Archivo etiqueta «Conflicto armado»
By Anthony D. Mancini, an assistant professor of psychology at Pace University (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 06/02/12):
When the United States announced last week that its combat troops in Afghanistan would be withdrawn by mid-2013, there was obvious relief. But it was followed by familiar concerns.
One of the biggest of those concerns is the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder among the tens of thousands of returning veterans, which according to some media reports runs as high as 35 percent. These reports have incited fears that we will soon face a PTSD epidemic. But are such fears justified?
According … Seguir leyendo
By Robert A. Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 03/02/12):
As the death toll in Syria has climbed to perhaps 7,000, proponents of humanitarian intervention are asking, quite reasonably, why the West does not intervene as it did in Libya last year. Not only was Libya’s dictator, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, ousted with relatively few Western casualties, but the NATO campaign also set a precedent for successful humanitarian intervention.
In the 63 years since the United Nations adopted a genocide convention in the wake of the Holocaust, world leaders have failed … Seguir leyendo
By Chuck Freilich, a senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School and a deputy national security advisor in Israel during Labor and Likud governments (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 02/02/12):
In the end it will come down to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His senior officials will make their cases, but he alone will have to make one of the most critical decisions inIsrael’s history: whether to attackIran’s nuclear program. I do not envy him.
There has been much media speculation lately about possible Israeli military action, largely from those who have never borne the crushing weight of momentous national decisions. Israel has … Seguir leyendo
By Peter W. Singer, the director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution and author of Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 22/01/12):
In democracies like ours, there have always been deep bonds between the public and its wars. Citizens have historically participated in decisions to take military action, through their elected representatives, helping to ensure broad support for wars and a willingness to share the costs, both human and economic, of enduring them.
In America, our Constitution explicitly divided the president’s role as commander in … Seguir leyendo
By Shibley Telhami, a professor of government at the University of Maryland and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 17/01/12):
The debate over how to handle Iran’s nuclear program is notable for its gloom and doom. Many people assume that Israel must choose between letting Iran develop nuclear weapons or attacking before it gets the bomb. But this is a false choice. There is a third option: working toward a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East. And it is more feasible … Seguir leyendo
By Kurt Sanger, a major in the Marine Corps, a judge advocate and a law instructor at Marine Corps University. He deployed in 2009 as the senior legal adviser to the Afghan National Army (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 17/01/12):
The video showing Marines urinating on dead enemy bodies in Afghanistan has refocused America’s attention on the behavior of service members. We have been painfully aware of the strategic implications of this kind of action since we saw the photos from Abu Ghraib. How could something like this happen now? Something is broken.
We remember with sorrow the U.S. service members and … Seguir leyendo
Por José Ignacio Torreblanca (EL PAÍS, 13/01/12):
Barack Obama recibió de su predecesor, George W. Bush, una herencia bélica envenenada. Aunque distinguiera entre Irak como una guerra “elegida” y Afganistán como una guerra “necesaria”, en ambos casos prometió la retirada.
La primera retirada ya ha tenido lugar, y seguramente ha sido mucho más honrosa de lo que Obama jamás pudo imaginar. La retirada de Irak no salva el desastre que fue la invasión ni convalida la pérdida consiguiente de vidas, como tampoco deja detrás una democracia estable, pero permite pasar una difícil página, reducir costes presupuestarios en época de crisis … Seguir leyendo
By Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and most recently the author of The Wounded Giant: America’s Armed Forces in an Age of Austerity (THE WASHINGTON POST, 05/01/12):
For six decades the United States has planned for the capacity to conduct two nearly simultaneous major ground-combat operations. During the Cold War, one of those campaigns was assumed to be an all-out struggle against the Warsaw Pact in Europe, the other a conflict in Asia. Since the Cold War, defense secretaries Dick Cheney, Les Aspin, William Perry, William Cohen, Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates have adopted some … Seguir leyendo
By Christopher R. Hill, former US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, was US Ambassador to Iraq, South Korea, Macedonia, and Poland, US special envoy for Kosovo, a negotiator of the Dayton Peace Accords, and chief US negotiator with North Korea from 2005-2009. He is now Dean of the Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver (Project Syndicate, 04/01/12):
Angelina Jolie’s new film, “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” is about the ethnic tensions that produced the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II. The film has already won two awards and is an emerging … Seguir leyendo
By John Tirman, the executive director of the Center for International Studies at M.I.T. and the author of The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 04/01/12):
The end of the Iraq war occasioned few reflections on the scale of destruction we have wrought there. As is our habit, the discussion focused on the costs to America in blood and treasure, the false premises of the war and the continuing challenges of instability in the region. What happened to Iraqis was largely ignored. And in Libya, the recent investigation of civilian casualties … Seguir leyendo
By William Luers, who served as U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1983 to 1986 and as president of the United Nations Association from 1999 to 2009 and Thomas Pickering, undersecretary of state for political affairs in the Clinton administration and U.S. ambassador to Russia, Israel, Jordan and the United Nations (THE WASHINGTON POST, 31/12/11):
“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.”
— Archibald MacLeish, 1945,preamble to the Constitution of UNESCO
The American people hear from government officials and presidential candidates nearly every … Seguir leyendo
By Namini Wijedasa, a journalist (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 31/12/11):
The Sri Lankan government’s defeat of the separatist Tamil Tigers in 2009 ended a three-decade war that took tens of thousands of lives. But only now is the government beginning to acknowledge its huge human cost. Two weeks ago, a government-appointed reconciliation commission released a long-awaited report, giving voice to the war’s civilian victims for the first time.
From August 2010 to January 2011, hundreds of people appeared before the commission in tears, begging for news of their loved ones, many of whom had last been seen in the … Seguir leyendo
Por Paul Laverty, guionista de la película Route Irish, dirigida por Ken Loach. Traducción de María Luisa Rodríguez Tapia (EL PAÍS, 27/12/11):
Todos conocemos en qué consiste el ritual del regreso del cuerpo de un soldado muerto en tierra extranjera: música solemne, bandera nacional, escoltas y saludos, recogidos con gran detalle en los medios de comunicación. Políticos y generales tienen palabras de consuelo para los apesadumbrados familiares, muchos de ellos tan jóvenes que con frecuencia tienen bebés en brazos.
Pero no fue eso lo que vivió Deely, la hermana de Robert, un exparacaidista que murió en una emboscada en … Seguir leyendo
Ian Livingston is a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution and Michaele E. O’Hanlon is a senior fellow there. Brookings will continue to compile much of this data at brookings.edu/afghanistanindex.(THE NEW YORK TIMES, 18/12/11):
A version of this chart has been appearing in the Op-Ed pages every few months for eight years. The first was published eight months after the invasion of Iraq, and data from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan were added in more recent years. Gains have been made in these three countries, but violence persists and peace is by no means assured. Nonetheless, with the … Seguir leyendo
By Joshua S. Goldstein, professor emeritus of international relations at American University and the author of Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide and Steven Pinker, a psychology professor at Harvard and the author of The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (THE WASHINGTON POST, 18/12/11):
The departure of the last American troops from Iraq brings relief to a nation that has endured its most painful war since Vietnam. But the event is momentous for another reason. The invasion of Iraq was the most recent example of an all-out war between … Seguir leyendo