Eric Martin

by Eric Martin Daniel Larison, riffing on a Hooman Majd post commemorating the one year anniversary of the controversial Iranian election that helped spawn the Green movement, says much of what I was saying at the time, and would like to reiterate now – only he does it better.  In particular, Larison discusses some of the "unassailable" conventional … Read more

by Eric Martin Since the various arguments regarding the ostensible justifications for Arizona's heavy-handed, discriminatory immigration law generated a good amount of heat on this site, this post from Adam Serwer seemed useful in directly addressing some of the relevant issues: The arguments in favor of Arizona's draconian immigration law have already been debunked. Arizona isn't … Read more

by Eric Martin As Atrios notes, the discussion surrounding BP's imminent $10 billion dividend disbursement, as well as the fretting about how many British pensioners rely on revenue from that dividend, has been "weird" to say the least.  1. A God Given Right. Dividends are not guaranteed.  If a company suffers a massive setback that exposes that company to sizable liability (like, … Read more

by Eric Martin As I’ve been warning for some time, one of the reasons that our Afghan policy will not work is that Pakistan, which has the considerable advantages of geographic proximity, cultural affinity/knowledge, historical ties and what it perceives as vital strategic interests in Afghanistan, is working at cross-purposes: Pakistan‘s main spy agency continues to … Read more

by Eric Martin Huge victory for South Korea. Greece looked flat throughout.  The little guy is ecstatic.

by Eric Martin Couple of stories hittin' the tubes that I don't have time to treat in full, but which deserve some attention. First, my buddy Michael Cohen takes on "The Left" for its relative silence, and muted criticisms, regarding the War in Afghanistan post-election (clearly he exempts ObWi from such indictment).  Tim Fernholz has … Read more

by Eric Martin The Obama administration seems to be operating under the theory that Gitmo was unpopular in the Muslim world (and beyond), and was thus such a strategic liability, because it was located in the Carribbean; that the gross violations of human rights that occurred at that venue were only abusive because of the name … Read more

by Eric Martin Although this is not the type of story that one comes across in the Western media very often, it should not come as a surprise to anyone paying attention (via): As Israel ordered a slight easing of its blockade of the Gaza Strip Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes … Read more

by Eric Martin Back in late March, I linked to a story that discussed some revelations gleaned from the diaries of Abu Zubaydah, and the surrounding events.  Among the more disturbing allegations was the claim that Zubaydah was experimented on to test the parameters of where to draw the line in terms of torture techniques.  From that piece: For … Read more

by Eric Martin …And now Andrew McCarthy would like to throw us all aside and put us all away. No, seriously.  John Holbo, bless his soul, delves into the pathology prevalent in Andrew Mcarthy's new book – like Jonah Goldberg's infamous masterpiece, but with a twist.  Call it Liberal Islamofascim for short: A couple posts … Read more

by Eric Martin Well, can't say I didn't warn ya.  Adam Serwer: Two New Jersey men, Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, were arrested at JFK airport yesterday on suspicion of trying to join Al-Shabaab, the Somali terrorist group that has been affiliated with al-Qaeda. I've written about this before, but in light of … Read more

by Eric Martin Apparently, this was self defense: Nine Turkish activists killed in an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship were shot a total of 30 times and five died of gunshot wounds to the head, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Friday. Autopsy results showed the men were hit mostly with 9mm bullets, many … Read more

by Eric Martin When discussing the blockade of Gaza, the tendency in the Western media is to focus on what is Israel's legitimate interest in denying arms shipments in light of the rocket attacks emanating from that territory.  However, the reality is that the blockade goes far, far beyond interdicting arms shipments, and instead becomes a policy … Read more

by Eric Martin Steve Hynd has a fairly comprehensive round-up of first hand accounts of the Israeli raid on the flotilla as provided by journalists covering the event, as well as the activists on board.  As Israel releases detained activists and journalists after the assault on the Gaza relief flotilla, they are beginning to tell … Read more

by Eric Martin Kevin Drum reads a piece by Edmund Andrews on one of the recent reappearances of the housing bubble/CRA zombie lies and Kevin gets…shrill. The evidence is pretty clear on this: CRA had essentially no effect at all on the housing bubble, and Fannie and Freddie can be blamed, at most, for throwing a couple of … Read more

by Eric Martin Dan Froomkin at Huffington Post discussing President Bush’s recent remarks confirming his order to torture certain detainees, and his defense of that decision: George W. Bush’s casual acknowledgment Wednesday that he had Khalid Sheikh Mohammed waterboarded — and would do it again — has horrified some former military and intelligence officials who … Read more

by Eric Martin Wow.  Just wow. In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer. Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to … Read more

by Eric Martin Robert Farley has a very interesting piece on the reaction of the Republican Party establishment to Obama's resumption of Reagan-era arms control treaties with Russia, and what that reaction says about the evolution of foreign policy ideas in the GOP: Ironically, the attacks launched by the conservative foreign policy establishment against the Obama … Read more

by Eric Martin Peter Beinart on the disturbing blockade of the Gaza strip: The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations greeted news of the flotilla disaster by repeating a common “pro-Israel” talking point: that Israel only blockades Gaza to prevent Hamas from building rockets that might kill Israeli citizens. If only that were true. … Read more

by Eric Martin Brian Ulrich at American Footprints: Israeli military forces have used lethal force against peaceful humanitarian activists in international waters: “Israeli naval commandos shot dead at least 16 people and wounded over 30 on Monday morning, as they attacked an unarmed humanitarian and civilian flotilla – in international waters – trying to bring … Read more

by Eric Martin Baby Eric would like to extend a heart-felt thumbs up to all of the soldiers that have given so much of themselves, by choice and otherwise, in the military service of this nation and others.  He thinks you're groovy, man. And to their families, friends and loved ones, who can sometimes feel overwhelmed … Read more

by Eric Martin Rodger Payne makes a good point regarding the further erosion of the already imprecise-to-a-fault term "WMD."  Bottom line: lumping chemical, biological and nuclear weapons into a single category is more misleading than it is illuminating.  The lethality varies greatly, as does the countermeasures and feasibility of use, and allowing politicians and policymakers to use the term to refer to … Read more

by Eric Martin Michael Hanna is right on the money about al-Qaeda being its own worst enemy.  Now if we could just get out of the way: …I wanted to take a closer look at one very small subsection of the [recently released National Security Strategy] dealing with how the United States seeks to “disrupt, dismantle, … Read more

by Eric Martin Larison takes on Peggy Noonan and the latest incoherent demagoguery: I don’t see how the president’s position and popularity can survive the oil spill. This is his third political disaster in his first 18 months in office. And they were all, as they say, unforced errors, meaning they were shaped by the … Read more

by Eric Martin Kevin Drum does a good job of explaining the facile comparison of the BP spill to Katrina: Katrina was an example of the type of disaster that the federal government is specifically tasked with handling. And for most of the 90s, it was very good at handling them. But when George Bush … Read more

by Eric Martin Matt's Atomic Duss Bin highlights some key takeaways from the just released National Security Strategy (quoted in full with permission from the author): One of the starkest differences between the Obama administration’s new National Security Strategy (pdf) and the Bush administration’s (pdf) is its tighter focus on Al Qaeda and affiliated extremists, and its … Read more

by Eric Martin Flyntt and Hillary Mann Leverett discuss recent revelations about an extensive use of military personnel in various friendly, and non-friendly nations in the Middle East/North Africa/Central Asia region.  These would be military operations undertaken absent a public debate (or even legislative debate) about the merits of what are extremely risky and potentially costly activities.  … Read more

by Eric Martin David Shorr (whose byline always inspires me to read on), on the most recent developments in the Iran nuclear program saga: [The cold-water-in-face award]…goes to Les Gelb, for pointing out how US nonproliferation priorities have little resonance with the rest of the world. According to his reading of Brazil and Turkey's recent mediation initiative, "the good old … Read more

by Eric Martin Pretty Much. Having said that, I just don’t know what the administration is supposed to do. What can be done? That, I think, is the real lesson from this- that we can’t really do anything about this sort of disaster, and i think the administration has done a really shitty job of … Read more

by Eric Martin Government should just get out of the way of big business, de-regulate, allow self-regulation, lax oversight, ignore capture, etc.: Federal regulators responsible for oversight of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico allowed industry officials several years ago to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil — and then turned them over to the … Read more

by Eric Martin Although I am a little late in getting to this, allow me to go on record in saying that this is a travesty of justice, and a gross violation of human rights: A Malawian couple became the latest gay rights activists to face a judicial backlash for their public stand on sexuality … Read more

by Eric Martin Mondays.  Discuss.

by Eric Martin Poor Matt Yglesias is perplexed: Apparently there was a terrorist attack on American soil earlier this week. What’s more, though fortunately nobody was killed in the attack, unlike in the much-hyped Underpants Bomber or Times Square plots, the perpetrator actually managed to build a working bomb [EM: and detonate it!]. But somehow … Read more

by Eric Martin Why should we bother oil and gas companies with the nettlesome requirement to get environmental permits and the like?  And why shouldn't we trust industry to regulate itself and look after the public interest in general? In its 2009 exploration plan for the Deepwater Horizon well, BP PLC states that the company … Read more

by Eric Martin The Eds comments on the recent conservative uproar over the fact that a, gasp, actual Muslim American (who also celebrates elements of the Christian faith) won the Miss USA pageant: Rock-ribbed American conservative foreign policy savant Daniel Pipes uses his entirely not-creepy knowledge of beauty pageants to uncover a pattern of liberals pandering to … Read more