La calificación kafkiana de los combatientes pro Estados Unidos como terroristas

Durante la guerra de Indochina, Estados Unidos reclutó combatientes entre la etnia Hmong de Laos para interrumpir el suministro norvietnamita y el movimiento de tropas por la ruta de Ho Chi Minh. Se calcula que 170.000 excombatientes hmong y sus familiares viven en la actualidad en Estados Unidos, pero otros que solicitan asilo incumplen, de manera extraña, la ley Patriótica aprobada tras el 11 de septiembre

The UN: A Situation Report

The UN: A Situation Report is a review of two recent books on the past, present, and future of the UN; in short, of its relevance in a changing and uni-polar world at the end of Kofi Annan’s two terms as Secretary-General. The books’ focus is both on the organization’s successes and failures, and its efforts at self-reform in the face of near-constant criticism. They are reviewed as individually divergent in quality but as a formidable “situation report” when read in tandem. Paul Kennedy’s The Parliament of Man, save for its first of three parts, is generally criticized for its lack of depth and overly ambitious breadth, while James Traub’s The Best Intentions is praised as a highly skilled biography of Kofi Annan cum analysis of the UN’s relationship to the United States during his tenure. Both books make a case for the UN’s continued relevance and importance in the wake of Annan’s leadership. While Kennedy merely asserts this position, however, deflecting most criticism away from the organization, Traub is far more probing and critical in his analysis. They are reviewed together as a worthy, if heavily imbalanced, situation report on the UN as it enters its 62nd year

Kafkaesque rebranding of pro-US fighters as terrorists

During the Indochina war the US recruited fighters from the Hmong people of Laos to disrupt North Vietnamese supply and troops movements along the Ho Chi Minh trail. While an estimated 170,000 ex-combatant Hmong and their relatives now live in the US , others seeking asylum have bizarrely fallen foul of the post-9.11 PATRIOTPATRIOTPATRIOT PATRIOT Act