Remind me how CIA forces in Afghanistan will help the Afghan people

Sorry what? If true (via Associated Press) this is the kind of insane idea that simply reinforces the belief across the Muslim world that Washington is determined to occupy Afghanistan indefinitely: Top Pentagon officials are considering putting elite special operations troops under CIA control in Afghanistan after 2014, just as they were during last year’s…

Why can’t we just stay in Afghanistan forever?

The last decade has seen an explosion in private security and intelligence companies making a killing in the “war on terror”. And now, with growing anger towards both mercenaries and the Western occupying forces that use them, this suggestion seems both delusional and symptomatic of the rot that imperial thinking guarantees: The chairman of the…

Naomi Klein tells the Left to think about real climate change action

One of the savviest writers around, Naomi Klein issues a challenge in this interview with Solutions: Members of the Left have been resistant to acknowledging that this worldview is behind their support of climate action, while the Right confronts it head on. Why this hesitancy among liberals? There are a few factors at work. Climate…

When in trouble with the truth, Zionists, dredge up Hitler (or related)

This never ceases to amaze me. While Israel’s occupation deepens every day and racism towards Arabs grows – see this “fury” over religious Zionist politicians demanding an Arab judge recite the Zionist national anthem – the mostly old and crusty Jewish spokespeople globally just want the world to better understand poor little Israel. In today’s…

Shock! Horror! Iranians are human beings

What a sad story. At a time when armed conflict between Iran and Israel is increasingly likely, the reality remains that neither people know much about the other. This article is a window into that (via Associated Press): Israeli newspapers warn daily of the Iranian nuclear threat, but for the past week and a half,…

Brutal regimes will always find PR friends

If there is money to be made for defending rogue states (take Burma, Israel or Saudi Arabia), some Western hacks will line up for the job. Pro Publica explains just one: Earlier this month, a group of three young Bahrainis arrived in Washington to talk about reform in the small Persian Gulf nation, which has…

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