World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

The US is building a new class of aircraft carriers which are the most expensive military instruments ever built.  The U.S.S. Gerald Ford will feature some extraordinary capabilities, but each of us will have to judge whether it is worth $11.5 billion.  The intent is to build three of these ships at a total cost of more than $40 billion.  Of course, it is highly likely that these cost figures will increase dramatically.  And it is unclear whether any other country will try to match this firepower at any point in the near future.

The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment has issued a scathing report on the use of torture by the United States in its “war” on terror.  The 11-member committee was comprised of highly qualified and experienced individuals, and the report has great credibility.  Among some of its findings include these conclusion

• “Torture occurred in many instances and across a wide range of theaters”
•  There is “no firm or persuasive evidence” that the use of such techniques yielded “significant information of value”
•   The use of torture has “no justification” and “damaged the standing of our nation, reduced our capacity to convey moral censure when necessary and potentially increased the danger to U.S. military personnel taken captive”
• “As long as the debate continues, so too does the possibility that the United States could again engage in torture”
•  The Obama administration’s keeping the details of rendition and torture from the public “cannot continue to be justified on the basis of national security”, and it should stop blocking lawsuits by former detainees on the basis of claiming “state secrets”

We can only hope that the President and the Congress will heed these findings.

The FBI has released photographs of two individuals who it believes are suspects in the bombing in Boston.   Welcome to the new world: thousands of photographs and videos of a crime scene in real time, and perhaps the world’s first crowd-sourced manhunt.  We should perhaps think seriously about the nature of that world before we wholeheartedly embrace it.