Dear Patrick Goldstein,

I was very interested in your political analysis of the movie Avatar in the LA Times. My left-wing background tells me that culture doesn't change material conditions, but it sure changes consciousness and that's the cradle of new activism. Conservatives are right to be profoundly disturbed...

I am here as a witness to the importance of memory to the future.

Direct action to build a participatory democracy in the image of the Greek city state was the chosen ideal of the first activists of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Student...

All the attention to White House strategy meetings may divert attention from an apparent operational plan for U.S. special forces to go after and kill Mullah Omar and eliminate the Taliban leadership based in Quetta, a congested city of 750,000 in the Pakistan province of Baluchistan.

Mullah Omar leads...

President Manuel Zelaya did not "sneak" back into Honduras as both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times reported. He took bold direct action supported by a vast social movement, coordinated with other players in the region, and with the knowledge of the U.S. government.

Highest-Ever Monthly Total of 49 Americans Killed in Afghanistan in August: American Death Rate Under Obama Could Exceed 1,000 by 2011

August was the cruelest month for American forces in Afghanistan, with at least 49 killed, not including possible last-minute reports. The August numbers exceeded the previous high of 43...

In his final months, he became the progressive anchor of the Barack Obama campaign. When I saw them together early in 2008, it was not easy for Ted Kennedy to oppose the party's favorite, Hillary Clinton, on behalf of a young tribune of hope. But he did. Ted Kennedy sailed...

The conference on Afghanistan with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, sponsored by the Center for American Progress on August 12 turned into a disappointing press conference promoting the virtual nation-building plan being integrated into the US military operations in that country.

It was an opportunity for CAP to begin distancing itself...

43 American Soldiers Killed in First Month of Surge,
1,000 More Deaths Projected by Summer 2011

Forty-three American soldiers were killed in July, the first month of the surge in southern Afghanistan, one-third of the year's toll of 128 thus far. With Pentagon strategists forecasting 18-24 months of hard...

Over a decade ago a young woman approached me on the California Senate floor with a petition against the Taliban. Women are being repressed, tortured and killed by religious fundamentalists, she said. I signed on. The Taliban seemed like a Ku Klux Klan aimed at women. I was disgusted that...

Apparent differences between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are threatening to confuse American policy towards the coup in Honduras.

The differences seem to go back to the 2008 presidential primaries when Obama embraced a broad new direct diplomacy while Clinton hewed to a tougher traditional stance. Clinton era advisers...

Robert McNamara died the other day as seven American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan.

It wasn't the deaths on the same day that made me remember McNamara's folly.

It was the sense that McNamara's ghost is hovering over the new graveyard of...

The simultaneous conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and beyond are all connected to the Pentagon strategy of "the Long War" projected to last fifty years in "the arc of crisis" that just happens to stretch across Muslim lands where there are oil reserves and plans for Western-dominated pipelines. The term...

Progressives who have been silent towards the escalating wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan have a new opportunity to change their stance now that the $100 billion Congressional war authorizes suppression of hundreds of torture photographs held by the Pentagon.

The amendment by senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham is...

After six weeks of forums on Afghanistan-Pakistan, the Congressional Progressive Caucus is weighing a series of recommendations to de-escalate the war, offered by CPC co-chair Rep. Raul Grijalva and Rep. Mike Honda.

The good news for the peace movement is that the recommendations, taken together, present a plausible alternative...

It's becoming a pattern: whenever Barack Obama implements a campaign pledge, the dinosaurs used to running things push back. The latest dinosaur to undercut the president's gestures is Jeffrey Davidow, US coordinator of the Trinidad meeting, who claimed that Hugo Chavez wanted a photo with Obama to polish his reputation...

Latin America may be Barack Obama's greatest opportunity and greatest current weakness. As an opportunity, the continent is in the midst of the greatest democratic revolution in fifty years and can become a successful model of independent economic development. Domestically, the growing Latino and immigrant populations in the United States...

GO THERE, MR. PRESIDENT!

17,000 or 21,000 more American troops will not protect Americans against Al Qaeda attacks.

The Obama Plan instead will accelerate any plans al Qaeda commanders have for attacking targets in the United States or Europe. The alternative for al Qaeda is to risk complete destruction, an...

The Center for American Progress has positioned itself as a "progressive" Washington think tank, especially suited to channel new thinking and expertise into the Obama administration. It therefore is deeply disappointing that CAP has issued a call for a ten-year war in Afghanistan, including an immediate military escalation, just as...

After years of frustrating ambiguity, President Obama has clearly committed to a complete withdrawal of all US troops in less than three years.

Speaking to the Marines in North Carolina, Obama finally clarified that the proposed "residual force" of 50,000 or more will be a "transitional" one, departing one...

It is confirmed that one of the loopholes in the president's anti-torture orders allows the continuance of rendition by the CIA, which consists of secretly snatching suspects off the street without any due process and "rendering" them to jails in other countries. Rendition is at the heart of the state...