One might wonder, reading the American “national security” community’s pronouncements, if they refer to the same world we live in. Things make a little more sense when you realize that the Security State has its own language: Securityspeak. Like Newspeak, the ideologically refashioned successor to English in Orwell’s 1984, Securityspeak is designed to obscure meaning …
Continue reading “On Translating Securityspeak Into English”
At least three people were killed and 33 more were wounded in new violence. Reports coming out of Camp Ashraf where a group of Iranian refugees have been living for decades suggest that several members were wounded during an eviction. Also, the first member of the current cabinet has quit over claims that the prime minister is interfering with his work.
In Rome, the spectacle of gladiators fighting in the great Colosseum was a popular outlet for plebeian energy, allowing the masses to give full-throated expression to their frustration and anger by projecting it into the arena. In between bouts they would throw a few Christians to the lions, to keep the crowd’s bloodlust at the …
Continue reading “Imperialism as Spectacle”
In the wake of several deaths among its contingent of troops in a previously peaceful province in Afghanistan, New Zealand (like France and South Korea) is now expediting the departure of its 140 soldiers. That’s not exactly headline-making news here in the U.S. If you’re an American, you probably didn’t even know that New Zealand …
Continue reading “The Best-Laid Plans”
At least 12 Iraqis were killed in new violence in Iraq. Another 10 people were wounded.
At least nine Iraqis were killed and 11 more were wounded in new violence. One of the injured was hurt in a Turkish bombing attack.
The ambitions of a unilateral Israeli strike on Iran, as harboured by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, have been defeated by internal opposition, a growing number of observers have come to believe in the wake of dramatic opposing statements by prominent Israeli leaders, including President Shimon Peres. The picture emerging …
Continue reading “In Israel, Opposition to Attacking Iran Gains Upper Hand”
With the end of Eid al-Fitr observances, reports of violence returned to their average levels. At least 20 Iraqis were killed and 33 more were wounded. Baghdad and its suburb of Sadr City saw the most casualties, but Mosul reported a number of deaths in small-scale attacks.
It was never exactly rocket science. You didn’t have to be Einstein to figure it out. In early 2003, the Bush administration was visibly preparing to invade Iraq, a nation with a nasty ruler who himself hadn’t hesitated to invade another country, Iran, in the early 1980s for no purpose except self-aggrandizement. (And the Reagan …
Continue reading “Whatever Happened to Iraqi Oil?”
As the Republican convention-goers gather in Tampa, Florida, the Republican party Establishment is eager to crush any public expressions of dissent — both inside and outside the convention hall. Inside, efforts are underway to make it impossible for delegates pledged to antiwar libertarian Ron Paul to place their candidate in nomination — an effort the …
Continue reading “The Iron Fist in Tampa” 
