This makes me proud to be a human being. And some Americans wonder why so many in the world regard its policies as racist? Hard to see why: Defense Secretary Robert Gates is currently announcing the appointment of Gen. James Mattis to replace Gen. David Petraeus as commander of U.S. Central Command. Slate’s John Dickerson…
Showing all posts tagged Afghanistan
How we are helping Islamists
Dissenting British historian Mark Curtis has a record of skewering the realities of his country’s foreign policy. We don’t just work with the “enemy”; we’ve become the enemy. His latest: When the London bombers struck five years ago, many people blamed the invasion of Iraq for inspiring them. But the connection between 7/7 and British…
Gillard remains in the gutter over asylum seekers (and she feels fine)
Australia’s new refugee policy is truly a “he-man” competition. Who can seem toughest on those evil people smugglers? Who can maximise political capital over the handful of desperate souls from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Iraq keen to make a better life? Opening a regional processing centre in East Timor smacks of a typical Western colonial…
Gillard reassures America and Israel of her backing
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has no original ideas of her own. Business as usual, “centrist” foreign policy dressed up as realism and pragmatism: The Prime Minister said she had no plan for big changes in foreign affairs. “Sitting here now it’s not my intention to change any of the fundamentals of our foreign policy,”…
Asylum seekers deserve respect and a home
When both major sides of Australian politics race to the bottom to demonise the most vulnerable within our borders (and the ones without a megaphone to tell us what they’re thinking and feeling), it takes brave voices to lead the debate: The Greens and one of Australia’s most prominent human rights lawyers have urged new…
Will the dishonest mainstream media on torture please stand up?
The reluctance of the American corporate media to call US torture “torture” has been exposed in a recent Harvard study. When “they” do it – Iraqis, Afghans, Colombians etc – it’s called torture. But when “we” do it, well, time to find another, less painful word. Salon’s Glenn Greenwald will have none of it and…
Reporter Hastings on what our profession should be doing
Journalist Michael Hastings is extensively interviewed on Democracy Now! over his explosive Rolling Stone article:
Neo-cons dare to speak about failed states
There is something pretty wrong about framing countries as “failed states” and ripe for photo shoots, but that’s what Foreign Policy has done. Places like Somalia, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan are on the list and it seems that the magazine has taken a perverse pleasure in doing so. And what kind of credibility does a…
Why Gillard is acceptable to the foreign policy elites
Scott Burchill, Fairfax National Times, 30 June: It is not a ”privilege” to talk to the US President with our troops at war. The primary goal of the US lobby in Australia is to insulate the alliance from changes of government after elections and leadership movements within the major political parties. Bipartisan support for the…
We’re dying in Afghanistan and you want to hug a general?
While here’s yet another mainstream journalist upset that Michael Hastings actually embarrassed military men in Afghanistan – it truly seems that many corporate reporters and commentators would rather general worship towards men and women in uniform – the real cost of two devastating wars is brought home. When was the last an injured service person…