As last week ended, the American and British military in Afghanistan finally launched a long-awaited operation to occupy the city of Marjah in Taliban-controlled Helmand province. According to Afghan war commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal, to win "hearts and minds," the U.S. Army and Marines were arriving with "a government in a box" – Afghan governing …
Continue reading “Pimping Weapons to the World”
The Russo-Georgian war of 2008 provides the clearest current example of how war propaganda works – and how counter-propaganda can negate it and turn the tables on the War Party. You’ll recall that as news of the conflict broke in the West, the war was reported as stemming from a Russian "invasion," i.e. the Russians …
Continue reading “Georgia: Nothing Is Coming Up Roses”
The U.S. military reports that troop levels are now the lowest since the 2003 invasion and will remain at 98,000 until after March elections, even as Iraqi soldiers prepare to handle poll-related violence themselves. At least 10 Iraqis were killed and 26 were wounded in new attacks, some election-related. Also, the families of Iraqi detainees are paying blood money to protect their sons upon release.
In 1914 Michael Zataney, born in the village of Zgharta in what is now Lebanon, lived in Birmingham, Ala., and looked forward to becoming an American citizen. The Zataney family left what geographers call "Greater Syria" to escape the oppression of the Ottoman Turks who had ruled the area for 400 years. Culturally diverse and …
Continue reading “Ironic Intervention: A Lebanese Doughboy in World War I”
The arrest of the 10-member church group trying to "rescue" 33 Haitian children from the aftermath of the earthquake by smuggling them across the border to the Dominican Republic has wider implications for U.S. foreign policy. The group’s besmirching of the substantial and laudable American humanitarian effort in Haiti is regrettable. But the arrogance of …
Continue reading “American Arrogance Overseas Should End”
The tallest Arab ever wanted dead or alive by a president of the United States is still at large. Either that or he’s dead. Again. We’ve been hearing from intelligence sources and the media that bin Laden is dead for a long time. How dead can one evildoer get? In July 2002 the New York …
Continue reading “Bin Laden: Dead and Loving It”
Faced with an increasingly impatient Congress and a defiant government in Tehran, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is currently stepping up its diplomatic efforts in the Middle East as it seeks to prepare the ground for tougher sanctions on Iran. A main goal, if not the main, is to persuade Sunni Arab states …
Continue reading “US Steps Up Sanctions Diplomacy Against Iran”
When the U.S. military began a major offensive in southern Afghanistan over the weekend, the killing of children and other civilians was predictable. Lofty rhetoric aside, such deaths come with the territory of war and occupation. A month ago, President Obama pledged $100 million in U.S. government aid to earthquake-devastated Haiti. Compare that to the …
Continue reading “Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life”
The ceasefire announced late last week between Yemen’s government and Houthi rebels in the northern part of the country is being greeted here as an important initial step toward stabilizing the Arab world’s poorest country and reversing advances by al-Qaeda’s affiliate there. Washington wants the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh to make the battle …
Continue reading “Clinton Hails Yemen Ceasefire, but Aid Concerns Remain”
Did Robert Gibbs let the cat out of the bag? Last week, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the world that Iran, unable to get fuel rods from the West for its U.S.-built reactor, which makes medical isotopes, had begun to enrich its own uranium to 20 percent. From his perch in the West Wing, Gibbs scoffed: “He …
Continue reading “Is Iran Running a Bluff?” 
