Month: June 2014

With support for interventionism at an all-time low, the War Party is constantly on the lookout for fresh justifications of their failed and increasingly unpopular overseas meddling. The old saw about how "terrorists" mustn’t be allowed to establish "safe havens" is getting a bit stale, and was never all that persuasive to begin with: after … Continue reading “Political Correctness and Imperialism”

Originally posted at TomDispatch. When it comes to spying, surveillance, and privacy, a simple rule applies to our world: however bad you think it is, it’s worse. Thanks to Edward Snowden, we’ve learned an enormous amount about the global surveillance regime that one of America’s 17 intelligence outfits has created to suck into its maw … Continue reading “Shredding the Fourth Amendment in Post-Constitutional America”

The Iraqi military is reporting advances in Tikrit. If they should reclaim that town it will be a great psychological triumph for the ailing security forces. Still, at least 260 people were killed and 63 more were wounded across the country.

"Brother, brother," a young man called on me as I hurriedly left a lecture hall in some community center in Durban, South Africa. This happened at the height of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, when all efforts at stopping the ferocious US-western military drives against these two countries terribly failed. The young man was dressed … Continue reading “Reverting to the Ummah: Who Is the ‘Angry Muslim’ and Why”

This week, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published their study of 20 different law enforcement agencies’ use of SWAT teams on 800 occasions between 2011 and 2013. Their conclusions may not surprise people who have been following the militarization and the normalization of that in police departments across the US, but it should shock … Continue reading “The ACLU Knocks Militarized Police”

Once in a while the inconsistencies in American foreign policy become sufficiently clear to reveal the consistency in American foreign policy. Three contemporary inconsistencies in Iraq and Syria, all clearly connected, converge to throw America’s consistent foreign policy into sharp relief. In an astonishing shift of geopolitical realities, America finds itself, literally, at war with … Continue reading “Taking Out Our Friends So We Can Install Our Enemies. What?”

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has rejected international calls for a caretaker government even as militants continue to make gains. Meanwhile, the U.S. is considering again using a Sunni militia group that was effective in fighting militants during the occupation. At least 135 people were killed, and another 99 were wounded in the latest violence.

Does anybody remember "Impossible – Yet It Happened!"? When I was a kid, that was my favorite part of the comics page. It was a series based on the work of Charles Fort, the chronicler of the odd, all about – well, supposedly "impossible" events that nonetheless did occur. I delighted in the unexpectedness of … Continue reading “Impossible – Yet It’s Happening!”

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Imagine the president, speaking on Iraq from the White House Press Briefing Room last Thursday, as the proverbial deer in the headlights – and it’s not difficult to guess just what those headlights were. Think of them as Benghazi on steroids. If the killing of an American ambassador, a Foreign Service … Continue reading “The New Oil Wars in Iraq”

At least 4,695 people were killed across Iraq so far in June, and the tally is only going to get higher as ISIS/DAASH militants continue their trek towards Baghdad. The United Nations also released its preliminary figures for the month, but they are much lower in comparsion. Below is our methodology for using the higher … Continue reading “Over 4,000 Killed Across Iraq So Far in June”