The Athens News - Commentary

Iraq-Afghanistan vets are saying no to NATO in Chicago

Sun, 20 May 2012 00:00:00 CDT

Veterans of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are now challenging the occupation of Chicago. This week, NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is holding the largest meeting in its 63-year history there.

Getting included on bin Laden’s ‘list’ is a signal honor

Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 CDT

I wanted you to be the first to know. It has just been revealed by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point Military Academy in the United States that I am on a very short list of journalists (eight in Western countries and seven others in India, Pakistan and Arab countries) to whom Osama bin Laden wanted to send "special media material" on the 10^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. To what do I owe this honor?

Coal, foreclosures, banks

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:00:00 CDT

Shareholder meetings can be routine, unless you are Bank of America, in which case it may be declared an "extraordinary event." That is what the city of Charlotte, N.C., called th

The real mad men: Follow money behind TV political ads

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 CDT

May Day, Murdoch and the murder of Milly Dowler. What do they have to do with the 2012 U.S. general election? This year's election will undoubtedly be the most expensive in U.S. history, with some projections topping $5 billion.

The National Security Agency is watching you

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:00:00 CDT

Three targeted Americans: A career government intelligence official, a filmmaker and a hacker. None of these U.S. citizens was charged with a crime, but they have been tracked, surveilled, detained — sometimes at gunpoint — and interrogated, with no access to a lawyer. Each remains resolute in standing up to the increasing government crackdown on dissent.

Obama’s policies: The real scandal in Cartagena, Colombia

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:00:00 CDT

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign launched its first Spanish-language ads this week, just after returning from the Summit of the Americas. He spent three days in Colombia, longer than any president in U.S. history.

The sooner we admit Afghan war can’t be won, the better

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:00:00 CDT

In the midst of the Taliban attacks in central Kabul on Sunday, a journalist called the British embassy for a comment. "I really don't know why they are doing this," said the exasperated diplomat who answered the phone. "We'll be out of here in two years' time. All they have to do is wait."

The long, hot march of self-evident climate change

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 00:00:00 CDT

The Pentagon knows it. The world's largest insurers know it. Now, governments may be overthrown because of it. It is climate change, and it is real. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, last month was the hottest March on record for the United States since 1895, when records were first kept, with average temperatures of 8.6 degrees F above average.

Black in White Plains: The killing of Kenneth Chamberlain

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:00:00 CDT

"My name is Kenneth Chamberlain. This is my sworn testimony. White Plains police are going to come in here and kill me." And that's just what they did.

It pays to keep track of global nuclear disarmament

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:00:00 CDT

After Mohamed Merah died in a hail of French police bullets last Thursday, people who had known him talked about "a polite and courteous boy" who liked "cars, bikes, sports and girls."

Forget fear of flying: You should fear airport screening

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 CDT

There was terror in the skies this week over Texas, caused not by a terrorist but by a pilot — a Flight Standards captain, no less. JetBlue Airways Capt. Clay Osbon, flying Flight 191 from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to Las Vegas, began moving up and down the aisle after the jet was airborne, ranting, according to several passengers, about Iraq, Israel, al-Qaida and bombs, calling on passengers to recite the Lord's Prayer, saying that they were "all going down."

The symmetry of slaughter

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CDT

After Mohamed Merah died in a hail of French police bullets last Thursday, people who had known him talked about "a polite and courteous boy" who liked "cars, bikes, sports and girls." His friends had trouble believing that he had murdered seven people, including three children, in a 10-day killing spree in the city of Toulouse, and none of them believed his claim to be a member of al-Qaeda.

Walking while black: The killing of Trayvon Martin

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CDT

On the rainy night of Sunday, Feb. 26, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin walked to a convenience store in Sanford, Fla. On his way home, with his Skittles and iced tea, the African-American teenager was shot and killed. The gunman, George Zimmerman, didn't run.

The survival of global civilization: The limited options

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CDT

Reporter: "What do you think of Western civilization, Mr Gandhi?" Mohandas Gandhi: "I think it would be a good idea."

Terror, trauma and the endless war in Afghanistan

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CDT

We may never know what drove a U.S. Army staff sergeant to head out into the Afghan night and allegedly murder at least 16 civilians in their homes, among them nine children and three women.

Real reasons to attack Iran aren’t the ones you’re hearing

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CDT

The last time U.S. President Barack Obama met Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, it was obvious that the two men distrusted and despised each other. This time (March 5), their mutual dislike was better hidden, but the gulf between them was still as big, especially on the issue of Iran's alleged desire for nuclear weapons.

When Japan discards nukes, both U.S. parties are all in

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CST

Super Tuesday demonstrated the rancor rife in Republican ranks, as the four remaining major candidates slug it out to see how far to the right of President Barack Obama they can go. While attacking him daily for the high cost of gasoline, both sides are traveling down the same perilous road in their support of nuclear power.

Is Putin scoring Pyhrric victory in Russian elections?

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CST

Vladimir Putin is going to win the presidential election in Russia on March 4. In theory, that gives him six more years in power, and the right to run for a further six-year term after that. (He got around the constitutional ban on more than two consecutive terms as president by spending the past four years as prime minister.) But it's very unlikely that Putin will be ruling Russia 12 years from now.

OU’s event parking shouldn’t crowd out students headed for class

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CST

I can't imagine having a job where people generally hate you. Ohio University's Parking Services, for example, is not held in the highest regard among students who have been ticketed, "booted" and towed – not what we like to accommodate our budget for.

New Obama campaign chair: 'The president was wrong'

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:00:00 CST

"The president is wrong." So says one of the newly appointed co-chairs of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. Those four words headline the website of the organization Progre