Peace

Time to break with disastrous Cold War policies

It’s possible a temporary Gaza truce may emerge in the next few days, but, more than ever, the underlying issues will at long last have to be resolved. And the incoming Obama administration will have the challenge, and the opportunity, to lead the way to peace.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and urged Mideast and world leaders to do more to help end the Israeli-Hamas conflict and promote political dialogue.

More than a year after Blackwater USA security guards sprayed a busy Baghdad intersection with bullets, killing 17 Iraqi civilians and wounding others, the U.S. Justice Department finally filed criminal charges against the gunmen on Dec. 8.

The Obama administration will review the Bush administration's reasons for refusing to sign an international treaty banning the use of cluster bombs, its spokesperson announced the week.

UNITED NATIONS — A top North Korean foreign affairs official says his government “remains consistent in its position to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully through dialogue and negotiations.” Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Pak Kil Yon said here Sept. 27 that his country has “honored its commitments” to agreements on the issue “in good faith.”

Peace and disarmament activists are warning that an agreement now before the Senate to let India buy nuclear fuel and technology from the United States for civilian purposes could make it easier for India to build more nuclear weapons. They say the pact also undermines the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty because it would let India participate in international nuclear trade even though it developed nuclear weapons outside the NPT framework and won’t sign the treaty.

Withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq is a political struggle both here and in Iraq.

President Bush has announced plans to pull some 8,000 troops out of Iraq by early 2009. This leaves 138,000 U.S. troops there, higher than pre-surge levels.

DENVER — The Iraq war is front and center here at the Democratic Party convention, but front and center like gravity is in our daily lives — a major force but not talked about all the time.

United for Peace and Justice, the nation's largest grassroots anti-war coalition, has joined forces with other major organizations to organize what promises to be this year's largest anti-war mobilization.

The conflict in Georgia has cast a spotlight on both John McCain’s ethics and on his ability to exercise good judgment in a time of crisis.