Amnesty International used to be an honourable organization looking out for the rights of political prisoners and shining a light upon the worst human rights abuses.

Today, it is an organization that effectively works as a PR agency for the worst kind of retrograde religious supremacists, spends much of its donors' resources focusing on the world's most democratic nations and now looks out for the interests of war criminals instead of their victims. Canadian Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney speaks for many beyond the northern frontier as he dismantles AI's latest hypocritical stand:

Finally, you claim to be “concerned about the fact that these cases have been so widely publicized” given the “reputational harm” it may cause these men and the hypothetical risk it may impose on them or their relatives.  No doubt such exquisitely burnished sympathy does you credit.  However, as a former AI member, may I suggest that ostentatious hand-wringing over the good name of war criminals and human rights violators may sit uneasily with those AI members who, perhaps

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News about military operations in Afghanistan is at a low boil most of the time, only making the front pages of mainstream news outlets when our side experiences a particularly tough loss. This war against the Taliban continues to take its toll on American troops and the latest blow comes in the form of a Navy Seals Chinook helicopter brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade. Thirty-one Americans died.

It was a heavy loss. There is no question about that. But for those of us who believe that the Taliban must ultimately be broken as a viable fighting force, lest they wrest control of the region and its future, these warriors did not die in vain.

The aims of this war are still valid. That said, the sacrifice does also remind us of the disproportionate burden that Americans have borne in this fight. ISAF has been ridiculed as a military acronym meaning "I Saw Americans Fighting". Other countries have not been doing their part -- and I'm not referring only to the NATO member countries who until now have been mostly guarding the photocopiers in the north of Afghanistan. We all know about the American-led...More >>

When you consider Iran's suspect nuclear program, the public executions of homosexuals, stoning of women and other atrocities, it is easy to forget the banal nature Iran's regime.

Perhaps the best recent example of this is the case of 17 teenagers arrested for taking part in a water fight on the streets of Tehran, recorded on Facebook. Welcome to Iran: where kids playing in the street are seen as a dire threat to the stability of the country.More >>

For years, we've been told that the one thing Arabs -- and in particular, Iraqis -- want the USA to do is to stop interfering in their affairs and get the hell out of the Middle East.

But when it comes time for the Iraqis to start bidding adieu to their last remaining American guests, they get anxious. "Please don't leave us alone with Iran! They're dangerous! There's no telling what they'll do to us!"

To which American generals and politicians ought to respond:

"Sure, we'll stay. But on condition. First, you pay our bills. We're broke. And we're tired of seeing American taxpayers funding your leaders' vacation homes. Second, you throw every last Sadrist on your soil -- including Mr. Sadr -- who's still taking shots at our boys into the brig. Third: get it through your head that we're not staying forever. This isn't Afghanistan and it ain't Haiti, either. Saddam is gone. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been squashed. You've been given a chance to rebuild your country as a reasonably-developed democratic state. Grow up, 'cuz we're bringing our boys home..."

"And just in case you had any funny ideas after we're gone -- we will...More >>