Three from Truthout:

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Sunday 22 May 2011

The IMF after DSK
Mark Weisbrot, Guardian UK: "Now that Dominique Strauss-Kahn has resigned from his position as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it is worth taking an objective look at his legacy there. Until his arrest last week on charges of attempted rape and sexual assault, he was widely praised as having changed the IMF, increased its influence and moved it away from the policies that - according to the fund's critics - had caused so many problems for developing countries in the past. How much of this is true?"
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Obama Troop Surge Decision Ignored Pak-Taliban Ties
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "The unilateral U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden created a spike in mutual recriminations between U.S. and Pakistani politicians, but their fundamental conflict of interest over Afghanistan was already driving the two countries toward serious confrontation. The pivotal event in relations between the Barack Obama administration and Pakistan was the decision by Obama to escalate the war in Afghanistan in 2009, despite the knowledge that Pakistan was committed to supporting the Taliban insurgents as a strategic policy in its conflict with India."
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Eugene Robinson | Meltdown On the Launch Pad
Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post Writers’ Group: "The favorite parlor game in Washington this week has been trying to remember a more disastrous campaign launch than the one Gingrich is having. Many candidates have stumbled coming out of the gate, but few have taken off like a shot in the wrong direction. The great irony, of course, is that Gingrich's grievous error was to speak the truth. Appearing on ‘Meet the Press’ last Sunday, he referred to the proposal by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to convert Medicare into a voucher program - endorsed by all but four members of the GOP majority in the House - as ‘right-wing social engineering’."
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