U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat introduced a bill on April 30 to “close the Department of Defense detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within one year of the bill’s enactment.” The bill marks the first time a Senator has backed up popular verbal criticism of the controversial prison with an official proposal to shutter the facility created by the Bush administration after September 11, 2001. A statement on her Web site says Feinstein, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is “deeply concerned that open-ended detentions and documented reports of detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay have tarnished America’s reputation [...]
The number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq during April rose above 100 over the weekend, making it the 6th deadliest month for U.S. forces out of the 50 months they have been in Iraq, according to the independent Web site icasualties.org. About half of the 104 U.S. service members killed since April 1 perished in and around Baghdad where U.S. forces are involved in a major security crackdown, according to Reuters, which also reported that “the toll could increase the pressure on U.S. President George W. Bush, who is fighting a plan by Democrats to set a timetable for [...]
The Commentary Week in Review is posted on the blog every Friday. Drawing from more than two dozen English-language news outlets worldwide, the column highlights a handful of the week’s notable op-eds. Despite the wars, oil and endless Western punditry over its geopolitical significance, Edward Luttwak argued in the May cover story of Prospect Magazine that the Middle East is less relevant today than ever, and it would be best for everyone if the rest of the world learned to ignore it. “Strategically, the Arab-Israeli conflict has been almost irrelevant since the end of the cold war. And as for [...]
