An outrageous thing has happened today in Germany: the Defense Minister has used the word “war” to describe the, uh, war in Afghanistan. As Justin Raimondo might say: Germans are shocked — shocked! You see, these people burdened by national collective memories of WWII thought they were sending peacekeepers to Afghanistan — sure, sure, armed [...]
CNN headline: Karzai calls for unity, end to corruption in Afghanistan
It is astounding to see the western media treat Karzai like a legitimate winner and someone who has any credibility to fight corruption.
This is akin to how the Soviet media treated the election “victories” of Stalin’s puppets in East Europe.
At least we now have [...]
My whole life it seems “gays in the military” has been an issue. Liberal democrats and gay activists have been arguing for years with right-wingers and the military establishment over the issues surrounding the right of homosexuals to fight in the armed forces — from troop morale to religious morality, everyone’s got a problem. Bill [...]
After the Goldstone Gaza war crimes report was released on September 15, Israel immediately asked for the U.S.’s help in “curbing the international fallout.” Its message was don’t let a bad precedent be set, you want to be able to pursue “the war on terror” without having to worry about being hauled before the International Criminal Court, don’t you?
Four days earlier, on September 11, Riaz Hassan had released [...]
Matthew Hoh, who resigned his diplomatic post in Afghanistan to protest US policies there, explains why US occupation is doomed to fail. He appeared on Fareed Zakaria’s CNN show Sunday:
It was a very hard choice, but Peter Bergen has given our killing by remote control a grudging thumbs up (Pakistan drone war takes a toll on militants — and civilians, CNN, Oct. 29, 2009).
Not only do the drone attacks “consistently” kill civilians, they also prompt blowback, but as that blowback has yet to reach U.S. shores, well, the price in Pakistani [...]
Tireless Guantánamo chronicler Andy Worthington will be on our side of the Pond over the next couple of weeks promoting his new movie, Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo, based on his research. Here in New York, I’ll be attending his talk at (surprisingly bourgeois-looking) Revolution Books on Wednesday November 4th at 7 pm, 146 [...]
Wednesday, in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas explained to his colleagues the reasons for his opposition to the Iranian sanctions legislation and wondered why Congress would try to undermine the president when he’s in the middle of trying to reach a deal with them (Via DailyPaul.com):
“The Bravest Woman in Afghanistan,” Malalai Joya did two CNN interviews on Thursday. Joya is an elected member of the Afghanistan parliament who has been suspended for “insulting fellow members of parliament” in a television interview. She is articulate and firm in her position that the Western occupation is feeding the [...]
The new film, THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS, will be shown in Washington at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center this Thursday (10/29) at 7 pm. Details here. Ellsberg will take part in panel discussion after the film is shown.
The film, which is getting [...]
As Veterans Day approaches, a gift of some good news. Thanks to a lot of lobbying by members of congress and vet organizations, and backed up by great reporting by the Army Times and by hundreds of personal testimonies and affidavits by individual soldiers and veterans, Congress has passed some tough new guidelines regarding the [...]
October 18th’s suicide bombing in Iran near the Pakistan border was the subject of the top three articles in October 20th’s Asia Times.
“Conventional wisdom suggests that the terrorist strike by Jundallah in southeastern Iran on Sunday might have had the backing of the United States or Britain,” M K Bhadrakumar opens the first. Yet “clearly,” he concludes, Obama would have to be “out [...]
