The mantra that we are fighting them over there so as not to fight them here has just been sunk The Iraq war, which for years has drawn militants from around the world, is beginning to export fighters and the tactics they have honed in the insurgency to neighboring countries and beyond, according to American,…
Showing all posts in June 2019
The revolution that was televised
The western media have been quick to seize on the demonstrations in Venezuela protesting the decision not to renew the broadcast license of one of the country’s TV stations. Of course, this has provided grist for those determined to portray Chavez as a dictator with fascistic aspirations. What is ironic is the fact that RCTV…
The pointless language of force
Gideon Levy, Haaretz, May 27: Once again we are being hit by a wave of desire for “a strong man.” From every direction, from the left and right, voices that miss former prime minister Ariel Sharon are being heard, like voices of longing for a father who has departed. “If Sharon were here the war…
The Strange Fruit of Torture
Former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury in the Reagan administration, Paul Craig Roberts, explains why when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to the outlandish assortment of plots and crimes under torture, his captivity played right into his hands and undermined their own credibility. The first confession released by the Bush regime’s Military Tribunals–that of Khalid…
The predictable path
One of the great beneficiaries of the Iraq war has been Iran. It is emboldened in ways almost unimaginable before 2003. This news is therefore unsurprising: As Iran races ahead with an illicit uranium enrichment effort, nearly a dozen other Middle East nations are moving forward on their own civilian nuclear programs. In the latest…
Rumsfeld’s Incompetence
Talk about stating the obvious “If I look at people like Donald Rumsfeld, all I can say is, that verges on criminal negligence,” Kelly told the ABC of Rumsfeld’s failure to acknowledge problems in Iraq. What I don’t get is where he gets “verges” from? Given the Bush administration’s admiration for failure and incompetence, this…
(Un)intended consequences?
It seems that not a week goes by when something new is not revealed about what the Bush administration were warned about or informed about prior to “liberating Iraq”. Prior to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the nation’s intelligence services warned the president that a military invasion of Iraq would fuel Islamist extremism…
Who’s backing who?
Military hardware is on its way to Lebanon to help the military fight the Saudi backed armed “terrorists” that the Lebanese government allowed into Lebanon in the first place, in the hope that they would attack Hizbollah. Anyway, it’s well worth checking EDB’s latest post on the background to the current flare-up in Lebanon. It…
The South African experience
Gideon Levy, Haaretz, May 24: At the conference luncheon, Ronnie Kasrils, South Africa’s minister for intelligence services, hurried over to grab a seat next to us. Kasrils, a Jew, had never been to Israel (where he has relatives) until his visit to the territories earlier in the month, when he invited Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail…
Taking on “our boys”
The political debate in Washington over the Iraq war is little more than a side-show. In the war-zone itself, a new reality is taking shape: Killings, crime, lack of medical care, collapse of education, the list goes on. But with the occupation by U.S.-led forces now into a fifth year, and a supposedly democratic government…