UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – As violence against civilians and humanitarian workers escalates in the world’s politically troubled regions, the United Nations and major relief groups continue to shy away from countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or to significantly downsize their emergency operations. “We have no plans to return …
Continue reading “Aid Agencies Forced to Leave War Zones”
TOKYO (IPS) – The filing of a suit against his own government by a Japanese activist, blaming it for his ordeal in Iraq when he was briefly held captive there, is an indication of a new side to Japan’s young people. More of them are heading overseas to troubled spots, in defiance of official warnings, …
Continue reading “Backlash in Japan”
A story is told in southern Xinjiang about the first carpet weaver, a princess named Gulem. One day, her father, the king of his realm, was hunting in the forest with his court advisors. A little bird flew from branch to branch following the king and singing into his ear. The king demanded that his …
Continue reading “The End of a Golden Age in China”
Near the main office of Moqtada Al-Sadr, in the part of Baghdad known as Sadr City, followers of the rebel cleric continue to fight the U.S. military despite suffering heavy losses. While the military claims to have killed more than 800 Iraqis, most of them fighters, during the last nine weeks in the sprawling urban …
Continue reading “Iraqis Grow Weary of War, but Mehdi Army Pledges to Fight On”
Conducted by Saul Landau on “Hot Talk” radio Cal Poly Pomona. Check out his other interviews. High Bandwidth (DSL or Cable modem): Low Bandwidth (dial-up modem): Alexander Cockburn is editor of CounterPunch and is the author of the just-published Imperial Crusades.
In my last column, I referenced “the canon,” the seven books which, if read in the correct order, take the reader from the First Generation of modern war through the Second and Third Generations and into the Fourth. A number of people responded with requests for a description both of the canon and of the …
Continue reading “The Canon and the Four Generations”
Did American soldiers killed and maimed in Iraq, and Israeli soldiers killed and maimed in Gaza and the West Bank, die for nothing? Americans are dying now because of ideologues and zealots. Israeli soldiers are dying for settlements and unattainable goals. Both are trapped. Take the United States, for example, bogged down in a war …
Continue reading “US, Israel Caught in Traps”
The Dog Days of the War Party Pat’s latest is a cogent and too-brief listing of the unresolved issues facing the current administration – and, of course, the American people. For all of us old Goldwater conservatives the travesty of neocon Republicanism is deeply disheartening. There really is only one answer – develop the intestinal …
Continue reading “”
I know it’s terribly naive to suggest such a thing, but you might have thought that if even a secondary purpose of the vaunted war on terrorism and the sidetrack into Iraq had something to do with demonstrating the superiority of democracy and the rule of law, that the administration would have taken steps to …
Continue reading “Thugs With Lawyers”
Nearly three years have passed since 9-11, yet one wonders if Vice President Dick Cheney ever abandoned his “secure undisclosed location.” He still seems to be secreted away somewhere, only coming out of hiding long enough to resell the Iraq war on some friendly neocon stage lent for the spread of more false propaganda. After …
Continue reading “Tricky Dick Cheney” 
