The last U.S. troops left Iraq Sunday, eight years and eight months after the first American missiles struck Baghdad, ostensibly to stop Saddam Hussein from threatening world security with weapons of mass destruction. The soldiers are returning home, but many of them will be sent to Afghanistan, where George W. Bush had started war to destroy al-Qaida, the perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. When another Middle East invasion was made into Iraq, much of the non-Arab world supported the U.

Chinese hackers have redefined the concept of room service: In one recent attack, they infiltrated an Internet service provider to some of the world’s leading hotels, potentially gaining access to millions of confidential messages of traveling executives, as well as to the victims’ corporate networks. The electronic theft of proprietary information from U.S. companies has reached the level of grand larceny on a national scale. One declassified government estimate put the value of information sto

Any discussion of financial regulation and its chronic failures should start with a simple, jarring truth: It’s impossible to outregulate a banker. Each crisis in the financial sector brings calls for new rules, which take hold after much political jostling. Then we are supposed to sleep easier, certain that this time we are protected. We never are. Fresh rules are like antibodies, and banking ― much like viruses ― keeps evolving to outwit the regulations. Financial incentives tilt hugely in ban

I’ve had it with this useless, ongoing charade to “save Europe.” It’s time to get serious and consider jailing and impeaching some of these European Union member leaders for requisite incentive.Last week’s EU show was pathetic. It made me throw a pack of gummy bears at my television screen. You’d think these European leaders were actually in a position to save others when they can’t even save themselves as their own countries drown in debt.As every trained water rescuer knows, when faced with a

President Lee Myung-bak used to say his power would remain intact until his final day in office, brushing aside the possibility of sliding into lame-duck status in his last year in office, as his predecessors did. Set to enter into the final year of his five-year presidency soon, however, he needs to look squarely at irksome truths about his crumbling power base.When his administration was inaugurated on February 2008, Lee looked so indomitable that all his detractors, both actual and potential,

A society is certain to lose vitality and remain stagnant, if not go backward, if its members believe that they cannot move to a higher social status whatever efforts they may make. Such pessimism is gripping Korea, as evidenced by a survey recently conducted by Statistics Korea.According to the 2011 social survey of 17,000 households throughout the nation, almost half the Korean people believe they belong to the working class and six in 10 believe they cannot improve their social and economic s

Are we witnessing the birth of the United States of Europe?There are uncanny similarities between the current round of wheeling and dealing and the founding of the United States of America. The Philadelphia Convention of 1787 represented America’s second try at continental union. In 1781, the 13 states had come together behind a treaty-constitution that broadly resembles present European arrangements.America’s first effort was the Articles of Confederation. Like the European Union treaties, it g

Want to know why Japan’s earthquake recovery efforts are moving in slow motion? Ask the whales. Tokyoites have grown accustomed to shocking news items since the earth shook and the oceans rose: the nuclear meltdown has proven far worse than the government admitted; radioactive cesium made its way into baby food; more leaks were found in the damaged Fukushima reactor; warnings by seismologists still go unheeded. Yet the tale of the whales and the $30 million is what proved most disturbing ― and s

It was one of those uncomfortable moments when you suddenly realize you’re in the wrong place, that you’re a rube from the sticks in a sophisticated city whose customs you don’t quite understand.Politico was recently sponsoring a “Washington Year in Review” symposium, and they’d invited me to be part of the energy panel. So even though I’d spent barely three weeks in Washington this year (and the most memorable nights were spent in its central cellblock for protesting outside the White House to

The government is rolling up its sleeves to stimulate start-up activities among young people as youth unemployment worsens.The November job data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday put the unemployment rate among those aged 15-29 at 6.8 percent, more than double the general unemployment rate of 2.9 percent.While the overall jobless rate improved this year on the back of employment growth in the service sector, the rate among young people worsened.Korea’s youth unemployment figure may not l

Rep. Park Geun-hye has cleared the biggest hurdle to her comeback in more than five years as the leader of the embattled ruling Grand National Party.On Wednesday, she met a group of reformist GNP lawmakers who had vociferously called for dissolving the party to create a new one. They threatened to leave the party should Park reject their demands. Two hot-tempered lawmakers did declare their departure from the party on Monday.Park was in principle against disbanding the GNP. She regarded it as no