February 2015 - Page 4 of 5

Burying Vietnam, Launching Perpetual War

Christian Appy February 9, 2015 Christian Appy

The 1960s — that extraordinary decade — is celebrating its 50th birthday one year at a time. Happy birthday, 1965! How, though, do you commemorate the Vietnam War, the era’s signature catastrophe? After all, our government prosecuted its brutal and indiscriminate war under false pretexts, long after most citizens objected, and failed to achieve any of its stated objectives. More than 58,000 Americans were killed along with more than four million Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians. read more

Anti-Austerity Party Sweeps Greek Elections—What US Progressives Can Learn

Kate Aronoff February 9, 2015 Kate Aronoff

Source: Waging Nonviolence.

There are plenty of lessons to be taken from Syriza’s victory and the rise to power of Spain’s Podemos party, but striving to speak to people rather than politics might be chief among them.

On January 25, Syriza—a previously marginal, left-leaning coalition party in Greece—made history by winning the country’s general election. Winning 149 of 300 parliamentary seats, the party fell just two votes shy of an outright majority. Syriza’s leader, 40-year-old Alexis Tsipras, will become prime minister at the head of a coalition anti-austerity government, beating out the conservative New Democracy party and its now former prime minister, Antonis Samaras. read more

A Pre-History of Boko Haram: The Long Shadow of Usman dan Fodio

René Wadlow February 9, 2015 René Wadlow

There has been growing concern with the activities of Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria and its spillover into northern Cameroon, Niger, and in the Lake Chad area. Yet Boko Haram is not the first militant, anti-establishment Islamic movement in the region.

The ‘Great War’ of Sinai: How to Lose a ‘War on Terror’

Ramzy Baroud February 9, 2015 Ramzy Baroud

The Sinai Peninsula has moved from the margins of Egyptian body politic to the uncontested center, as Egypt’s strong man - President Abdul Fatah al-Sisi - finds himself greatly undercut by the rise of an insurgency that seems to be growing stronger with time.

Security for Who? Resistance to Militarization Intensifies in Okinawa, Japan

Sasha Davis February 5, 2015 Sasha Davis

There is a showdown coming in Okinawa that will test the limits of US and Japanese state power.

Who Owns Our Beer? Craft Brewing’s Growing Identity Crisis

Matthew Cropp February 5, 2015 Matthew Cropp

If we want to defend the spirit of innovation, collaboration, and community that makes craft beer special, it is time to begin a serious conversation about who owns, and should own, our beer.