Limitations of power
ON Saturday, President Obama declared, `I have decided that the United States should take military action against Syrian regime targets`. But he went on to say that he had also…
Syrian calculations
The international community appears polarised over the issue of attacking Syria. This is not the first time the Syrian regime has allegedly used chemical weapons against the rebels. Since the…
Dangers of military intervention
The spectre of US military action against Syria has not diminished with the surfacing of divisions among America’s European allies and the resounding rejection of such intervention by the British…
Traitors and torturers
A traitor is defined as “a person who betrays someone or something, such as a friend, cause, or principle” and many sanctimonious Americans have accused US Army Private Bradley Manning…
Secrecy in democracy
Dr. Samuel Johnson wondered “whether a secret has not some subtle volatility by which it escapes imperceptibly, at the smallest vent, or some power of fermentation, by which it expands…
Uncertainty prevails
Predictably, an article in the New York Times stating that President Barack Obama was now seriously considering the option of retaining no troops in Afghanistan after 2014 has provoked reaction…
Brotherhood on the brink
Those who cannot remember the past, warned George Santayana, are condemned to repeat it. Having lived under military rule for the better part of the past several decades, Egypt’s secular…
US tries to secure foothold in Africa’s upcoming boom
Barack Obama will land to not much fanfare from the South African public for his first trip to the country as US president. He comes at a time when South…
Possible key to a different Iran
There is something slightly surreal about the victory of the only cleric among Iran’s six presidential candidates being greeted as a moderate triumph and a sign of hope on a…
Outrage over phone data sweep unites scrappy Washington
Like two warring gangs caught in police headlights, Washington's bitterly divided political sides dropped their weapons on Thursday and stood united behind a vast programme of government telephone snooping. What?…
