| | March 12, 2012 | | FUROR After a U.S. Army sergeant marched from a NATO base in Afghanistan on Sunday and into civilian homes, shooting 16 people dead—including nine children—furious Afghans have vowed revenge. The Taliban released a statement Monday promising vengeance against “sick-minded American savages.” The Daily Beast’s Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst, on why the rising anti-American sentiment could scuttle a peace process that was just beginning to show signs of hope. REAL TALK Well, he just lost the teleprompter vote. In Rick Santorum’s ongoing war on teleprompters—or as Santorum probably calls them, “digital mouthpieces for pollsters and speechwriters”—the presidential hopeful said that it should be illegal to use the machine. "You're voting for someone who is going to be the leader of our government," he said. "It's important for you to understand who that person is in their own words, see them, look them in the eye...hear what's (in their) heart." It seems as though President Obama and Mitt Romney are reading other peoples’ less-inspired words, at least according to surging Santorum. GRUESOME Syrian activists and opposition groups said 26 children and 21 women were “massacred” Monday by pro-government gunmen in the besieged city of Homs. State media confirmed the deaths of at least 12 people, but instead blamed “armed terrorists”—a term Bashar al-Assad’s regime has used to describe the opposition. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also confirmed a dozen deaths, while the Local Coordination Committees said 45 people were killed—both claimed the attacks were carried out by shabiha gunmen who have been involved in the yearlong crackdown against an opposition uprising. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be among ministers from 15 countries holding talks in a United Nations Security Council meeting, and Syria is expected to dominate the agenda. UGANDA Invisible Children, the nonprofit group that produced the hugely popular half-hour documentary Kony 2012 about Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army, will release a new film Monday to respond to criticism of its transparency and that it manipulates the facts in its efforts to end the murders and rapes committed by the child-recruiting LRA. The Kony 2012 video has been viewed more than 72 million times on YouTube, but with the new success comes critiques of its methods, including charges that the filmmakers fail to sufficiently protect the children who were shown in the documentary. CAVED When Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House last week, it was a stark reminder of how President Obama misplayed his hand and betrayed his ideals with Israel. In Newsweek, an adaptation of Peter Beinart’s forthcoming book, The Crisis of Zionism. | |
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