After the bombings that killed and maimed so horribly at the Boston Marathon, our country’s politics and mass media are awash in heartfelt compassion — and reflexive "doublethink," which George Orwell described as willingness "to forget any fact that has become inconvenient." In sync with media outlets across the country, the New York Times put …
Continue reading “The Orwellian Warfare State of Carnage and Doublethink”
Spc. William Millay, a 25-year-old military policeman, was sentenced yesterday to 19 years in jail, a sentence reduced to 16 years after a plea deal, minus time served, for attempting to commit espionage and for illegally communicating "unclassified national defense information that could be used to the advantage of a foreign nation," according to an …
Continue reading “16 Years for Espionage, Life in Jail for Whistleblowing”
The spreading economic crisis is taking a bite out of Western military spending – even as the world’s developing nations, along with Russia and China, boosted their arms expenditures last year. In a study released Monday, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported a decline in military spending last year in the United States, …
Continue reading “As West Falters, Arms Spending Rises in Developing World”
A car bomb exploded at a government office in Abu Ghraib, where it killed three people and wounded seven more. Two soldiers were killed and four more were wounded when gunmen attacked their checkpoint. In Baghdad, a car bomb killed one person and wounded six more in the Jihad district. A bomb in Mansour wounded …
Continue reading “Attacks Continue Ahead of Provincial Elections in Iraq: 16 Killed”
Up until recently, we were all laboring under the illusion that U.S. Pakistani “friends” had reluctantly agreed to allow the United States kill al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban with drone attacks on their soil in exchange for bucket loads of cash in foreign aid. Now we find out that, right from the start, the …
Continue reading “Targeted Killings in the Drone War – Illegal and Unconstitutional”
Editorial note: The first part of this review appeared on Monday. David Stockman’s The Great Deformation is an economic history of the United States as seen through the eyes of a devoted fiscal conservative whose number-crunching abilities have led him to the ineluctable conclusion that the Warfare State is one of the main drivers of …
Continue reading “Eisenhower’s Reprieve and the Descent Into Fiscal Insanity”
“Shell shock,” the psychological scourge of World War I, occurred after “a man has been buried, lifted, or otherwise subjected to the physical effects of a bursting shell or other similar explosive.” So wrote Charles Myers, an officer in the British army’s medical corps, in his 1940 book, Shell Shock in France, 1914-18. Additionally, he noted, …
Continue reading “Shell Shock Lite”
The administration of President Barack Obama should put more emphasis on diplomacy in its quest for a satisfactory resolution of Iran’s nuclear programme, according to a major new report released by The Iran Project. Endorsed by nearly three dozen former top U.S. diplomatic, military, and intelligence officials, the report calls for Washington to “rebalance” its …
Continue reading “More Diplomacy, Less Pressure Needed for Iran Settlement – Report”
At least 20 people were killed and 49 were wounded in ongoing violence. Another 21 Iraqis were executed by the government.
Earlier this month, entertainers Jay-Z and Beyoncé were given a license by the US government to travel to Cuba. Because it is not otherwise legal for Americans to travel to Cuba, this trip was only permitted as a “cultural exchange” by the US Treasury Department. Many suspect that the permission was granted at least partly …
Continue reading “Why Can’t We All Travel To Cuba?” 
