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Why Obama Deserves the Nobel Peace Prize
Why is it so hard to acknowledge that President Barack Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize? When I went online today, I could feel the cynicism oozing from my computer. “Premature ejaculation in Stockholm,” a Slate editor wrote on Twitter, perhaps not realizing that the prize is given out in Oslo, Norway and not the…
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Obama’s Inherited Mess
The daily death toll in Afghanistan makes it hard to see beyond the horizon. Twelve killed Wednesday in a home used by UN staffers; eight soldiers dead the day before. This in addition to hundreds killed this week in neighboring Pakistan and in Iraq. As the administration considers its options on Afghanistan, much of the…
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Letter From Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA—Arn and I watched the rain from a sweaty cafeteria in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where we talked about the peculiar habits of our dead fathers. Mine never ate at the dining room table. He came home from his grocery store and took his meals in bed where he called his three children to…
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Letter From Cambodia, Part 2
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA—A few weeks after we met, I called Arn to tell him that I would be traveling north to his home province of Battambang, Cambodia. “I’m in the movie theater,” he said. “I’ll call you back.” He said it was a horror movie about a Cambodian woman who could command the nation’s snakes—he…
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Obama Is Treading Water
Despite the brilliant Nobel rhetoric, Barack Obama is a president treading water. The peace efforts in Iran and between Israel and the Palestinians that seemed so promising at the end of summer are fading. America will soon have 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan. The bombings and general destabilization in nuclear-armed Pakistan continue at a frightening…
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When the Tsunami Hit
On Dec. 26, 2004, at least 230,000 people died when the second-largest earthquake in recorded history erupted beneath the Indian Ocean, triggering a devastating series of waves. Places as far apart as Sri Lanka, Thailand and Somalia were affected. Nearly two-thirds of those who perished were from the Indonesian province of Aceh. I worked in…
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Somalia and Yemen: Al-Qaida's Next Hot Spots?
The Obama administration understands the strategic importance of the Gulf of Aden. The warm waters between Somalia, Yemen and Djibouti are the gateway to the Suez Canal, which carries the heaviest shipping between Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The administration does not need a terrorist attack on shipping through the gulf similar to…
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President Obama's War Wizardry
Sometimes I wonder if President Obama reads too many Ben Okri novels. As we transform from a U.S.-dominated, unipolar international order to a non-polar world, virtually everything about his Middle East policy as outlined in the latest National Security Strategy seems to have been infected by a kind of magical thinking. From Afghanistan to Israel/Palestine…
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Israel Blunders Into Another PR Disaster
As the Gaza flotilla fiasco unfolds, world leaders find themselves singularly impressed by Israeli government’s ability to shoot itself in the foot. In less than a day, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has done more to damage Israel’s image than anyone previously believed imaginable. This was inept tactics and inept diplomacy resulting in…
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Obama Shouldn't Stop at Firing McChrystal
President Barack Obama has a terrible dilemma in Afghanistan. The surge isn’t working. His ostensible partner in Afghan president Hamid Karzai is sickeningly corrupt. His team on the ground is bickering. His top general, Stanley McChrystal, has been fired for the vulgar rant that he and his staff issued on the record for Rolling Stone…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
