If German Special Forces had been the ones to whisk Osama bin Laden from Pakistan – could Germany have reformed him, turning him into a model German citizen? In this tongue-in-cheek skewering of German liberalism, Die Welt columnist Gideon Boss writes that because of those ‘Mickey Mouse’ Americans, we will never know. For Die Welt, Gideon Boss writes in part: One might well ask whether things...

Yesterday, I noted the ironic metaphor contained in the comments of the Palestinian and Israeli responses to George Mitchell’s resignation. In the first of two paragraphs I quoted from the New York Times account of that resignation, Fatah’s senior foreign affairs person blamed Israeli intransigence for the failure of peace talks, and in the second, a spokesperson for Israel’s prime minister,...

Is NATO making a mistake by maintaining a stalemate between Libyan despot Mohammar Qaddafi and the insurgents seeking to topple his 40-year-old regime? For Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung, columnist Stefan Kornelius writes that unless NATO is willing to accept a continuation of Qaddafi’s rule or a fruitless continuation of currect circumstances, it should start setting up ‘protection zones’...

Posted on Carole King’s Facebook page:

The two paragraphs come at the end of the New York Times‘ article about George Mitchell’s decision to step down from his position as U.S. envoy to the Middle East:

In an article benignly titled “The ‘Road to Heaven’ at Sobibor” almost exactly two years ago, I wrote about a photograph accompanying an article in the Dutch NRC Handelsblad published around that time. It was the photo of “a blissful, peaceful, country path bordered on both sides by tall pine trees.” A path that was described in the newspaper as a “reflection lane,” a path that roughly...

Is the U.S. reaction to Osama bin Laden’s death embarrassing for a country that likes to see itself as a magnanimous force for justice in the world? For Mexico’s La Jornada, columnist Jose Blanco writes that U.S. behavior since bin Laden was killed rips the mask off of a hypocritical, self-absorbed global empire, intent on infringing on the sovereignty on other nations under the guise of a global...

How do Iraqis feel about the apparent death of al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden? For Iraq’s Al-Sabaah newspaper, columnist Amran al-Abaidi writes that Iraqis are right behind the Americans in celebrating the demise of a man that inflicted untold horror on the Iraqi people – far more, he writes, than the American invasion itself. For Al-Sabaah, Amran al-Abaidi writes in part: The world has...

This is not a moral judgment; it is a biological fact. Someone needs to tell the Florida Senate.

Is the demise of Osama bin Laden a moment that all of world religions should seize upon to begin building a world free of war and religious strife? After ten years of chaos that emerged from a perverse interpretation of Islam, columnist Víctor Corcoba Herrero of Diario Decuyo’s writes that it’s time for all religious leaders to end the terrorist strife by promoting the ideals they all claim to...

Now that al-Qaeda’s prime mover has left the scene and we’ve had ten years to digest the neurotic episode that the West and the world experienced after 9-11, is it time to retool how the terrorist threat is addressed? This editorial from Spain’s El Pais suggests that it’s time for the world’s democracies to restore the values they proclaim to hold dear, which were set aside to...

Is the Catholic Church – and specifically the revered deceased Pope John Paul II, as deadly as al-Qaeda and its now-dead leader, Osama bin Laden? Columnist Patrick Etschmayer of Switzerland’s News writes that between outlawing condoms and covering up decades of child abuse, the former pope did at least as much damage as the terrorist mastermind now residing at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. For...

In a world where nothing is private and the most vulgar images and ideas are bandied about with little concern, is there a place for keeping photos like that of the death of Osama bin Laden private? Der Tagesspiegel columnist Juliane Schauble writes that when it comes to holding the moral high ground on the public’s right to know, President Obama is a cut about George W. Bush. For Der Tagesspiegel, Juliane...

Is bin Laden’s death, coupled with the Arab uprisings, the ‘true beginning of the end for the radical, medieval, imperial and dictatorial ideas with which al-Qaeda proposed to reorganize the world’? Columnist Bartosz Weglarczyk of Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza writes that with its safe havens quickly disaapearing and its ideology falling into widespread repute, the writing is on the wall...

Here’s the latest bit of news/conspiracy to come out of the Pakistan press about the apparent demise of Osama bin Laden. Is the reason the Obama Administration decided not to release the death photo of bin Laden because the terrorism pioneer blew himself up to avoid capture? That is the claim of this news item from Pakistan’s The Nation, which cites an anonymous senior Afghanistan intelligence...

The collective unconscous remembers everything that modern culture has forgotten and covered over. So here, let us go behind the Hallmark card displays, where there is a little door, and entering through, we find ourselves in a muddy field where the land has been fed by boys’ blood and the bloodshed of citizens. And, just this then whilst standing here on this field meant to grow life but which became a slaughter...

Is the death of Osama bin Laden the beginning of the end of al-Qaeda? Ahmad Abdal Aziz Al Jarallah, editor and chief of Kuwait’s Al-Seyassah, writes that the terror group is about to disintegrate, and its members will soon face justice, if not in this world, then the next. For Al-Seyassah, Ahmad Abdal Aziz Al Jarallah writes in part: The world breathed a sigh of relief at the killing of the man who believed...

Osama bin Laden’s elimination though truly welcome is feeding new pressure for conflict between Pakistan and India. That would greatly complicate President Barack Obama’s efforts to drawn down US troops from Afghanistan starting July. A visit to India and reports from Pakistan give reason for concern. It is quite likely that Pakistan will engineer a terrorist attack within India to draw domestic attention...

Is it wrong for the United States to keep the last photograph of Osama bin Laden to itself? Olivier Picard of France’s Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace writes that compared to the state interests of America and its allies, the desire of people around the world to see it, in the words of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, amount to little more than a hill of beans. For Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace,...

Our nation by nation look at the end of Osama bin Laden continues in Mexico. Just like many people in the United States, people in other nations are wondering if the operation to eliminate Osama bin Laden will weaken the right-wing onslaught against President Obama. For Mexico’s Excelsior, political analyst Jose Luis Valdes Ugalde writes that the U.S. right-wing attack machine has been shocked into embracing...

Not just any penises, mind you, but an effort by the nanny staters of San Francisco to ban male circumcision. These activists call circumcision “male genital mutilation.” They point out that it is extremely painful, although I can’t personally speak to that because it has been over 64 years since I was snipped. They also believe that circumcision is a breach of human rights and violates something...

One of the many articles we’ve posted from Pakistan over the last few days is this editorial from the Frontier Post. After the U.S. raid into Pakistani territory to grab and/or kill Osama bin Laden, it seems that people there are simultaneously angry at the U.S. for coming unannounced and uninvited, and at Pakistan’s military and intelligence services for not stopping the U.S. raid – and...

Let me get one thing out of the way first: Obviously, the City University of New York has the legal right to give an award, deny an award, or rescind any award to anyone they please. But that does not make it right that a critically acclaimed playwright cannot criticize Israel’s policies toward Palestinians without forfeiting an honorary degree he was about to receive based solely on that criticism —...

Is the war on terrorism a scam in which governments pretend to battle evil only to cover their own sins? In our second offering from the Saudis today, Al-Madina’s Dr. Saeed Atia al-Ghamedee writes that while deluded young men destroy themselves for a perverted version of Islam, governments commit every sort of crime in the name of battling terror. For Al-Madina, Dr. Saeed Atia al-Ghamedee writes in part: A...

The next stop in our global journey to find out what the rest of the world thinks of Osama bin Laden’s apparent death is China. So what do the masters of Beijing think of the demise of America’s most wanted? According to this article by columnist Zhang Guoqing for the state-controlled Beijing Youth Daily, this is no time for the U.S. to rest on its laurels. Zhang writes that bin Laden’s death...