US Opinion: Do Drones Undermine Democracy? (Singer)

In democracies like ours, there have always been deep bonds between the public and its wars. Citizens have historically participated in decisions to take military action, through their elected representatives, helping to ensure broad support for wars and a willingness to share the costs, both human and economic, of enduring them.

In America, our Constitution explicitly divided the president’s role as commander in chief in war from Congress’s role in declaring war. Yet these links and this division of labor are now under siege as a result of a technology that our founding fathers never could have imagined.

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EA Video Feature: A Tribute to Journalist Gilles Jacquier, Killed Today in Syria

See also: Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: After the Speech, the Battle

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Gilles Jacquier, a French journalist, was killed in Syria today, apparently when his vehicle was hit by an RPG. He was part of an official delegation of Western journalists, escorted by the Syrian Information Ministry, on a highly-controlled tour of the embattled city of Homs.

Jacquier leaves behind work, which reveals his bravery and dedication, in conflict areas such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Tunisia, Kosovo, Haiti, Zaire, Israel, Algeria, and Syria.

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US Politics Special: A Pizza-Based Foreign Policy Lesson for Herman Cain

Herman, if you must compare foreign policy to pizza-making...keep reading

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Israel and Palestine: Half and Half Pizza

It was supposed to be half and half, but someone mixed all the toppings up! Don’t try to separate them or you’ll burn your hands in the cheese. Let the toppings magically figure out how to migrate to their own side of the pizza before you get involved.

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Yemen Feature: Drones & the Killing of an American Teenager (Greenwald)

Salon's Glenn Greenwald explores the moral and legal issues surrounding the use of drone strikes against militants by the United states. As the US draws down the number of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the use of drones is the newest iteration of the "War on Terror", and Anwar Awlaki's 16 year old son is one of it's most recent collateral casualties:

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Two weeks after the U.S. killed American citizen Anwar Awlaki with a drone strike in Yemen — far from any battlefield and with no due process — it did the same to his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, ending the teenager’s life on Friday along with his 17-year-old cousin and seven other people. News reports, based on government sources, originally claimed that Awlaki’s son was 21 years old and an Al Qaeda fighter (needless to say, as Terrorist often means: “anyone killed by the U.S.”), but a birth certificate published by The Washington Post proved that he was born only 16 years ago in Denver. As The New Yorker‘s Amy Davidson wrote: “Looking at his birth certificate, one wonders what those assertions say either about the the quality of the government’s evidence — or the honesty of its claims — and about our own capacity for self-deception.”

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US and the World (Video and Transcript): President Obama to UN General Assembly "Peace is Hard"

Part 1 of 3

One year ago, I stood at this podium and called for an independent Palestine. I believed then --- and I believe now --- that the Palestinian people deserve a state of their own. But what I also said is that genuine peace can only be realized between Israelis and Palestinians themselves. One year later, despite extensive efforts by America and others, the parties have not bridged their differences. Faced with this stalemate, I put forward a new basis for negotiations in May. That basis is clear, and well known to all of us here. Israelis must know that any agreement provides assurances for their security. Palestinians deserve to know the territorial basis of their state.

I know that many are frustrated by the lack of progress. So am I. But the question isn’t the goal we seek --- the question is how to reach it. And I am convinced that there is no short cut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades. Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the UN --- if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now. Ultimately, it is Israelis and Palestinians who must live side by side. Ultimately, it is Israelis and Palestinians --- not us --- who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them: on borders and security; on refugees and Jerusalem.

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Afghanistan Latest: 12 Dead in Suicide Attacks on British Council (Pajhwok and BBC))

Twelve people, including four suicide bombers, were killed and as many others wounded after multiple suicide bombers stormed the Cultural Centre of the British Consulate Friday, officials said....

It was a three-phase attack: First, a suicide attacker detonated his explosive vest at a main square in western Kabul where police were guarding a key intersection shortly after 05:30 (01:30 GMT).

Ten minutes later, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle outside the front gate of the British Council.

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