Mort Rosenblum's Blog

America’s Profligate Ways With Water

As drought increases and the climate changes, the prosperous 'civilized' world may end up living like the Bedouins, only less well.

What Argentine Priests Knew About the ‘Dirty War’

During Argentina's "Dirty War,'' people thought to be enemies of the state were bundled into Ford Falcons without license plates and disappeared. Would the "war" have been less dirty if the Roman Catholic church had stood up to its perpetrators?

The Idea of America Is Also Drones’ Collateral Damage

Torture, at least, is not usually fatal. Done out of sight, its true extent remains a dirty little secret. Drone strikes are exponentially different. Their very principle redefines America for a world that once expected something better.

The Mali That Was

As a kid in Tucson, Arizona, I fantasized about ancient adobe splendor in Timbuktu. Eventually, I got there. Can it -- and the rest of the country -- be saved now?

Letter From the American West: Gun Debate Misses the Mark

I live in two countries, have worked in just about all the rest and have had weapons drawn on me by child soldiers, terrorists and bandits. In none of those circumstances would being armed have increased my chances of being here today.

Oxymorons of ‘Sustainable Overfishing’

Fishtocrats from three dozen nations just met in Manila to protect imperiled Pacific tuna, but they barely budged the status quo. You had better develop a taste for tofu tartar and seaweed sushi.

The Source of Congo’s Bleeding

Neither tribalism nor some fountainhead of darkness -- nor King Leopold's ghost -- wholly explains this latest headline: "Congo Slips Into Chaos Again as Rebels Gain."

My Unscientific World Poll of Obama vs. Romney

One Latin American colleague said Lima saw Romney as "The stereotypical gringo, hard working, prejudiced, short-sighted, with a dangerous imbalance between might and mind.”

Bringing Karadzic to Justice

Six weeks before Serb zealots opened fire in Sarajevo to start the war, early in 1992, Radovan Karadzic told me with a self-satisfied smirk exactly what he had in mind.

There’s Just One Catch to the Idea of Inexhaustible Seafood — It’s Wrong

How can fish and seafood be scarce if they're there in the market when you want them? But in every ocean, rapacious trawlers, purse seiners and longliners are overfishing to an alarming degree.