Jewish friends of radical settlers must stick together

Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick dislikes anybody who doesn’t love everything about Israel (especially the settlers and the occupation). Her latest piece argues that a growing number of American Jews are allegedly turning against the Jewish state: Some of Israel’s most high-profile supporters in the US are conservative talk radio and television hosts like Rush…

Who is paying for that little trip you took to Iraq/Israel/Washington?

Following this week’s controversy over Sydney Morning Herald journalist Peter Hartcher taking a free trip to Israel and returning to Australia with wonderful tales of Zionist adventure, Foreign Policy’s Stephen Walt argues that transparency in think-tanks and public figures is key. Where is the money coming from of major columnists and journalists? We are drowning…

Jordan is happy to be used as a place where terror is trained

“The war on terror” is all about keeping our bastards on a short leash in an attempt to get them to abuse/kill/detain the pre-determined enemy. So simple and yet so costly: In the bleak and seemingly endless desert expanse that unfolds east of Jordan’s capital city, Amman, lies a crucial cog in the ambitious regional…

Organising mass violence and Australia laps it up

Australian academic and writer Scott Burchill is one of the more astute commentators in the country. His latest missive is spot-on (see below). Why do we allow generals and men in uniform to keep on telling us that wars are noble and important? Jim Molan (ex-Australian military) is regularly in blogs and in the papers…

Compassionate and anti-war, the sign of true leadership

A fine piece of analysis from leading Australian academic Damien Kingsbury published in Friday’s Crikey. Note the opposition to war, injection of nuance into the debate, avoidance of demonisation and clear moral purpose. In other words, vastly different to most “serious” academics and journalists parading themselves in the media. There’s always a war to support…

Iraqi freedom coming through cancer and deformities

Evidence of US war crimes in Iraq are almost too frequent to document. “Our” side is brutal and remains so. Back in 2006, I heard two speakers in Sydney explain the situation at that time and included were discussions of the use of napalm by the US in Fallujah. So how to explain this? Doctors…

Why can’t Iraqis appreciate the wholesome, corporate invasion?

Spot the issue with this New York Times story: Iraq’s Baghdad Trade Fair ended Tuesday, six years and a trillion dollars after the American invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and one country was conspicuously absent. That would be the country that spent a trillion dollars — on the invasion and occupation, but also on training…

Blackwater are essential to keep the Arab kill ratio up

The ongoing case of the US private military contractor Blackwater – covered extensively on this site here and here – continues. Note the seeming inability (or unwillingness, probably) of the US establishment to stop using an outfit charged with serious cases of murder and mismanagement: In the aftermath of the 2007 Nisour Square massacre in…

My, that is pretty mad capitalism in your window

John Perkins, the bestselling author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, has a new book out, Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded—and What We Need to Do to Remake Them. Here, on Democracy Now!, he outlines the problems with psychotic capitalism the West has embraced: I think it’s…

Ahmadinejad wonders just what Obama has really achieved

The Guardian asks Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad what it would take to normalise relations with the US: Change should happen in practice. Which change has happened? Was Guantánamo Bay shut down? Were the US policies supporting Zionists and the mass murder of Palestinians stopped? Were the US policies in Afghanistan changed? Were the policies in…

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