Antony Loewenstein

Martin van Creveld is a professor of military history at the Hebrew University and is the only non-American author on the U.S. Army’s required reading list for officers. His article in the current edition of the Jewish newspaper, The Forward, is a stinging rebuke of the Iraq war and explains his ideal course of action:

“The number of American casualties in Iraq is now well more than 2,000, and there is no end in sight. Some two-thirds of Americans, according to the polls, believe the war to have been a mistake. And congressional elections are just around the corner.

“What had to come, has come. The question is no longer if American forces will be withdrawn, but how soon – and at what cost. In this respect, as in so many others, the obvious parallel to Iraq is Vietnam.

“…Simply abandoning equipment or handing it over to the Iraqis, as was done in Vietnam, is simply not an option. And even if it were, the new Iraqi army is by all accounts much weaker, less skilled, less cohesive and less loyal to its government than even the South Vietnamese army was. For all intents and purposes, Washington might just as well hand over its weapons directly to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

“Clearly, then, the thing to do is to forget about face-saving and conduct a classic withdrawal.

“Tehran is certain to emerge as the biggest winner from the war – a winner that in the not too distant future is likely to add nuclear warheads to the missiles it already has.

“For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president’s men. If convicted, they’ll have plenty of time to mull over their sins.”

When a man like van Creveld calls for impeachment, be rest assured that Bush and his cronies are worried.

Al-Jazeera staff have started a blog. It’s a bold statement of journalistic independence and wish for freedom from US aggression.

UPDATE: A thorough investigation into the role of Al-Jazeera and US attempts to muzzle its voice.

Has Hollywood become more gay friendly? Yes and no. Philip Hensher navigates the ins and outs with aplomb.

The fallout from Hurricane Katrina continues. The New Standard reports:

“Having survived Hurricane Katrina, New Orleanians who live in rented housing face a new threat: Landlords, tempted by rising rents and crunched by monetary losses from the storm, are engaged in a massive campaign to evict thousands of residents. Some groups, however, are pushing back, by filing challenges to the eviction system itself or by organizing tenants to fight their expulsions through protest and public pressure.”

The war against the poor – generally unreported by the corporate media – requires constant vigilance by activists. The New Standard is following developments closely.

Terry Waite (former hostage in Lebanon), The Guardian, November 23:

“…War, as well as being a blunt instrument, fails totally to deal with the root issues underlying terrorism. In the political realm it requires statesmen and women; individuals who can think beyond the next election and who have the wisdom that comes from making an attempt to understand cultures other than those of the west.

“Western democracy has many attractive features and has brought manifold benefits. It takes no intelligence to recognise that it also has its dark side and that it cannot, nor necessarily ought it to be, exported to all parts of the world. If the optimistic statements made by some British and US politicians before the Iraqi war – when it was stated that the conflict would be concluded in weeks – were truly believed then one can only despair at the level of understanding demonstrated.”

Former Salvadoran Colonel Nicolas Carranza – torturer, criminal and CIA informant – has been found guilty of torture in a Tennessee courtroom.

The Center for Justice and Accountability explains the importance of the verdict:

“On November 18, 2005, the federal court jury found Memphis resident Colonel Nicolas Carranza, the former Vice-Minister of Defense of El Salvador, responsible for overseeing torture and killings in that country. The verdict is a partial verdict in favur of four of the five plaintiffs. The jury has yet to reach a verdict on the claim of the fifth plaintiff, Ana Patricia Chavez, and is continuing to deliberate.

“The verdict represents the first time that a U.S. jury in a contested case has found a commander liable for crimes against humanity. This means that violations were committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population of El Salvador. The jurors awarded each of the four plaintiffs $500,000 in compensatory damages for a total of $2 million.

“The jury also recommended that Carranza should pay punitive damages. Additional testimony will be taken today or Monday to determine the precise amount of that award.

“The trial was marked by several important revelations. Former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Robert White testified that Colonel Carranza was a paid informant for the CIA while he was Vice-Minister of Defense and a member of the High Command in 1980. At that time White asked the CIA station chief in El Salvador to remove Carranza from the CIA payroll because of his deplorable human rights record but no action was ever taken. Carranza admitted on the witness stand that he had been receiving money from the U.S. government since 1965.”

The decision didn’t stop the Salvadoran President Tony Saca telling the periodical El Faro, “I respect the internal judicial processes of the United States, however, there were people who fought for peace, democracy and liberty, and one of those was Colonel Nicolas Carranza…He was a hero of democracy in the country.”

The US government funded any number of torturers, murderers and monsters throughout Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s. This court case proves, albeit in a small way, that such crimes have a price and victims will be compensated.

UPDATE: In related news, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has been placed under house arrest on tax evasion charges, two days before his 90th birthday. One more Western-friendly monster will suffer his last days in disgrace.

Anthony Bubalo is a research fellow at the Sydney-based Lowy Institute for International Policy. He seems to write regularly about the Israel/Palestine conflict, yet is simply another policy wonk more interested in the political machinations within Israel than the average Israeli or Palestinian. His article in today’s Sydney Morning Herald – on Sharon’s political earthquake and the country’s chances for peace – is a master-class in subject avoidance. Bubalo manages to ignore mentioning the occupation and the ever-growing settlements across the West Bank.

He is, in other words, perfectly predictable and therefore highly appropriate for the fence-sitting Herald.

One British university seems to have a problem with religious dress and street wear:

“Imperial College London has issued a ban on its staff and students wearing hijabs or hoodies in its buildings as part of an effort to improve campus security.”

The decision was taken in the name of security, you understand, and a desire to not allow students to obscure their faces.

It seems, however, that the university’s accountant may step in sooner rather than later:

“Students also pointed out that the move could be bad for sales of the university-branded hooded tops from union shops.”

My latest New Matilda column discusses media complicity in hyping the terror threat and the seeming unwillingness of the political and media elite to acknowledge why Australia has become a target in the first place:

“Prime Minister John Howard and his media cheerleaders (the vast majority of the corporate media elite) tell us that a terrorist threat exists in Australia. This is hardly news, but is reported as a shock announcement. Why are we under threat? ‘They’ hate our way of life. ‘They’ want to impose sharia law on us all. ‘They’ hate Aussie women wearing bikinis on Bondi Beach. ‘They’ hate us because that’s what extremists do. ‘They’ hate irrationally and passionately and uncontrollably.

“All nonsense, of course.”

My New Matilda archive can be found here.

Does the future of “citizen journalism” start here?

Internet entrepreneur Craig Newmark wants to revolutionise the media business. The Independent explores a development we should be watching very closely:

“‘I do think professional and citizen journalism will blur together,’ Newmark predicts, ‘because we will find that some amateurs are as talented as a professional journalist.’

“The White House press corps seems to enrage him especially. ‘No one is taking their job seriously there,’ he recently remarked. ‘Now it could be that they could be under a directive to not do so. We don’t know. I’ve spoken to a lot of journalists who are very frustrated.’

“Part of the problem lies with the newspapers themselves. The race for dollars, he insists, has obscured the race for truth. ‘They’re being run as profit centres, and they’re trying to get pretty high profit margins. As a result, investigative reporting has been seen as a problem.’”

Cambodia is hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The Hindustan Times reports:

“Websites advocating ‘euthanasia tourism’ allegedly posted by a US national from a sleepy Cambodian town have sparked outrage and confusion as businesses and the government debate what action to take.

“The family and friends of a British national have already alleged that the twin sites were directly linked to a 47-year-old woman’s suicide in September in Kampot, about 180 km from the capital, following the break-up of a relationship.”

The New Scotsman provides further details.

Euthanasia is not illegal in Cambodia and therefore provides a perfect opportunity for Westerners to die with dignity. Many other issues remain, however.

I support euthanasia but worry about the lack of regulation. The New Scotsman reports:

“A spokesman for the Voluntary Euthanasia Society said they supported the right to a ‘good death’ but that proper regulation was needed to prevent vulnerable people taking ‘bad’ decisions.

“‘We should regulate our own laws so that people wouldn’t look overseas to places without regulation,’ he said.”

The possibility of further exploiting Asia should cause concern. HIV/AIDS is on the rise across Asia, child prostitution continues unabated and sex tourism is a plague across many countries. While Western countries refuse to maturely engage with the ethical dilemmas surrounding euthanasia, desperation may lead to unpalatable decisions.

- The Independent, November 22:

“Iraqis face the dire prospect of losing up to $200bn (£116bn) of the wealth of their country if an American-inspired plan to hand over development of its oil reserves to US and British multinationals comes into force next year. A report produced by American and British pressure groups warns Iraq will be caught in an “old colonial trap” if it allows foreign companies to take a share of its vast energy reserves. The report is certain to reawaken fears that the real purpose of the 2003 war on Iraq was to ensure its oil came under Western control.”

- Murdoch’s Australian thinks Ariel Sharon is a “dove” and a “strong voice for peace.” Shame about that pesky occupation and the building of even more settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

- Blogger Joshua Marshall @ Talking Points Memo is hiring two journalists. The rise of the blogs continues.

- Colin Powell’s former chief of staff expands on the “cabal” that led the US into Iraq and America’s tattered reputation.

- The Guardian reports on a book discussing that lover of freedom and democracy, Maggie Thatcher:

“Margaret Thatcher forced Francois Mitterrand to give her the codes to disable Argentina’s deadly French-made missiles during the Falklands war by threatening to launch a nuclear warhead against Buenos Aires, according to a book.”

- Russ Baker on Bob Woodward:

“…The very definition of an “investigative reporter,” as Woodward is labelled these days ad nauseum, is a pretty elastic one. Meeting a source in a parking garage as a way of identifying abuses and high crimes by powerful insiders is one thing. Dining off that for the next three decades while chumming it up with well-placed insiders for their ‘exclusive accounts’ is another.”

- Tim Dunlop @ Road to Surfdom wonders if Dick Cheney understands what his little liberation flourish in Iraq has created.