How about us, Mahmoud?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is unhappy that many Arab nations are participating in tomorrow’s “peace”conference in Annapolis – with one leading analyst suggesting that the real agenda item will not be Israel/Palestine, but isolating Iran – though internal dissent is growing in the Islamic Republic: When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, wanted to create a…

Doctors who torture

In times of war, medical practitioners are regularly asked to perform illegal acts. Most refuse. Some, tragically, do not: The Australian Psychological Society (APS) recently announced its position on members’ involvement in the use, participation or provision of advice about torture and other injurious practices.…  Unlike their American counterparts, Australian psychologists have rejected any involvement…

Lower your expectations

Tony Karon, Rootless Cosmopolitan, November 23: At best, Annapolis and the year that follows is going to be more process, but certainly no peace. U.S. power in the region has continued ebb, sharply, and the basis for believing that a bilateral process between Israel and the PA can achieve a two-state solution today appears hopelessly…

Welcome back, Stalin

The Soviet Union used propaganda to sell its futile wars around the world, especially in Afghanistan. But surely the Western media wouldn’t use the same tricks to sell similarly bogus adventures? Think again.

Iraqis hate us

Under the headline, “Foreign Fighter in Iraq Are Tied to Allies of US”, the New York Times shatters more than a few myths with this story: Saudi Arabia and Libya, both considered allies by the United States in its fight against terrorism, were the source of about 60 percent of the foreign fighters who came…

The legacy awaits

Craig Unger, author of The Fall of the House of Bush: The Untold Story of How a Band of True Believers Seized the Executive Branch, Started the Iraq War, and Still Imperils America’s Future, Harpers, November 19: Already, the Iraq War has cost nearly 4,000 American lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, hundreds of…

The future is bleak

Leading investigative reporter Seymour Hersh: Barack Obama represents the only hope for the US in the Muslim world. We’re facing two or three decades of problems in the Mideast, with 1.2 billion Muslims. They say the surge [ in Iraq] has worked. But do you think someday we will get an oil deal in Iraq?…

General, take our hand

The Borowitz Report understands the gravity of Pakistan’s pain: In what he described as “an emergency mission to help a key ally in the war on terror,” President George W. Bush flew to Islamabad today to give General Pervez Musharraf tips on how to eliminate democracy. Mr. Bush said he scheduled the trip just hours…

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