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South Sudan: This Means War

Kevin Spak — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 06:40:35 CDT

As far as South Sudan is concerned, Omar al-Bashir has crossed the Rubicon. In a meeting today with Chinese President Hu Jintao, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir said it was "a very critical moment for the Republic of South Sudan because our neighbor in Khartoum has declared war," the AP...

5 Questions to Ask Before Starting a War

Matt Cantor — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:46:12 CDT

As the drum-beating grows louder on Iran and Syria, Bill Keller looks back on Iraq and beyond. To avoid a debacle, there are five questions we should ask ourselves before entering a war, he writes in the New York Times : "How is this our fight?" Are American interests directly involved,...

GOP Bill Clears Path for Obama's Impeachment

Neal Colgrass — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:31:55 CDT

Calls for President Obama's impeachment have come down the pike before, most recently from Grover Norquist . This time a Republican representative—North Carolina's Walter Jones—has introduced a House resolution that would authorize Obama's impeachment for using the military without official permission from Congress, RawStory reports. Jones, a former Democrat...

Iraq, Afghan Wars Put 'Severe' Hit on US Finances

Matt Cantor — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:57:05 CST

In the short term, wars might help the US economy—but the brief uplift is just a bubble, according to a report. In the long run, wars are a serious drag on the country's finances, the Institute for Economics and Peace finds after studying all major American wars since World...

The Root of All Evil: Men's Sex Drive

Neal Colgrass — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:40:00 CST

Wars, brawls, defense budgets, riots: All of these aggressive male by-products are genetically rooted in men's drive to win as many mates as possible, according to British scientists. A study published this week blames the world's conflicts on this male "tribal" attitude, saying it "might not be functional in modern...

Amid Sanctions, Iranians Expect War

Kevin Spak — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:29:57 CST

Western officials are fairly sanguine that Iran's recent provocations are only posturing. But on the streets of Tehran, sanctions are taking a real toll, and the populace expects violence, the Washington Post reports. The country is in the midst of a currency crisis that has made prices shoot up on...

The Obama Doctrine: Silent War

Matt Cantor — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:12:30 CST

Make no mistake about it, there is an Obama Doctrine—but you won’t hear about it from the man himself. That’s because it’s a “doctrine of silence,” writes Roger Cohen in the New York Times . “America has decided that conventional wars of uncertain outcome in Iraq and Afghanistan are a...

Crime Killing Far More Than War: Study

Kevin Spak — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:24:05 CDT

You’re a lot more likely to be shot by a criminal than by an enemy combatant, according to a new international study. Crime is a drastically larger source of armed violence than war, the 2011 Global Burden of Armed Violence report concludes. Of the 526,000 people killed violently each...

Top 5 Civilians Who Battled Armies

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 14:13:22 CDT

Throughout history, vast armies have met their enemies on the battlefield and even conquered civilizations—unless, that is, some totally untrained person got really mad at them. Yes, this has actually happened outside of the movies. Cracked lists five of them: Rejected by the Greek army in the 1930s for...