Category: Uncategorized

A humanitarian aid worker’s death in Iraq last week is spurring calls for a public accounting of civilian casualties by the United States government and more attention to the issue by the US media. Marla Ruzicka, 28, who fought to obtain recognition and compensation for Iraqis injured in US military attacks, did not live to … Continue reading “Balancing the Iraq Equation”

“[America] goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by … Continue reading “Blame Wilson”

At the U.S. Army War College’s 16th Annual Strategy Conference last week, a senior Department of Defense strategist defined U.S. “Grand Strategy” as the export of freedom and democracy. He added that the U.S. military would play a huge role in implementing the strategy. In short, and to paraphrase, the official said: “Get ready, soldiers, … Continue reading “Deliberately Destroying America’s Soul”

Demands by a key Republican senator for a two-week delay in the vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on John Bolton as Washington’s next UN ambassador mark a significant and potentially strategic defeat for Vice President Dick Cheney and the administration hawks he led during George W. Bush’s first presidential term. If Bolton’s bid … Continue reading “Delay on Bolton Vote a Defeat for Hawks”

In a case of incredibly bad timing, neoconservative columnist and author Joel Mowbray recently came out with a piece claiming that “stories on Larry Franklin, dual loyalties, and espionage for Israel look more far-fetched with each passing day.” According to Mowbray, the spy scandal that has enveloped AIPAC since last fall is all part of … Continue reading “Shaking Up Israel’s Spy Nest”

The Halliburton corporation, already the Iraq war’s poster child for "waste, fraud, and abuse," has been hit with a new double whammy. A report from the U.S. State Department accuses the company of "poor performance" in its $1.2 billion contract to repair Iraq’s vital southern oil fields. And a powerful California congressman is charging that … Continue reading “Double Trouble for Halliburton”

Empire Stirs to Action in Kosovo Violence pays. How else should one interpret that the ultimate result of the horrific pogrom in Kosovo last March would be an aggressive campaign by power-mongers in the Empire to reward Albanian separatism and finish the job begun six years ago by severing that occupied province from Serbia? Forces … Continue reading “The Coming Storm”

We are now in an America where it’s a commonplace for our president, wearing a “jacket with ARMY printed over his heart and ‘Commander in Chief’ printed on his right front,” to address vast assemblages of American troops on the virtues of bringing democracy to foreign lands at the point of a missile. As Jim … Continue reading “The New American Militarism”

Jordan’s new Prime Minister Adnan Badran is coming under attack from pro-democracy advocates for his role in the killing of three university students in 1986. Badran wasn’t elected prime minister of Jordan – he was simply picked for the post by Jordanian ruler and U.S. ally, King Abdullah II. Columnist Jamal Tahat had just graduated … Continue reading “Jordan Quashes Unions, Critics of US”

NEW YORK – Three influential civil rights groups charged Wednesday that border control tactics used by the Department of Homeland Security discriminate against U.S. citizens solely on the basis of their religion and ethnicity, in violation of the U.S. Constitution. In simultaneous news conferences held in New York City and Buffalo, on the Canadian border, … Continue reading “Religious Profiling Sparks Federal Lawsuit”