A recipe for global conflict in the 21st century and walls, barriers and missiles won’t keep the demography in check. Action on climate change, anybody? From the slums of Kabul to the shanties of Damascus, more than half of the world’s refugees are now scraping by on tiny strips of land in increasingly overcrowded, overburdened…
Showing all posts tagged Afghanistan
The “surge” myth in Iraq and Afghanistan are folly
Veteran journalist Patrick Cockburn, a reporter unafraid to challenge accepted wisdom over Western-led wars, dooms Barack Obama’s plans for Afghanistan: American and British exponents of a military escalation or ”˜the surge’ in Afghanistan opportunistically expound two wholly contradictory views of Taliban strength. At one moment they are a movement of immense power on the verge…
The Afghan people at the mercy of bogus time-lines
This is how the US political website Politico, in its daily email, reported yesterday’s Obama administration media appearances to sell the Afghan “surge”. Who really runs the show, the generals or Obama himself? More importantly, do the Afghans themselves really matter to the so-called journalists asking the questions? SECRETARIES CLINTON AND GATES TAPED JOINT INTERVIEWS…
Americans want some quality time on their own (and the world says thanks)
The idea of American engagement around the world bringing greater stability and peace is highly questionable. Ask the people of Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and a host of other countries how they feel about Washington’s footprint. These results aren’t all that surprising. Perhaps some in the US will start to wonder what their country is…
Holding any criminal state to account, no matter how influential
This is truly fascinating and potentially important news. I have not read this in any mainstream news source: In an unprecedented decision, a Spanish judge has indicted five high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials for their role in crimes of torture and genocide committed against Falun Gong practitioners. Among the defendants is former CCP head…
Truth and lies in journalism, it’s really doesn’t matter
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting highlights a really extraordinary piece of commentary: Time columnist Joe Klein (12/3/09)was not altogether impressed by Obama’s announcement of a 30,000 troop escalation in Afghanistan (an “iffy proposition,” as Klein put it). But Klein’s main point was that Obama should have justified the war differently: “Once you have made the…
Wow, Obama asked me to sit next to him, says reporter
The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman – he who can’t understand why Muslims aren’t more appreciative of being bombed to freedom – was recently invited to an exclusive audience with Barack Obama at the White House. Another present was the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder (a man who loves getting close to any official source he…
At least the Soviets eventually fell into their own abyss
Robert Fisk feels a disturbing sense of deja vu after Barack Obama’s decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Nobody said the US President was willing or able to resist his military commanders: Victor Sebestyen, who has researched a book about the fall of the Soviet empire, has written at length of those frozen…
Anti-war voices are virtually invisible in corporate media
Democracy Now! reports on a new study about the US media: As Obama prepares to unveil his plan, the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has put out a study analyzing how the issue of war escalation has been discussed in the opinion papers of the two leading newspapers in the country, the…
The US has no place in Afghanistan; get out now
Barack Obama is about to announce a troop surge into Afghanistan in a futile attempt to “win” the war. Yet another US President seduced by the rhetoric of the military and media elites. One of the bravest voices in that country is Malalai Joya. In the days ahead, when we hear from blow-hards who only…