The more things change, the more they stay the same. Our allegiances to our allies and friends change constantly. For a decade, exiled Iraqi Ahmed Chalabi was our chosen leader-to-be in a new Iraq. Championed by Pentagon neocons and objected to by the State Department, Mr. Chalabi received more than 100 million U.S. taxpayer dollars …
Continue reading “Fresh Failures in Iraq”
Writing in the New Republic, former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski characterizes the Bush administration’s invasion and occupation of Iraq as “justified by falsehoods, pursued with unilateral arrogance, blinded by self-delusion, and stained by sadistic excesses.” Brzezinski condemns Bush’s failed Iraq policy for aiding and abetting terrorism and for generating hardcore hatred of the US. Brzezinski …
Continue reading “Truth vs. Deceit in Foreign Policy”
Since sometime before Caesar was a lance corporal, the United States Marine Corps’ greatest fear has been becoming “a second land army.” It has long believed that if the country perceived it had two armies, it would require one to go away, and that one would be the Marine Corps. It is therefore ironic that …
Continue reading “Two Marine Corps”
June 3 – A rumbling explosion just let off near my hotel. This not too long after getting back from Adhamiya where I was talking to witnesses at the scene of yet another car bomb; the third in as many days here in Baghdad. At the scene in Adhamiya the scorched, crumpled shell of the …
Continue reading “Fallujah, Pacified”
With the notable exceptions of China and India, a majority of people in 19 key countries are pessimistic about the world’s current direction, says a just-released survey, which found a high correlation between that feeling and the belief that U.S. influence is increasingly negative, particularly as compared to Europe. The survey, conducted by the international …
Continue reading “Global Pessimism About US Power”
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – When U.S. President George W. Bush desperately sought UN assistance last month to organise elections in Iraq and help form a new interim government, some senior UN officials bragged the United States was crawling back to the world body on bended knee. But quickly the shoe has moved to the other …
Continue reading “UN’s Integrity Questioned – Again”
GENEVA (IPS) – A new report from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights concludes that “grave violations” – even potential war crimes – have occurred since the U.S.-led forces have occupied Iraq, leaving “a stain upon the effort to bring freedom” to that country. The acting high commissioner, Bertrand Ramcharan, issued a call Friday …
Continue reading “UN: US Soldiers May Be Guilty of War Crimes”
So now there’s an interim government in Iraq, and at least there’s the appearance that the Iraqis exercised a bit of independence from the United States in the choice of a prime minister (Iyad Allawi, a Shia with longstanding military and CIA connections, head of the Iraqi National Accord, with a power base among former …
Continue reading “Entering the Interim”
Foreign policy scholar Chalmers Johnson, author of The Sorrows of Empire and, Blowback, discusses his works with Saul Landau. Check out his other interviews High Bandwidth (DSL or Cable modem): Low Bandwidth (dial-up modem):
A coalition of civil-rights and veterans groups charged in a New York court Wednesday that the U.S. Defense Department is withholding records about the abuse of detainees in military custody as part of the Bush administration’s “war against terrorism.” The federal court lawsuit accuses the Pentagon of failing to comply with a Freedom of Information …
Continue reading “Groups Sue Pentagon Over Iraq Abuses” 
