Roger Cohen in the New York Times is spot-on but mark my words; most journalists, think-tankers, commentators and politicians have deliberately short memories. In time they’ll simply say: “Our complicity in Arab horrors? Oh but it’s so complicated…”: Hearings should be held in the U.S. Congress and throughout Western legislatures on these questions: How did…
Showing all posts tagged Iraq
Murder civilians and continue getting mercenary work
The future of warfare: The number of private security personnel working for the US military in Afghanistan rose to 18,919 at the end of last year, the highest level used in any conflict by the United States, a congressional report said. The Congressional Research Service report said that the number of private security contractor personnel…
Westerners who enjoy largesse from our thugs or theirs
The depravity of bought intellectuals, not unlike many journalists who get wined and dined by US forces in Iraq or Afghanistan or in the halls of Washington, Canberra or London. Power can be appealing but it also corrupts: A trip to Libya in 2006 by Anthony Giddens, the former London School of Economics director and…
Hypocrisy trumps policy in Western alliance with Libya
My following article appears today on ABC’s The Drum: The latest BBC interview with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, situated in a fancy restaurant on the Mediterranean, was painful to watch. Clearly delusional and blaming drug-addled youth and al-Qaeda for the ongoing revolution in his country (which he claimed he didn’t lead, the “masses” were in…
Days in the life of a massive private contractor in Iraq
The truth: The federal government sued KBR Inc., the largest contractor in Iraq, on Thursday over what prosecutors say were improper charges to the Army for private security services. Houston-based KBR Inc. is a former subsidiary of Halliburton Co. It recently won a new contract potentially worth more than $2 billion for support work in…
America knowlingly wastes billions on futile conflicts
And none of it makes the US or its allies any safer; in fact the opposite is true: Tens of billions of dollars are being lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan because of a toothless U.S. contracting system so reliant on a handful of major contractors that it rarely suspends or desbars…
The shock doctrine is alive and well in the world’s super-power
I’m currently working on a book about disaster capitalism and rampant privatisation, diseases that seemingly sweep all before it. The idea that selling everything into private hands will solve our economic problems is ludicrous and yet both major sides of politics in many Western states back the idea. Resistance is key, so here’s Paul Krugman…
Vogue gives template example of sychophantic writing
The Arab world is exploding against its dictators but Vogue is seemingly oblivious. Here’s a nauseating profile of Syria’s First Lady Asma al-Assad. Somebody should tell the “journalist” that Syria is a brutal police state that tortures its own citizens. But not to worry, she lets her children play with Lego: Asma al-Assad is glamorous,…
Talking to Finkel, Anderson and Stewart in India on occupation
I recently attended the Jaipur Literature Festival in India and moderated a session with three men who know something about war and conflict. Brit Rory Stewart, New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson and the Washington Post’s David Finkel. The video of the event is now online (the sound and picture aren’t perfectly in sync but you’ll…
“Winning” colonial wars the privatised way
There’s something morally and legally sick that in post 2003 Iraq (and to this day) privatised mercenaries are the way the Western states maintain their power in the country: A former British soldier potentially facing the death penalty in Iraq insisted that he remained anxious but hopeful as his case was adjourned last night. Danny…