The Drone War Is Far From Over -- Akbar Ahmed, New York Times
WHEN people in Washington talk about shrinking the drone program, as President Obama promised to do last week, they are mostly concerned with placating Pakistan, where members of the newly elected government have vowed to end violations of the country’s sovereignty. But the drone war is alive and well in the remote corners of Pakistan where the strikes have caused the greatest and most lasting damage.
Drone strikes like Wednesday’s, in Waziristan, are destroying already weak tribal structures and throwing communities into disarray throughout Pakistan’s tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan. The chaos and rage they produce endangers the Pakistani government and fuels anti-Americanism. And the damage isn’t limited to Pakistan. Similar destruction is occurring in other traditional tribal societies like Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen. The tribes on the periphery of these nations have long struggled for more autonomy from the central government, first under colonial rule and later against the modern state. The global war on terror has intensified that conflict.
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Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials
Which of Syria's neighbors has most to lose in the fight? -- Jeff Neumann, Global Post
Why Russia sells Syria arms -- Steve Rosenberg, BBC News
How Russia Undercuts Itself with the S-300 -- Dore Gold, Jerusalem Post
Syria and the Middle East: our greatest miscalculation since the rise of fascism -- Simon Jenkins, The Guardian
UNICEF: Syria risks a lost generation -- CNN (video)
Forget diplomacy: With Iran, pressure works -- Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz, The Globe and Mail
The Wild West in East Africa -- James Bridger and Jay Bahadur, Foreign Policy
EU Foreign Policy Needs a Reset -- Ulrich Speck, Real Clear World
The German "diktat" and its discontents -- Fabio Rafael Fiallo, The Commentator
Europe’s unemployment conundrum -- Bruce Stokes, Pew Research Center