Imperial nations love to fight wars – and Barack Obama has only increased the American military footprint – but it comes with a heavy cost (via ProPublica): Private contractors injured while working for the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan filed a class action lawsuit in federal court on Monday, claiming that corporations and insurance…
Showing all posts tagged Barack Obama
Palestine statehood bid signals long struggle ahead for equal rights
My following piece is published today on ABC’s The Drum: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas returned from New York to occupied Ramallah on the weekend as “an Arab leader of significant standing“, according to writers from the liberal Israeli paper Haaretz. The Abbas speech in front of the United Nations, calling for the international body to…
Theatre at the UN over Palestine, nothing to see here, move on, please
Unelected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke (and issued every paranoid Zionist cliche in the book). Only one man is democratically elected (and that’s Netanyahu). Both men spoke to different audiences but neither has either the ability nor interest to bring true justice to the situation. How much longer must…
Obama disaster on Israel/Palestine (and why he should be shunned)
Daniel Levy, former Israeli peace negotiator: There is virtually no thread of reason running between the way he related to the rest of the world and its developments, particularly in the Middle East, and the positions he espoused on Israel-Palestine. Palestinian freedoms, rights and self-determination are somehow supposed to be attained without the recourse to…
Witness the necessary passing of US power in Mid-East
The New York Times documents the shift in the Arab world at a time when Washington is largely viewed as siding with occupiers (Israel) and brutes (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain etc): A last-ditch American effort to head off a Palestinian bid for membership in the United Nations faltered. President Obamatried to qualify his own call, just…
Why Obama and America have lost the Arab world, and rightfully so
Barack Obama’s speech to the UN overnight was farcical in its ineptitude, showing once again how beholden America remains to a vision of apartheid Israel. Some “highlights”: We seek a future where Palestinians live in a sovereign state of their own, with no limit to what they can achieve. There is no question that the…
Get in line, blood suckers; much money to be made in Afghanistan
War! Money! Capitalism! Exploitation! Yes, as Salon’s Glenn Greenwald writes, privatisation is bringing goodness to the peaceful land of Afghanistan: As the Obama administration announced plans for hundreds of billions of dollars more in domestic budget cuts, it late last week solicited bids for the construction of a massive new prison in Bagram, Afghanistan.… … Posted on…
Tony Judt on the kind of Judaism we should admire
The death last year of British historian Tony Judt was a deep loss for those of us who crave intelligent debate of world affairs and especially the Middle East. The Atlantic has just published his last interview and Judt is shown, despite his last years being afflicted with a horrible disease, with a clarity of…
Hold the tears; Washington’s ability to wholly back Arab autocrats in jeopardy
The Middle East is changing before our very eyes and this of course worries the Western powers that have become used to dictating terms to Arab dictatorships. The New York Times has the official view. Can you feel the loss of power and prestige? While the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring created new opportunities…