Are the Muslim uprisings a result of Arab distaste for the United States and Israel? According to this news item from Iran’s state-run Kayhan, Iran’s leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has made the unlikely claim that while most of the Muslim uprisings are against the U.S. and Israel – the uprising in Syria is a plot instigated by the ‘Global Arrogance.’ The news item from...

Is it reasonable to assert, as President Obama did the other day, that, the ‘wave of war is receding’? According to this editorial from Brazil’s Estadao, while the last few years have proven the ‘folly’ of Bush’s ‘war against terrorists,’ President Obama’s belief that the ‘tide of war’ is receding may well turn out to be just as far fetched. The...

Is President Obama’s decision to follow through with plans to withdraw from Afghanistan just a misbegotten election-year ploy? According to columnist Andreas Ruesch of Switzerland’s Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Mr. Obama has sent the Taliban the wrong message at precisely the wrong time, apparently for strictly electoral purposes. For Switzerland’s Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Andreas Ruesch writes in...

Has the world seen the last of the major U.S.-mounted invasions? For Poland’s Rzeczpospolita, columnist Marek Magierowski writes that while electoral politics played a role in President Obama’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, the explanation goes much deeper. For Rzeczpospolita, Marek Magierowski writes in part: Obama also knows that his country is no longer capable of bearing the financial...

It may have been largely forgotten by the global media, but the nuclear catastrophe in Japan has not been concluded. This editorial from Japan’s Niigata-Nippo Shimbun, packaged with video on the latest assessments on the disaster from both in and out of Japan, offers a glimpse of the ongoing nuclear turmoil confronted by the Japanese people. The Niigata-Nippo Shimbun editorial says in part: ‘If...

Is Washington stabbing Hamid Karzai in the back by holding meetings with the Taliban without the involvement of his government? According to this article from Pakistan’s Frontier Post, it’s probably too late for Karzai, who whether he knows it or not, has been nothing but a U.S. stooge since the fall of the Taliban. The Frontier Post editorial says in part: It should come as no surprise. For quite...

While the United States regards itself as a highly transparent democracy, columnist Enrique Lynch of Argentina’s La Capital writes that the photo taken during the killing of Osama bin Laden in the White House Situation Room reflects a blatant and dangerous exclusion of the public more reminiscent of a monarchy than a 21st century democracy. For Argentina’s La Capital, Enrique Lynch writes in part: What’s...

Managing the U.S. economic decline in relation to the emerging economies in Asia, Latin America and elsewhere, is hard for many Americans to take. But as this article by Financial Times Deutschland columnist Thomas Fricke makes painfully clear, there is no escaping the fact that the old rule, “when America sneezes, the world catches a cold” is fast becoming a relic of a bygone age. For the Financial...

Is the United States behind the recent uptick of violent attacks in Iraq? According to columnist Tamam Abdulhamid of Iraq’s Kitabat, this appears to be part of U.S. a strategy to convince Iraqi lawmakers and military officials that American forces are still needed in the country. For Iraq’s Kitabat, Tamam Abdulhamid writes in part: What do the increasing frequency of such attacks and the rising...

Despite the fact that Japan was the first and only nation to suffer a nuclear attack, this editorial from Japan’s Chibanippo Shimbun explains that with time, much of the insecurity felt by Japanese over nuclear fission had diminished. That is until that fateful day three months ago, when an earthquake and tsunami triggered one of the most devastating nuclear accidents in history. The Chibanippo Shimbun...

Unbeknownst to much of the U.S. public, the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection admitted last week to 95 cases of corruption within his agency related to drug trafficking, undocumented immigrants and money laundering by organized crime groups in Mexico. In other words, U.S. customs officials are being bribed. According to this editorial from Mexico’s La Jornada, this is more proof of the dangerous...

Is there a shadowy group of men and women, who behind closed doors decide the course of human events and even history? For Switzerland’s Tages Anzeiger, columnist Markus Diem Meier writes that the truth is likely far more frightening: no one can can control global events, and even the Bilderbergers, who just ended their annual meeting, are shaped by rather than shapers of events. For the Tages Anzeiger,...

With Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann being seen by some as serious contenders for the presidency, are Republicans running the risk of damaging the chances of future Republican women seeking America’s highest office? For Switzerland’s News, columnist Patrik Etschmayer writes that the historic, history-related gaffes of both Palin and Bachmann may weigh very heavily on the future of their party...

Will the U.N. General Assembly recognize a Palestinian state when it reconvenes in September? And if it does, what will the fallout when the United States – as President Obama has said it will do – vetoes the resolution? For Spain’s El Pais, columnist Louis Bassets warns that one of the consequences may be an even greater gulf between America and Europe. For El Pais, Louis Bassets writes in...

Like most politicians, China’s capitalist/communists are convinced that recent news coverage involving hacked Gmail accounts and the arrest of artist/democracy activist Ai Weiwei mean only one thing: Beijing needs better public relations. According to this editorial from China’s state-run Huanqiu, China suffers a negative public image because it has allowed a hostile Western media to characterize...

In a political development that was shocking — and in a way was not — all of Newt Gingrich’s campaign top campaign staff quit. What’s next for Newt Gingrich? What’s behind what TMV coblogger Dorian de Wind has called “Mutiny on the Gingrich?” Here’s the take of one of my favorite pundits, The Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman, who has excellent sources: Visit...

Along with the Freemasons, the Illuminati, and the Zionists, the Bilderberg Group is a member of that august club of organizations that in the minds of conspiracy theorists around the world, are at the helm of global affairs. According to this article from Switzerland’s Suedostschweiz, which includes a letter from Swiss MP Dominique Baettig calling for the arrest of U.S. officials, the group is rumored...

After months of scrambling to contain an astonishing series of natural and manmade catastrophes, this editorial from Japan’s Nishinippon Shimbun warns Japanese officials that while they’ve been overwhelemed with domestic issues, the global situation has been evolving rapidly and mostly without any influence being applied by Tokyo. The Nishinippon Shimbun editorial says in part: Even as the Japanese...

Is Mexican President Calderon too cozy with the United States and its involvement in his country? La Jornada columnist Javier Jimenez Espriu writes that Calderon’s apparent self-comparison to staunch U.S. ally Winston Churchill and rumors of U.S. military activities in Mexico are causes of great concern. For Mexico’s La Jornada, columnist Javier Jimenez Espriu writes in part: I’m worried by...

Are offers of Western aid to the Arab revolutions a shell game designed to benefit the world’s wealthiest nations at the expense of Arabs demanding freedom and justice? Columnist H. Sulayman of Algeria’s El Khabar writes that the G8 countries are pretending to side with Arab peoples after decades of taking benefit from their oppression. For Algeria’s El Khabar, columnist H. Sulayman writes...

Washington’s decision to impose sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company for doing business with Iran have triggered fury in the Latin American Left. Tomas Borge, the last living founder of Nicaragua’s Sandanista National Liberation Front, writes for Aporrea that the sanctions are just an old trick of the ‘Yankee Empire’, and that Venezuela has just as much a right to relations...

Their tagline is: “You can’t BRAG if you don’t ride!” The 32nd annual Bicycle Ride Across Georgia (BRAG) began Sunday at Oglethorpe College in Atlanta. It moves on to Oxford, Milledgeville, Dublin, Metter and Hinesville before coming to an end in Savannah on Saturday. Rest stops, set up every 15 miles along the route, are managed by the Special Olympics. This is the fourth year in a row that my partner,...

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s rebuke of Presisdent Obama before a joint session of the U.S. Congress has not only weakened Obama’s hand at home, but has badly damaged his influence among Arabs. For Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran, Kharroubi Habib writes that this leaves Palestinians one choice: to press the U.N. when the General Assembly opens in September to recognize a Palestinian...

Have the anti-French headlines in New York’s tabloid press since the arrest of the disgraced Dominique Strauss-Kahn gone too far? Marie-Christine Tabet of Le Journal du Dimanche au Quotidien writes that the blood-sport of New York newsgathering is such, that chances are, the ‘French bashing has only just begun.’ For Le Journal du Dimanche au Quotidien, Marie-Christine Tabet reports on how...

Can the U.S. Congress be called more hostile toward Palestinians and Arabs than even the Israeli Knesset? According to columnist Hafiz al Barghouty of Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, the speech of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to a joint session of the U.S. Congress should be a lesson to Palestinians and Arabs not to trust the United States. For Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah of the Palestinian Territories, Hafiz al Barghouty...