Another Thanksgiving for which to count our blessings – though a new president and administration will be pardoning one turkey and cutting up another on White House china this year. We also have another year of war, and for that, no one in this readership could possibly be thankful. But perhaps, looking back on foreign …
Continue reading “Be Thankful 2008 Was Not Hillary’s Year”
With the health care debate preoccupying the mainstream media, it has gone virtually unreported that the Barack Obama administration is quietly supporting renewal of provisions of the George W. Bush-era USA PATRIOT Act that civil libertarians say infringe on basic freedoms. And it is reportedly doing so over the objections of some prominent Democrats. When …
Continue reading “Obama Quietly Backs PATRIOT Act Provisions”
AT TUWANI – Being able to travel to school in relative safety is something children all over the world take for granted. But for Palestinian children living in the shadow of the ubiquitous and illegal Israeli settlements dotting the West Bank, simply walking to school can be a terrifying experience. "It is really scary walking …
Continue reading “Palestinian Children Face Daily Settler Attacks Getting to School”
Updated at 7:32 p.m. EST, Nov. 23, 2009
A possible resolution for the elections law impasse was agreed to by lawmakers, but not before Sunni politicians walked out on the debate. At least one Iraqi was killed and 21 more were wounded in light violence. Kidnappings and arrests were made across the country. In provinces such as Basra and Diyala, arrests have, in the past, been used to harass political rivals.
Sen. Carl Levin has a solution to the problem of how to finance our losing, futile war in Afghanistan – a war we are fighting to support what has now been officially deemed the second most corrupt government on earth: he wants a war tax. An "additional income tax to the upper brackets, folks earning …
Continue reading “The Democrats’ War Tax”
"It really boils down to one of two decisions, getting out or getting in." – President Lyndon Johnson, speaking about Vietnam "Soldiers came to school today," announced the kindergarten kid. “They only kill bad people. They don’t kill good people.” This story comes to us by way of Jon Letman of Truthout.org. The kindergarten kid …
Continue reading “The Children’s Crusade”
Reminiscent of the political problems in Afghanistan that have plagued the Obama White House, last Monday Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi vetoed a set of amendments to Iraq’s election law approved by the Iraqi parliament. The veto may lead to a delay of the Iraqi elections, currently scheduled for Jan. 21, 2010, and could trigger …
Continue reading “Don’t Let Iraqi Politics Affect US Withdrawal”
So here’s the mystery. You have a country that only recently had upward of 300 military bases, monster to micro, in a single war-torn land, Iraq. It probably now has something like 300 bases combined in Iraq and Afghanistan (where base-building is on the rise). Outside of those war zones, it has perhaps 800 more …
Continue reading “Out of Iraq, Into the Gulf”
Updated at 10:22 p.m. EST, Nov. 22, 2009
At least 16 Iraqis were killed and 22 more were wounded in the latest violence. A sniper killed a U.S. soldier in Wassit province as well. Meanwhile, leaked UK documents show that Britain was already planning to invade Iraq when Tony Blair claimed otherwise in July 2002. Also, Brigadier General David Quantock defended U.S. prison techniques and denied Iraqi accusations of high recidivism rates among detainees.
At least two Iraqis were killed and 15 more were wounded in today’s attacks. The elections law impassed continues to dominate the news, but two separate criminal cases involving a U.S. soldier and a Blackwater contractor are also getting attention.
