MIA uses her Tamil heritage to make a point

A very strong new video by Tamil MIA, Born Free, shocks the senses. And rightly so: If singer/rapper M.I.A.’s purpose was to get people talking about her new single “Born Free,” she succeeded. The Sri Lankan-born artist debuted the graphic video on Monday. Immediately, fans took to social media to debate its scenes of military…

Miliband deserves more than political punishment over Iraq

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband, in an interview with the Guardian, doesn’t seem to get it. Voters are angry with the major parties because of years of arrogance. And comments like these simply add insult to injury: I met some guy in Soho yesterday, when we were launching the Labour lesbian and gay manifesto. And…

Spending billions on a cause that remains unclear

The price of an endless “war on terror”: Over the past five years, the U.S. government has spent a combined $80 billion on contractors to support its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that has U.S. military leaders concerned: On Friday, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan suggested that the coalition had become too dependent…

We are truly sorry, say US troops from Iraq

Following the recent Wikileaks revelation of a video that showed the cold-blooded murder by American forces of Iraq civilians, now this: Two former soldiers from the Army unit responsible for the Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” incident have written an open-letter of “Reconciliation and Responsibility” to those injured in the July 2007 attack, in which U.S. forces…

Noble wars of liberation cost a fortune

How many in the US know this? If you’re an average American taxpayer, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have, since 2001, cost you personally $7,334, according to the… “cost of war” counter created by the… National Priorities Project (NPP).…  They have cost all Americans collectively more than $980,000,000,000.…  As a country, we’ll pass the trillion dollar…

Washington’s aim has always been to terrorise Iraqis

Dahr Jamail reminds us that American violence against Iraqis isn’t an abberation; it’s part of the rules of engagement: Vincent Emanuele, a Marine rifleman who spent a year in the al-Qaim area of Iraq near the Syrian border, told of emptying magazines of bullets into the city without identifying targets, running over corpses with Humvees…

Murdoch hates the web but wants your money, anyway

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is now a an online-only newspaper, surviving and seemingly thriving in a new age. But its ability to report deeply on various issues has been reduced due to a lack of senior staff. Non-professional journalists have been asked to provide stories. Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch is about to enter a brave a new…

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