The Week: Most Recent News & Opinion:

WikiLeaks exposes U.S. war crimes

The Week — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:30:00 -0400

“Barack Obama’s war in Afghanistan is as dirty as that of his predecessor George W. Bush,” said Spain’s Cuarto Poder in an editorial. The tens of thousands of U.S. military logs from the Afghan conflict recently made public by WikiLeaks reveal a staggering toll of innocent lives. According to the documents, U.S. and coalition troops make almost no efforts to avoid killing civilians. Instead, they use a “scorched earth strategy,” committing egregious human-rights violations “every day, every hour, and in every location.” To take just one example, the...

When Bibi met Barack

The Week — Thu, 21 May 2009 09:46:16 -0400

If nothing else, Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu put on a good show of camaraderie, said Yitzhak Benhorin in Yedioth Ahronoth. Meeting in Washington this week for their first summit, the liberal U.S. president and the conservative Israeli prime minister spent much more time together than was originally scheduled—four full hours, mostly one-on-one—and they emerged all smiles. Still, the “positive body language cannot cover deep gaps” between the two men. On the all-important Palestinian question, Netanyahu refused to utter the words “two-state solution.” And...

Did Obama order Pakistan’s offensive?

The Week — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:28:12 -0400

Pakistan is “now following America’s script,” said Humayun Gauhar in the Islamabad Nation. In recent days, the Pakistani military has undertaken an offensive against the militants in the Swat Valley. Under a peace accord that gave the Taliban control of the region, the militants were supposed to lay down their arms. Instead, they advanced to within 100 miles of Islamabad, and now the Pakistani military has sent troops to rout them out. Unfortunately, the timing of this offensive, overlapping with President Asif Ali Zardari’s visit with President Obama in Washington, makes...

Is it Spain’s place to investigate Gitmo?

The Week — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:25:04 -0400

It seemed “too incredible to be true,” said El Mundo in an editorial. Spain’s most famous judge, Baltasar Garzón, who has made his name prosecuting foreigners under the principle of “universal jurisdiction,” last week actually agreed to drop his investigation of six Bush administration officials. Attorney General Candido Conde-Pumpido recommended shelving the case, saying that any investigation into the infamous “torture memos,” which laid out the legal justification for America’s brutal interrogation methods, should come from the Americans...

Obama reaches out to Cuba, Venezuela

The Week — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:45:09 -0400

Barack Obama promised change, said Jorge Ramos Ávalos in Mexico’s Mural, and he is delivering it. At the Summit of the Americas last week, the U.S. president “broke through prejudices and negative policies that had been decades in the making.” Not only did Obama go right up and shake the hand of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the socialist firebrand who has repeatedly denounced America, but he also said he would be willing to talk to the Cuban dictatorship. “Gone are the days,” Obama said, “when the United States was the big brother and the other...

Muslims wait for U.S. change

The Week — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:26:02 -0400

President Barack Obama has “won the hearts” of many Muslims, said the United Arab Emirates’ Gulf News in an editorial. In a landmark speech delivered in Turkey earlier this month during his first overseas trip as president, Obama said that going forward, the U.S. relationship with the Muslim world would be based on more than just opposition to terrorism. “We seek broader engagement based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” he said. “We will listen carefully, we will bridge misunderstandings, and we will seek common ground.” Most important to Muslim...

The Obamas take Europe

The Week — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:03:39 -0400

He had us at “Bon après-midi,” said David Usbourne in the London Independent. President Obama this week wrapped up one of the more productive and substance-filled presidential trips to Europe in recent history—but at times it felt more like two love-struck teenagers on a giddy first date. Europeans, still blinking in joy and disbelief at the sudden end of the Bush era, showered Obama with affection from London to Strasbourg to Prague, and Obama returned the sentiment, showing more respect for—and comfort with—the Old World than any president since John F. Kennedy...

Shared blame for Mexico’s drug problem

The Week — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:43:59 -0400

The U.S. has “finally admitted” its guilt, said Mexico City’s El Universal in an editorial. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during her visit to Mexico last week that Americans’ “insatiable” demand for illegal drugs and the U.S.’s inability to prevent illegal gunrunning to Mexico were two major causes of Mexico’s bloody drug war. It’s about time. More than 6,000 people were killed in the drug conflict last year, mostly in the area near the U.S. border. Yet U.S. newspapers barely cover the bloodshed, and until now, American officials deflected...

Getting pushed around by China?

The Week — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:25:55 -0400

China is flexing its economic muscle, said the Hong Kong South China Morning Post in an editorial. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last week said he was “a little bit worried” about the safety of the more than $1 trillion China has invested in U.S. Treasury bonds. The “unexpected” comment was widely seen as a signal that Beijing plans to use its newfound influence over Washington to force concessions on trade. Wen also said that China would not increase its contributions to the rapidly depleting International Monetary Fund unless the IMF gave China a greater decision-making role...

Snubbing the British prime minister

The Week — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:37:53 -0400

Did President Obama even know that Gordon Brown was coming to visit him? asked Alice Miles in The Times. At his first meeting last week with the U.S. president, the British prime minister wasn’t given a formal White House dinner, but had to make do with a working lunch. Brown didn’t even rate a joint press conference at the podium. “It began to look like one of those embarrassing situations when somebody you don’t particularly like invites himself to dinner.”

And then there were the gifts, said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. Brown presented Obama with a “historically...

Labeling Mexico a ‘failed state’

The Week — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:44:26 -0500

Mexico “finally got America’s attention,” said Gabriel Guerra Castellanos in Mexico City’s El Universal. We are on the front pages of U.S. newspapers, and Mexico is the top story on U.S. television news programs. Unfortunately, it’s all bad news: “organized crime, drug trafficking, executions, complicity, corruption.” Mexico’s drug violence has U.S. security experts spooked. The statistics are certainly frightening; they read more like war casualty reports than crime figures. More than 6,000 people were murdered in drug-related violence in Mexico...

Clinton’s gentle approach to China

The Week — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:11:13 -0500

Hillary Clinton’s return to Beijing last week was a triumph, said Kristine Kwok in the Hong Kong South China Morning Post. Thirteen years ago, on a trip to Beijing as First Lady to attend the World Conference on Women, Clinton spoke out strongly against China’s suppression of women’s rights, winning accolades from activists but angering Chinese leaders. This time, on her first trip abroad as secretary of state, she was “more nuanced.” She emphasized the two countries’ common interests, particularly on trade. And “she acknowledged that tackling the financial...

Still committed to missile defense?

The Week — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:24:33 -0500

The Obama administration is sending mixed signals on missile defense, said Matus Kostolny in Slovakia’s Sme. Under George W. Bush, the U.S. signed treaties with the Czech Republic and Poland to build radar facilities and missiles on their territory for a system that would shoot down nuclear missiles coming from Iran. Russia, which sees former Warsaw Pact countries as its sphere of influence, vehemently opposes the move. Now that Obama is in office, though, those plans are in doubt. At the Munich security conference two weeks ago, Vice President Joe Biden said the U.S. was “open to the...

Will Pakistan be punished for freeing Khan?

The Week — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:47:04 -0500

Pakistan’s greatest living hero is a free man at last, said the Pakistan Observer in an editorial. “After five long years of anguish, isolation, sea of uncertainties, and agony,” Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan’s nuclear program, was released from detention last week. He had been placed under house arrest in 2004 after he confessed to leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya, and North Korea—a confession he later retracted, saying that then–President Pervez Musharraf had forced him to make the statement. Last week, the Islamabad High Court ruled that Khan...

Should Iran negotiate with Obama?

The Week — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:43:30 -0500

Obama “is offering the hand of friendship” to Iran, said the Tehran E’temad-e Melli in an editorial. According to reports in American newspapers, Obama plans to make good on his campaign promise to break with eight years of belligerence and isolation, and negotiate with Iran “without preconditions.” His early actions indicate that this new president is indeed someone we could talk to. He has already ordered the closure of the horrid Guantánamo prison camp. In his first foreign interview, which he gave to an Arab network, he emphasized “mutual interests...

An African president for America

The Week — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:26:38 -0500

Barack Obama’s inauguration as president of the United States is “a giant leap for the black race,” said Michael John in Nigeria’s Daily Independent. For centuries, since the beginning of colonialism, the English language has used the word “black” to denote evil. We call a bad person the “black sheep” of a group, and we say extortionists are practicing “blackmail.” When the stock market falls, we call the day “Black Friday.” Yet now a black man inhabits the seat of world power, the White House. Other world leaders will find...