Opium in Afghanistan: Eradicate or subsidize? - International Herald Tribune: "As opium harvests in Afghanistan have steadily increased, some politicians and think tanks - mostly in Britain - have raised a trenchant question: Rather than trying to eradicate Afghanistan's poppies, why not buy them and make morphine? Given that the World Health Organization estimates that more than 6.2 million of the world's poor are dying of cancer, AIDS, burns and wounds without adequate pain relief, the argument goes, wouldn't it make sense?"
Broken Spring? : Information Clearing House This is a sequel to my June 2011 article, ‘After the spring’, on the upheavals in the Arab world. It is an article that has been painful to write, because it brings bad tidings and offers a pessimistic analysis of the upheavals, at least in the short term, in a number of Arab countries. The outcomes and potential outcomes of these uprisings have also acquired new, very significant dimensions. These include a complex entanglement with the accelerated preparations for a possible attack on Iran, and a poisonous, sectarian aspect that could have the consequence of ripping Syria and the Middle East apart.
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