My latest article for New Matilda is an interview with leading American reporter Mark Danner: Leading US journalist Mark Danner calls a spade a spade and examines the political value of violence in this exclusive interview with Antony Loewenstein Mark Danner has some unusual characteristics for a mainstream US journalist. He has published in some…
Showing all posts tagged Iraq
Bush administration kindly asked soldiers not to kill innocents in Iraq
America, an army politely instructed to avoid massacres: A 2003 handbook for the U.S. 1st Infantry Division in Iraq exhorts soldiers to “Do your best to prevent war crimes” and warns that “when an Arab is confronted by criticism, you can expect him to react by interpreting the facts to suit himself or flatly denying…
Iraq in 2010
One of America’s finest journalists, Nir Rosen – fearless, intense and unafraid to embed with the “enemy” – writes that Iraq is not likely to descend back into chaos (but the West has still created a sick experiment in post-dictatorship development, something welcomed by the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman): It’s been frustrating to read…
The means and methods of killing Israeli enemies (and who who admire them)
Mossad’s supposedly legendary ability to murder so-called “enemies” is praised by many Jews but simply shows the illegality of Israeli actions. The recent killing in Dubai of a Hamas operative – according to former New York Times journalist and Iraq WMD story-teller Judith Miller, this was Israel’s third attempt – alerted the world to such…
Chalabi continues to hinder Iraqi progress
The role of Ahmed Chalabi in the Iraq invasion is infamous. Friend of the neo-cons, feeder of false WMD stories, backer of war and close to Iran. Seven years on, nothing has changed.
Who picks up the pieces seven years after the Iraq invasion?
The Iraq war receives far too little media coverage these days. The “good war” in Afghanistan is leading the bulletins. But reading about this document from an American army medic back from Iraq, the atrocities by the Americans remain largely unknown. ABC yesterday featured a story and news report about the massive refugee crisis in…
Most reporters are happy to be embedded with the army mindset
Patrick Cockburn, a Western journalist who doesn’t celebrate when the military “kills terrorists”, challenges the relationship between the mainstream media and the armed forces: The press likes short wars. Its audience is never so eager for news as during an armed conflict. The first newspapers date from the wars of the late 16th and early…
Washington sets its eyes on taking Iraq forever
If you believed that America was permanently removing itself from controlling Iraq, think again: The State Department plans major increases in its Iraq mission, with hundreds more employees there and a stepped-up diplomatic presence outside Baghdad as the U.S. military prepares to leave later this year. A new fiscal 2010 supplemental request asks for $2.1…
An American soldier explains what he did in the Middle East
Back in 2008, a number of former American soldiers gave testimony at the “Winter Soldier” hearings and detailed the horrific crimes committed in our name in America’s imperial pursuits. This video powerfully articulates the inherent racism within Washington’s Middle East adventures:
Over one million killed in Iraq but let’s not focus on details, writes Murdoch editorial
Unsure what to really think of the Iraq war? Let Murdoch’s Australian guide you through the complexity: Tony Blair was called a murderer on Friday by outraged activists after his evidence before the Chilcot inquiry into the origins of the war to remove Saddam Hussein. It is the sort of foolish sloganising that always characterised…