Oh what a glorious war: Britain’s four-year military stewardship of the troubled Helmand province has been scorned by President Hamid Karzai, top Afghan officials and the US commander of Nato troops, according to secret US diplomatic cables. The dispatches expose a devastating contempt for the British failure to impose security and connect with ordinary Afghans.…
Showing all posts tagged Iran
The key players behind attacking Iran are radical Zionists
Nice try. The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, fond of Middle East wars, argues that the latest Wikileaks documents vindicate claims that the “Arab lobby” are behind attempts to bomb Iran: Here’s a fact that might astonish Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, whose book, “The Israel Lobby,” posits the existence of a nefarious, all-powerful Jewish lobby that…
The false choice offered by US autocrats in the Middle East
A handy reminder by Nasrin Alavi in the Wikileaks dump that has been largely ignored by the corporate press (too busy covering the “embarrassment” of the US and allies): Interestingly, though, in the very same cable in which Abu Dhabi’s crown prince declared it is merely “a matter of time” before President Ahmadinejad “takes us…
Syria gives US lesson in Mid-East realities
Robert Fisk, in a piece titled, “Now we know. America really doesn’t care about injustice in the Middle East“, writes that the Wikileaks cables are a depressing read of US and Israeli arrogance: One of the most interesting reflections – dutifully ignored by most of the pro-Wikileaks papers yesterday – came in a cable on…
US embassy in Tehran in 1979 had no idea about much
How clueless were the Americans in 1979 when looking at the situation in Iran? A Wikileaks released document explains: PERHAPS THE SINGLE DOMINANT ASPECT OF THE PERSIAN PSYCHE IS AN OVERRIDING EGOISM. ITS ANTECEDENTS LIE IN THE LONG IRANIAN HISTORY OF INSTABILITY AND INSECURITY WHICH PUT A PREMIUM ON SELF-PRESERVATION. THE PRACTICAL EFFECT OF IT…
Israel can handle killed Iranians to end regional threat
How many dead Iranians is an acceptable price to pay for Zionist ambitions? A 2009 American government cable released Sunday by the WikiLeaks website quotes Defense Minister Ehud Barak as telling visiting American officials that a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities was viable until the end of 2010, but after that “any military solution would…
Commentators who like war faster, please
Salon releases its Hack Thirty, their least favourite political columnists. Why? “Criteria for inclusion included writing the same column every week for 30 years, warmongering, joyless repetition of conventional wisdom, and making bad puns.” Number three is typical of the rot: [New York Times’] Thomas Friedman is an environmentalist, now. When he’s not jetting around…
Corporate “journalist” channels juicy Zionist quotes over Tehran
Are we supposed to thank the US administration for stopping Israel bombing Iran? Some Israeli officials say the country’s fingers are off the hair-trigger that would launch a strike on the Iranian nuclear program, but that convincing the United States to take a harder line on Iran remains a top national priority. The apparent willingness…
The greatest irony of Western policy
My following article appears today on the wonderful literary journal Overland’s website during its Subscriberthon: After the US mid-term elections, President Barack Obama is severely weakened by the rise of the Republicans. His unwillingness or inability to pursue true justice and peace in the Middle East will only be worsened. Indeed, GOP House Majority Leader…
Read this for possible Middle East near future (and it ain’t pretty)
This email was forwarded by Harvard Middle East expert Sara Roy. No real comment required: I pass this along without making any claims to verify its accuracy.… From a NYC-based Israeli source, who just returned from Tel Aviv, where he met with senior IDF and Likud figures, including Netanyahu.… He is one of the Likud…