Obama getting Middle East advice from non-Middle Easterners

Only in the New York Times. This is an interesting piece about Barack Obama and his evolving views towards the Muslim world. The idea that people there will suddenly likes America after a pretty speech is delusional. For example, anti-US sentiment is strong in Egypt, as it should be, considering the Mubarak regime was backed…

Liberal hawks should hang heads in shame over Libya

The Western-assisted war in Libya isn’t going too well. So much for a quick victory against Gaddafi forces. The utterly confused strategy, even with US-led bombing runs, has not overwhelmed government troops. Gary Younge writes in the Guardian that such missions should force “liberal interventionists” who backed this war to question (yet again!) their belief…

Imagining an America that doesn’t invade and occupy

This is a moving piece. Written by US journalist Michael Hastings (a friend and colleague) about the real opportunity that should be taken with the death of Osama Bin Laden. An imperial nation that continues to believe it can rule by brute force and invade Muslim nations is delusional: Osama bin Laden’s actions, and our…

Chomsky’s clarity on Bin Laden death

The man still has it: It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law. There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 80 commandos facing virtually no opposition—except, they claim, from his wife, who lunged towards…

Killing OBL won’t change a damn thing about our subjugation of others

The media coverage of the murder of Osama Bin Laden continues apace (including my favourite kind of “journalism”, “US officials say…”. Because US officials have a glorious history of telling the truth.) Sydney academic Evan Jones (an irregular contributor to this site) has written the following think piece: Abuse of Power by the Advocates of…

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