The controversy over the "reinterpretation" of the Japanese constitution – which would allow the military to engage in "collective defense" overseas – is itself being misinterpreted. Instead of signaling a revival of Japanese nationalism, it is in reality a reassertion of Nippon’s subservience to the United States. Another misinterpretation is the typically lazy characterization by …
Continue reading “Japan’s Constitutional Revisionism – Bowing Low to Washington”
Most of the 141 people reported killed today were militants. A policeman was wounded in a shooting.
The following letter by GOP Congressman Walter Jones of North Carolina was written in support of an editorial published in the Greenwood Commonwealth.To the editor: I write in agreement with the following statement from the June 20 editorial in the Greenwood Commonwealth titled "Right criticism, wrong critic": "Former Vice President Dick Cheney isn’t the best …
Continue reading “Rep. Walter Jones on Dick Cheney and the Consequences of Intervention”
After a brief holiday last week, I returned to some heavy reading courtesy of the federal government. Some of the materials that I read were gratifying, and one was terrifying. In one week, the Supreme Court told the police that if they want to examine the contents of our cellphones, whether at traffic stops or …
Continue reading “Independence Day, 2014”
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko – by thumbing his nose at the leaders of Russia, Germany and France as they repeatedly appealed to him to renew the fragile ceasefire in eastern Ukraine – has left himself and his U.S. patrons isolated, though that’s not the version of the story that you’ll read in the mainstream U.S. …
Continue reading “The Risk of a Ukraine Bloodbath”
One of the easiest ways to confirm that there is no difference between (mainstream) Republicans and Democrats is to compare the latter’s vision of perfectible economic meddling with the former’s right-wing dreamworld of international democracy and low, low oil prices. Now, even a statement this general requires caveats. In the last two weeks, Democrat prez …
Continue reading “The Perfect Arrogance of the Warmongerer”
Supposed allies fought allies today in Iraq. The Shi’ite-led government tried to arrest a Shi’ite cleric, but they only managed to have a violent clash with his followers. Meanwhile, Naqshabandiya Army militants fought with ISIS/DAASH members. Although the two militant groups have tried to combine forces, they frequently quarrel. Overall, at least 138 people were killed and 75 more were wounded across Iraq.
“So far as Syria is concerned, it is France and not Turkey that is the enemy.” – T. E. Lawrence, February 1915. It was a curious comment by the oddball but unarguably brilliant British agent and scholar, Thomas Edward Lawrence. The time was World War I, and England and France were locked in a death …
Continue reading “ISIS: The Spoils of the ‘Great Loot’ in the Middle East”
The article originally appeared at Muftah.org and is reprinted with permission.The recent offensive by forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), along with their allies, opens a new chapter in the conundrum of violence that has devastated Iraq throughout recent history. Without a doubt, the current state of the conflict is directly …
Continue reading “Gulf War Without End: Iraq’s Forty Years of Conflict”
A recent New York Times account of the reemergence of Ahmad Chalabi as one of the leading candidates to replace Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki opined "everything old seems new again in Iraq" – as if to confirm the growing sense here in the US that Iraq is our recurring nightmare. It’s perfectly understandable that …
Continue reading “The Return of Ahmad Chalabi” 
