicanism looks some way off
Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars, chronicles the President’s effort to fashion a policy for the Afghanistan War. It describes the agonizingly slow process composed of high level government reviews, meetings and reports that culminated with President’s decision in late 2009 to add 30,000 more American troops to the conflict this year and begin withdrawals in July 2011.
President Obama and other senior US officials make constant reference to America being “a nation at war.” This is politically necessary to say and obviously the case because the US has nearly a hundred thousand troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan and reports combat casualties daily.
The state of Arizona recently enacted a statute which allowes police officers to inquire about the immigration status of individuals they stop for other infractions of the law such as speeding or failure to yield for a pedestrian.
To the extent that The Wire has had anything to say about the events of 9/11, which it implicitly comments upon during its five seasons, it is the message of continuity that stands out. Too much has been made about how the world changed on 9/11. And while it would be altogether fraught to claim that nothing has changed, it is also true that the world which existed before 9/11 continues to exist today.
Is the “West” more diverse than the “rest”? In particular, are the traditionally Western Christian countries in Europe, and the United States, more religiously diverse than the rest of the world? When we compare the U.S. to countries that are somewhat comparable to it in terms of their population, the results are interesting. I suggest that the European and American scholars and publicists should at the very least refrain from calling their countries “religiously diverse,” when in fact they really are not.
Religion is a significant voice in international relations and its increased prominence is due in no small measure, for western audiences at least, to the influence of the Christian Right in US domestic politics and international affairs. The resounding Democratic election victories in 2008 might suggest that the movement has reached its nadir and is no longer worthy of consideration, but thie movement is highly resilient.
In order to avoid losing ground in a geopolitically pivotal region of the world, the US must be bold. Today, Iran and the increasingly confident Shia of the Middle East are playing a central role in shaping what the region will look like a generation from now. The US must be able to adapt to the shifting sands and not cling rigidly to yesteryear’s policy prescriptions.
It is seven years since a US led coalition invaded Iraq, deposing Saddam Hussein and becoming involved in a long, costly stabilization operation that is supposedly about to end soon with the withdrawal of US combat units. More than 4,700 coalition troops, 4,385 of them Americans, have died so far in this effort.
A special election in Massachusetts held to select the replacement for Ted Kennedy as US Senator has had great political impact in the US with the victory of Scott Brown, the Republican candidate. The Kennedys, first JFK and then Teddy (with retainers inserted when technically required), had controlled the seat for 57 years.
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