Has Washington intentionally set things up so that Iraq will have no choice but to allow U.S. forces to remain in the country past 2011? According to Sotal Iraq columnist Qasim Al-Kafaji, the U.S. has no intention of pulling out, which explains its 16,000 ‘diplomats’ at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and its failure to fully prepare Iraqis to take contol of their own territory. For Sotal Iraq/aka Voice of Iraq, Qasim Al-Kafaji starts out this way: In 2008, Iraq signed a convention with...

What is at the root of what’s wrong with our economy and our civil society? Weaving the issue of the U.S. death penalty into the global financial crisis, columnist Guido Rossi of Italy’s Il Sole 24 Ore is unequivocal: our system of ‘financial capitalism’ has slowly but surely eaten away at the fabric of society, which demands protecting the rights of not only the powerful and well-connected, but of the average person as well. for Il Sole 24 Ore, Guido Rossi writes in part: Nearly...

Call it propaganda or call it delusion, but Tehran is crowing about not only predicting Occupy Wall Street and allied groups, but says it considers itself primarily responsible for all the unrest – Eastern and Western – since the Arab Spring began. So could it be that the protests which began in New York on September 17 and have now spread across the developed world reflect a yearning to reject capitalism and embrace Islam and the Iranian Revolution? According to state-sanctioned columnist...

Are we about to see protests like those in New York sweep the Western world? Columnist Alexander Hageluken of Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung urges his German readers to get up and take resort to the only method of effecting change left to the average person: mass protest. For the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Alexander Hageluken writes in part: To begin with, at first there were very few people occupying a park near Wall Street. It was easy to dismiss them as cranks unable to hinder the billion-dollar...

Is Steve Jobs and the success he engendered the perfect demonstration of how far off track the global financial system has gotten? According to columnist León Bendesky of Mexico’s La Jornada, innovation and creating new products that consitute progress requires the availablity of credit, an element of buisiness that banks have rejected in favor of sophisticated financial instruments that generate little but huge profits for the few and economic collapse for the many. For La Jornada, León...

Has Washington concocted a tale of Iranian terror in order to, a) divert the anger of the American people over the behavior of government leaders and financial officials, b) ruin Iran’s reputation among neighboring states, particularly with Saudi Arabia, c) divert the Arab Spring from following the example of the Iranian Revolution and, d) help Israel out of its current isolation? According to this news item from Iran’s state-controlled Kayhan, all of these motives explain the ‘evil’...

What is it about mainland China that prevents the emergence of innovators like Steve Jobs? While in the West it seems obvious that a lack of free speech, free expression and free association puts China at a disadvantage, this editorial from Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po shows that Beijing still has a way to go before it accepts that in order to unleash the creative power of its people, it will have to loosen its grip. The Wen Wei Po editorial says in part: Facing unprecedented scientific and technological...

Is the way America administers the death penalty about exacting justice, or just winning the next election? And does it live up to the ideals Americans say they hold dear? For France’s Le Nouvel Observateur, Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner, one of the world’s most tireless anti-death penalty campaigners, outlines the mind-numbing injustice of how execution is imposed in the United States. And she knows a thing or two about it, since in the course of her activism she married Hank Skinner,...

Is the American left and center-left finally feeling its oats? As the protests on Wall Street spread across the country, the world is taking notice . For Germany’s Die Welt, columnist Ansgar Graw writes that Americans who hardly know the meaning of thw word ‘demonstration’ have taken to the streets, and no one, least of all the protesters, knows where it will all lead. For Die Welt, Ansgar Graw writes in part: What we are witnessing here in New York City is the Tea Party of...

As uncomfortable is it may make people in the United States – and especially in Mexico – this editorial from Spain’s La Vanguardia warns that with 30 percent of Mexico already in the hands of drug cartels, there may be no way other to take a President Perry up on his offer if Mexico is to avoid becoming a failed state. The La Vanguardia editorial says in part: Mexico City Mayor Marcelino Ebrard, who aspires to be a candidate of the left in the presidential election next year,...

How worried are Japanese about the rise of China? Hiroshi Kawamoto form Japan’s Isen Shimbun, after closely examining what he considers the calamitous decade of U.S. behavior since 9-11, warns that closer ties to America is the only strategy that has any hope of preserving Japanese prosperity. For Japan’s Isen Shimbun, Hiroshi Kawamoto writes in part: Trying to return to the United States of the 20th century – the U.S. that prevailed in the fight against the Soviet Union and which...

Is the state of the world really as dire as world leaders who recently spoke at the U.N. General Assembly would lead us to believe? Have we all gotten carried away with gloom and doom? For Argentina’s Diario Decuyo, columnist Andrés Oppenheimer cites a recent report that asserts things are on the upswing almost everywhere, from life expectancy to education levels to the number of wars. For the Diario Decuyo, Andrés Oppenheimer writes in part: Although there are enormous threats on several...

Does the case of Amanda Knox, acquitted yesterday in connection with the rape and murder of her British roommate, confirm once again the barbarity and injustice of the American death penalty? Asserting that in the U.S., people are put to death on the basis of evidence at least as flimsy as that against Knox, La Repubblica columnist Vittorio Zucconi writes that the Knox case is yet one more reason for the U.S. to end state-sanctioned punishment of death. For La Repubblica, Vittorio Zucconi writes...

Is America’s ‘No Tolerance’ approach to battling crime something for Europe and the rest of the world to emulate? According to Die Zeit columnist Dr. Eva Schweitzer, this may seem counter-intuitive and disturbing to European sensibilities, but cracking down on grand and petty crimes committed primarily by ethnic minorities is the very ‘glue’ that hold America’s multicultural society together. For Die Zeit, Dr. Eva Schweitzer writes in part: American is similar...

Is the United States behind the times for retaining use of the death penalty? Continuing on with our current theme, this editorial from Colombia’s El Tiempo outlines why execution reflects so badly on the United States, and cites statistical evidence that in any case, it fails to deter murder. The El Tiempo editorial says in part: The tenacity with which the United States clings to this outdated and gradually disappearing punishment is surprising. In Germany it was abolished in 1949, Great...

The execution in Georgia of Troy Davis, who many both in and out of the United States believe to have been innocent of the murder charges against him, has once again highlighted the global opprobrium associated with America’s continuing use of the death penalty. According to French philosopher Daniel Salvatore Schiffer, writing for Le Nouvel Observateur, the fact that President Obama failed to mention or intercede in his execution not only undermines the Nobel Peace Prize Committee for giving...

Is Washington’s Jewish lobby an impenetrable barrier to the realization of a Palestinian state? Columnist Moqif Mattar of Rumallah’s Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah writes that regardless of the potential benefits of better U.S. ties to Arabs, keeping Palestinian lands under Israeli control is just as much an article of faith for America as it is for Israel. For the Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, Moqif Mattar writes with resignation in part: The American administration will exercise its veto because the...

It seems that mild-mannered, coach-class flying U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke is making life uncomfortable for Beijing’s coddled, cloistered senior officials. In this thin-skinned editorial from the state-controlled Global Times, the Beijing regime criticizes Chinese media fawning over the new U.S. envoy, thereby exposing its own discomfort over the more extravagant behavior of its own senior officials. The Global Times editorial says in part: The attention received by America’s...

The very blunt comments of outgoing Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen that Pakistan intelligence has been actively assisting the Haqqani terrorist network has triggered another tremendous upwelling of anti-American sentiment in that nation. These three editorials from Pakistan’s The Nation and The Frontier Post well illustrate the skyrocketing passion and anger toward America now felt in that country. Just to remind the reader, the precise comments of Admiral Mullen before the Senate Armed...

Did Arabs and more importantly, Palestinians, put too much faith in Barack Obama? According to columnist M. Saadoune of Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran, anyone who thought President Obama would shake up the balance of power in the Middle East and make possible a Palestinian state was extremely naive, and now has learned the truth. For the Le Quotidien d’Oran, columnist M. Saadoune writes in part: So there you have it: for two years, an American president has pretended to further...

Will the Arab street erupt in protest if the United States vetoes recognition of a Palestinian State in the U.N. Security Council, as President Obama has promised to do? According to columnist Osama al-Farra of Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah in the Palestinian Territories, unless Arabs rise up to defend Palestinians and their own dignity, there will be nothing left to do but await the next U.S. insult. For Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah of the Palestinian Territories, Osama al-Farra writes in part: The U.S. administration...

Has the United States been in the midst of a national neurotic episode since the 9-11 attacks? According to this editorial from Japan’s Ibaraki Shimbun, going around the world and “brandishing an ideal” is just as foolish for the United States as it is for al-Qaeda. The Ibaraki Shimbun editorial says in part: Ten years have passed since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States shocked the world. Will the chain of hate that gave birth to this terror and the wars...

Eight years after the invasion of Iraq, which was prompted at least in part by Bush Administration claims that Saddam Hussein was somehow involved in the 9-11 terrorist attacks, how do Iraqis feel about al-Qaeda – and about America? For the Iraqi newspaper Sotal Iraq, columnist Rageb Al-Rakabi writes that Iraqis firmly reject the terror group and its plots to attack the United States. For Sotal Iraq, Rageb Al-Rakabi writes in small part: In my view, with the turn of the new century, extremist...

Is it just a myth that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks badly damaged the American economy? According to columnist Thomas Fricke of the Financial Times Deutschland, the wars of vengeance launched by George W. Bush and the nearly catastrophic economic crash at the end of his term caused far more damage than Osama bin Laden ever dreamed of.` For the Financial Times Deutschland, Thomas Fricke writes in part: The conjecture has persisted since the initial hours after the terror attack: Terror...

What have we sacrificed in the process of pursuing the ‘War on Terror’? Continuing with our global coverage of the 9-11 anniversary, in this moving article from Sweden’s Sydsvenskan, columnist Heidi Avellan writes that no matter how hard it may be, hatred must be met with love, and our principles mustn’t be sacrificed in the pursuit of vengeance. For Sweden’s Sydsvenskan, Heidi Avellan writes in part: It doesn’t take much empathy to understand that those who lost...