This sentence in Iran can only be interpreted as the country throwing down the gauntlet to the Obama administration, saying in effect: “I dare you to try and do something about it.” Truly a sad and disgusting verdict — but in the end some believe they will not serve the full time: Iranian authorities sentenced two Americans arrested and detained along the Iran-Iraq border to eight years in...

Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

In “How much is that F-35 in the window,” I wrote about the difficulty of pinning down the true cost of a single F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft or, for that matter, of the entire Joint Strike Fighter Program. Multiply the uncertainties, vagaries, and red tape of pinning down the cost of this aircraft— this program—a thousand fold and one gets an idea of the complexities of coming up with...

While Germany is regarded as an axis power that has really confronted its behavior and activities during World War II, Japan is not. That is what makes this editorial from Japan’s Asahi Shimbun so eye-opening. According to Asahi, Japan’s failure to acknowledge and alter the organization of Japanese society since its defeat 66 years ago has led not only to economic crisis, but the post-tsunami nuclear...

Paresh Nath, The National Herald, India This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Is it time for a full-throated reform of our ‘current economic model’? This editorial from Mexico’s La Jornada expresses just as much derision for America’s current economic policies as any Tea Party member – but comes to dramatically different conclusions. The La Jornada editorial says in part: In the best case, warnings by economic specialists about the beginning of a deceleration...

NBC News reports that Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi is getting ready to leave the country: Moammar Gadhafi is making preparations for a departure from Libya with his family for possible exile in Tunisia, U.S. officials have told NBC News, citing intelligence reports. One official suggested it was possible that Gadhafi would leave within days, NBC News reported. The information obtained by NBC News follows...

When Wickileaks dumped those American diplomatic cables onto the Internet, we learned that Stephen Harper “likes to see fear in [the] eyes” of his employees. How disconcerting it must be, then, for him to encounter Michaela Keyserlingk, who is neither an employee or — in Harper’s universe — an important person. In 2009, Mrs. Keyserlink’s husband of forty-seven years died...

Have the United States and the West hit such a dead end in terms of economic policy that war, as a way of economic recovery, is inevitable? Columnist K. Selim of Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran warns his readers that given the dire economic state of the world and America’s huge military, it is time to prepare for a new world war. For the Le Quotidien d’Oran, K. Selim writes in part: The colossal...

Which is worse: the debt crisis and partisan bickering in the United States, or the debt crisis and dysfunctional confluence of national political systems in Europe? This editorial from Brazil’s O Globo asserts that despite the dark clouds over America, Europe lacks the historic dynamism and resilience repeatedly demonstrated by America. The O Globo editorial says in part: Although the wrestling match...

Cardow, The Ottawa Citizen This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Anna Hazare, 73, is no ordinary social activist. Hazare has emerged as a sort of national hero battling against the government that has been reeling under mind-boggling corruption scandals. An Indian government attempt to head off a political crisis by arresting him appeared to backfire Tuesday when parliament’s opposition members walked out and demonstrations broke out across the country. See here… (UPDATE:...

When it comes to social media, are officials in the United States once again following a policy of ‘do as we say, not as we do’? La Stampa columnist Juan Carlos De Martin warns U.S. and British officials that shutting down cell phone service and social media to prevent protest is precisely what the Chinas and Irans of the world are hoping for. For Italy’s La Stampa, Juan Carlos De Martin writes...

Cry Havoc and Let Slip: My Riotous Life by Clancy Sigal “Whatever ends your from put your ballys on link up and cause havic.” – Blackberry message from a London rioter I’m a veteran rioter. My first, at 15, was when – for racial solidarity and sheer adrenalin rush – I jumped aboard a motorized cavalcade of Jewish tough guys roaring off my Chicago turf into a nearby Italian-American neighborhood...

My nephew Adam Gandelman was in London last week on a business trip. This was the view of the London skyline from his office window:

Yet another chapter is being started in the saga of Pakistan, a country Washington grew closere to and greatly upset India in the 1970s when Henry Kissinger and Nixon “tilted” to it to achieve the “opening” in China. In recent years it has seemingly played both sides of the fence on the issues of terrorism and being an ally. And the latest could be the nail in its coffin in terms of...

Yaakov Kirschen, Dry Bone This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Patrick Edaburn reminded us that 50 years ago today, on August 13, 1961, construction started on the Berlin Wall. I don’t remember much about the day or the event. I was too busy completing the last few weeks of Officer Candidate School, and the Berlin Wall itself did not start going up immediately, as I remember. However, barbed wire went up everywhere, streets were dug up, East German military guards...

What will become of Iraq when U.S. forces leave at the end of this year? Is the current Iraqi government capable of dealing with life on its own? And if not, what should Iraqis do about it? Columnist Atheer Al Katib of Iraq’s Kitabat newspaper admonishes his readers to begin a great debate about what kind of government – and what kind of country – they want. For Iraq’s Kitabat, Atheer...

Here’s a truism that Americans need to better absorb: U.S. policy is global in impact and is the concern of a good portion of the world’s inhabitants. And here’s another truism: a lot of people out there are deeply frustrated because they can’t vote, so they intend to do everything in their power to liberate themselves from U.S. influence. But as this column by Maksim Blant of Russia’s...