Backtalk, January 4, 2007

The Trap of Recognizing Israel Jonathan Cook denies the right of the Jewish people to political self-determination and independence. He writes nothing against the right of any other nation-state in the world to exist, just the Jewish one. That is as racist as it can...

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Iraq Vets Come Home Physically, Mentally Butchered

On New Year's Eve, the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq passed 3,000. By Tuesday, the death toll had reached 3,004 – 31 more than died in the Sep. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But the number of injured has far outstripped the dead,...

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The Democrats’ Agenda

With the New Year, the Democrats have now taken over the Congress. In the last election the public turned against the mismanagement of the war in Iraq and against the war itself, leading the voters to throw out the Republicans. To respond to the voters, the...

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US Hypocrisy Reaches
All-Time High

One of the lessons of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials of Germans after Germany's defeat in World War II was that obeying orders is no excuse for war crimes. U.S. prosecutors took the position that the German military should have refused to obey Hitler's orders. Chief...

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A Death Threat Wrapped Around a Bullet

An Iraqi friend whom I've known for 10 years looked worn and very weary yesterday when he came to visit me at my apartment in Amman, Jordan. He hadn't slept the night before because he'd been on the phone with his wife, who throughout the night was terrified by...

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Requiem for a Dictator

In February 2003, President Bush argued that "a liberated Iraq can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region, by bringing hope and progress into the lives of millions. America's interests in security, and America's belief in liberty, both lead in...

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Mission Accomplished

Arnaud de Borchgrave – a conservative Washington Times columnist, but no neocon – recently had this to say about our president's future course in Iraq: "Some political soothsayers in Washington predict Mr. Bush is limbering up for the biggest U-turn in...

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Doubling Down on the Imperial Mission in 2007

Okay, folks, it's time for a year-opening sermon. And like any good sermon, this one will be based on illustrative texts, in this case from 2006, and inspirational passages plucked from them. Its goal, as in any such quest, will be to reveal a world normally hidden...

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