Lest we forget that the Americans loved Gaddafi very recently. When he was useful. Now, of course, Libyan oil is the prize, already being divided by the Western powers.
Showing all posts tagged United States
Who wants to make heaps of money in Afghanistan?
So what does this really mean? Private security firms, both local and foreign, will make increasingly high profits: A fully fledged Afghan national security force, including army and police, will cost about $5 billion a year after international combat forces pull out in 2014, the Afghanistan defence minister told reporters on Tuesday. The price tag…
Who really needs a transparent legal system anyway?
Welcome to Britain: Secret justice looks set to be a regular feature of British courts and tribunals when the intelligence services want to protect their sources of information. Civil courts, immigration panels and even coroner’s inquests would go into secret session if the Government rules that hearing evidence in public could be a threat to…
War on Terror Inc; private companies loving endless conflict (and profits have nothing to do with it, of course)
One: The U.S. military has launched miniature kamikaze drones against Taliban targets and plans to deploy more next year for U.S. special operating forces, according to documents and an Army official. The tube-launched “Switchblade” drone, made by Monrovia, California-based Aerovironment Inc. (AVAV), was secretly sent to Afghanistan for the first time last year. “Under a…
In Likud heart-land, aka the Washington Post, questioning aid to Israel
Walter Pincus dares to go there: As the country reviews its spending on defense and foreign assistance, it is time to examine the funding the United States provides to Israel. Let me put it another way: Nine days ago, the Israeli cabinet reacted to months of demonstrations against the high cost of living there and…
Future war mongers, lessons how to get corporate hacks on side
Gawker has a little piece of recent history that reflects the (usually squalid) relationship between the mainstream media and US military: Public relations is about “relationships.” Flacks develop “relationships” with reporters by calling them and yelling at them until the reporters start to realize, before they write something, that an unpleasant conversation might ensue. So…
A blinkered view of the war on terrorism
My following book review appeared in last weekend’s Sydney Sun Herald newspaper: The Triple Agent Joby Warrick (Scribe, $32.95) Reviewed by Antony Loewenstein The war in Afghanistan is the longest in modern American history. This year has been the most deadly for Afghan civilians. British MP Rory Stewart wrote in The New York Times that…