Analysis

By K.Gajendra Singh

Sunni Punjabi Elite indifferent to Sindhi President by Default

“We have a number of issues and we are willing to find tactical, pragmatic solutions to [them].” -Prime minister Manmohan Singh after the stopover.

"The Afghanistan-Pakistan entanglement is an issue so vexed and complicated that it would have tested the wisdom of the greatest leaders and strategists of the past. It is not totally fanciful to imagine Augustus, William Pitt the Elder, Bismarck or George Marshall pondering over a map which detailed the lands that stretch from the Bekaa Valley to the Khyber Pass. None of them would have liked what they saw. Look at the distances, the awful topography, and the willingness of the other side to accept appalling casualty rates.“ -Prof Paul Kennedy on southwest and west Asia.

Read more: Little Ado about Zardari’s Delhi Stopover

By Richard Falk

A few days ago I was a participant in a well-attended academic panel on "the decline of violence and warfare" at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association held this year in San Diego, California. The two-part panel featured appraisal of the common argument of two prominent recent publications: Steven Pinker's bestselling The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence has Declined and Joshua Goldstein's well-researched and provocative Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide.

Read more: Nuclear weapons as instruments of peace?

By William A. Cook

These two cautionary admonitions capture the thrust of Guenter Grass’ electrifying poem, “What Must Be Said,” that has brought an avalanche of invective – some scurrilous, some vituperative, some even personal vilification – against the man who warns the people of the world as well as the Jewish people of the dangers inherent in the actions of the Zionist controlled government of the State of Israel.

Read more: In Defense of Guenter Grass

By Uri Avnery

I am writing this on Friday night, the eve of Passover. At this moment, all over the world, millions of Jews are gathered around the family table, observing the Seder, reading aloud from the same book: the Haggadah, which tells the story of the Exodus from Egypt.

Read more: 'Pour Out Your Wrath!'

By Gideon Polya

Pro-Zionist Mainstream media censorship

Free speech and correct reportage are  vital for societal safety. As a 5-decade-career academic scientist I am appalled by the disconnect between perception of reality by expert scientists and that of politicians and the public informed by Mainstream media. This disconnect is most astonishingly apparent into man-made climate change –  all but a tiny minority of scientists accept that anthropogenic global warming is a reality and a major threat to humanity whereas perhaps only about 50% of laypersons accept this because of egregiously incorrect mainstream media reportage (most notoriously by the Murdoch media empire).

Read more: Censorship by the Conversation