Author Archive for Wesley Oliphant
Pakistan’s double game
Nearly 10 years after the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, it is now trite to say the conflict is attributable to Pakistan. Besides the widespread corruption in the Afghan government, the other main problem that is also widely reported is the Pakistan government’s double game of attacking the Afghan insurgency while allowing them support bases in Pakistan to which the insurgents can go to rest, rearm and train.
China Must Stress Innovation To Pass U.S.
Ai Weiwei. If you asked people in China who this person is, few could answer. But the man and his recent disappearance are highly instructive in understanding something very important about China and its future.
Partisans Poison Congress
The political news is currently fixated on the midterm elections. Which candidates will win? How many seats will the Republicans win from the Democrats? How strong is the Tea Party?
This election will be like any other in that there will be the usual expressions of fear by each party before the election if the other [...]
A Tale of Two Iraqis
In the past two years, Iraq has gradually drifted off of the front pages of most American publications. Public opinion polls indicate most Americans believe that the war has ended. Whether this is true or not, the battle for Iraq’s future continues.
To better understand this battle, it is important to look at two major Iraqi [...]
High Fructose Corn Syrup: A Sticky Fat Trap
When I was an undergraduate, one of my classmates said that university life can be quite insulating. It insulates us from many problems including the huge number of people who are now obese, referring to individuals with a Body Mass Index (BMI) – the ratio of weight to height – of 30 or higher.
50 years [...]
Shake, Shake, Shake
Since California has been bogged down in a failed budget and high unemployment, state politicians have been focusing on delaying tax increases and deflecting blame. But the devastating earthquake in Haiti, along with the recent quake that caused moderate damage to parts of Humboldt County in Northern California, should serve as a reminder of a [...]
Escalation: Humanizing the Afghanistan War
Presidents usually age a lot in office. This is no wonder considering the difficult decisions they need to make. One particularly difficult choice awaits President Obama in Afghanistan. With the rise in coalition deaths, what was once considered a forgotten war has leaped back onto the front pages. Icasualties.org, a site that tracks causalities for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom/Afghanistan, shows that the casualty rates for January, February, March, May, July, August, September and October this year are the highest ever. It is widely accepted that these increased casualty rates suggest that changes to strategy might need to be made. Hence, President Obama must decide how to proceed.
Somali Piracy: On the Horns of a Dilemma?
When most people think of pirates, they probably think of recent movies or of a bygone era when wooden ships using sails were attacked by people looking for precious cargo like gold. However, piracy is running strong in the Gulf of Aden – the body of water between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia east of Africa – one of the world’s most important waterways. Around 11 percent of the world’s shipped petroleum goes through it.
China: The Emerging Power
Do you recall the pressure you felt when you took the SAT? It was probably sharp and crushing. However, you may have taken comfort in knowing that your college prospects were only partially dependent on the achievement tests. If you stumbled on those, you could always bolster your grades and extracurricular activities. However, imagine if that test was the only thing that mattered for college entrance. This is the type of pressure students in China face in their high school senior year.
Turning a Blind Eye to Afghanistan
The federal government, the military, the media and the public have largely ignored the war in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2002. By January of 2003, the Bush administration turned their attention to Iraq and became preoccupied with the logistical and financial aspects of that impending war. Since then, Afghanistan has taken a backseat in importance. Even the death of 500 American soldiers in the region earlier this year wasn’t enough to rekindle media interest in the territory.
