The legacy: Iraq has between 25 and 50 percent unemployment, a dysfunctional parliament, rampant disease, an epidemic of mental illness, and sprawling slums. The killing of innocent people has become part of daily life. What a havoc the United States has wreaked in Iraq. UN-HABITAT, an agency of the United Nations, recently published a 218-page…
Showing all posts tagged United States
BDS goes more and more mainstream
While the upcoming “talks” between Israel and the Palestinians are already destined for failure, the Boston Globe reports on a far more positive development that alleges the complete failure of American-led “peace” efforts: In May, rock legend Elvis Costello canceled his gig in Israel. Then, in June, a group of unionized dock workers in San…
Nobody in the Middle East believes that Iraq is no longer occupied
A typically informative Al-Jazeera program, this time on Iraq, featuring John Pilger in discussion on America’s “withdrawal” (where troops will stay well beyond 2011):
Of course Afghans know what “liberation” feels like
We rarely hear the views of people under Western occupation, so it’s interesting to read that a majority of Afghans in a new survey believe that the recent Wikileaks documents accurately reflect the reality in their country.
What on earth will the contractors do?
How many foreign, private mercenary companies will be affected if Afghanistan actually kicks out the unaccountable men who roam the country?
Murdoch loves spreading bile; nice little earner
Frank Rich in the New York Times: How do you win Muslim hearts and minds in Kandahar when you are calling Muslims every filthy name in the book in New York? … In the five months after The Times’s initial account there were no newspaper articles on the project at all. It was only in…
Obama’s “peace talks” will lead to disaster
How desperate is the Obama administration for an historic handshake on the White House lawn between Israel, the Palestinians and the Americans to seal a “two-state solution”? This is a sham designed to ignore the multiple elephants in the room. It will be opposed by many, including me, until the right of return, shared Jerusalem,…
What independent thinkers look like
Tony Judt, the true definition of an independent and critical intellectual, free of political constraints and party politics. We need far more of them.
How could Wikileaks be silenced?
Rest assured the Obama administration is looking for some way to prosecute and silence Wikileaks despite growing evidence that the Pentagon is refusing to assist the group with hiding the identities of possible informers in Afghanistan.
What being assimilated means for some US Jews
A wonderful essay by The Magnes Zionist about the proposed New York Islamic centre, explaining how too many Jews now see themselves as part of the establishment: It is a sign of the Jews making it in America that, with Islamophobia on the rise, many Jews now feel comfortable about joining their erstwhile enemies, the…