Portside

Federal watchdog report "calls into question" US efforts to stamp out opium production.

When Zekerullah's teacher, a teacher accustomed to beating pupils, asked the class elementary questions about the environment, Zekerullah had definitely done his homework. But among his recent studies were the history of nonviolent movements, led by people like Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, to resist oppressive forces.

If you want to understand why it's the case that on the one hand, the U.S. public and the majority of Congress turned against the war in Afghanistan a long time ago, and yet on the other hand, it's been so hard to end the war, this week's warmonger media storm against the diplomatic rescue of U.S. prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been very instructive.

In the world of pen vs. gun, we would all benefit from putting the Arab proverb "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" to good use. If women's rights are a security threat to violent extremists, then women's rights must be the asset we protect.

In 1988 there were 350,000 cases of polio worldwide. Last year there were 223. But getting all the way to zero will mean spending billions of dollars, penetrating the most remote regions of the globe, and facing down Taliban militants to get to the last unprotected children on Earth.

Author Ann Jones spent a year closely following American soldiers from the battlefield all the way back home.

As Afghan soldiers abuse a prisoner, American Special Forces stand idly by

Ripped from the headlines! America is exceptional! So the president said at the U.N. two days ago and two weeks ago in his address to the nation on the Syrian crisis. Tho show how exceptional we are is a list of eight exceptional(ly dumb) American achievements of the twenty-first century -- all ripped from the headlines, all Ripley's Believe It or Not material, none made up, none conceivable for any other nation on the planet.