It hasn't been too often in the past couple of years that you could write about good news from Pakistan. But if there is a silver lining to the atrocities that have plagued the country in the past several years, it is the fact that the Pakistani public, government and military are increasingly seeing the jihadist militants on their territory in a hostile light.
Just about any celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - October 15) will highlight the diversity among Hispanics.
They come from different parts of the Spanish-speaking world, have settled in various areas of the United States, have distinctive customs and come in all shapes and colors.
But an often overlooked difference among Hispanics relates to how many generations back they trace their roots in U.S. history.
The would-be assassin of Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Nayef,
head of Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism efforts, hid his bomb in his
underwear, apparently believing that cultural taboos would prevent a
search in that part of his body, according to a Saudi government
official close to the investigation.
We are a full year removed from the September 15, 2008, bankruptcy
of Lehman Brothers, which sent the global financial system into a
tailspin, and yet just 10 days removed from one of the most dismal
unemployment reports in 80 years.
On the one hand, this is no
kind of celebratory one-year "anniversary," if you want to call it
that, and it was certainly no kind of Labor Day either. And they are
related.
Eight years after September 11, the "war on terror" has gone the way
of the dodo. And President Obama talks instead about a war against al
Qaeda and its allies.
What, then, of al Qaeda's enigmatic
leader, Osama bin Laden, who has vanished like a wisp of smoke? And
does he even matter now?
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said in an interview Friday that just-released CIA documents demonstrate the effectiveness of coercive interrogation techniques.
"My sort of overwhelming view is that the enhanced interrogation techniques were absolutely essential in saving American lives and preventing attacks on the Unites States," Cheney told FOX News Sunday. "I think they were directly responsible for the fact that for eight years we had no further direct attacks on the United States."
CNN's Barbara Starr reported last week that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top
U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is expected to ask the Obama administration for
additional troops and equipment for conducting intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance, as well as more military resources to deal with roadside bombs
and explosives.
After the release of a miserable June jobs report, President Obama
stood with a group of green company CEOs and told reporters that "men
and women like these will help lead us out of this recession and into a
better future."
But if the White House puts too many eggs in the
green recovery basket, we may all be disappointed. The green sector is
simply not large enough or competitive enough to be a major engine of
job creation.
