An interesting feature in New York magazine about the alleged leaker to Wikileaks of countless US documents. Manning is a hero because he saw American illegality in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond and wanted to act. Not remain silent. He was bullied in the US military as a gay man. A troubled soul who has changed…
Showing all posts tagged Iraq
How legally unprepared was Australia for invading Afghanistan?
According to new evidence, clearly deeply. Of course, we’ve seen countless examples in the US of senior government officials escaping any kind of punishment; it’s all about targeting individuals low down the food chain. When a so-called democracy refuses to take responsibility for illegal actions in war, little stops future leaders doing exactly the same…
Line up to see yet another “liberal” academic back key victim state Israel
The first rule of liberal Zionism is never talk about what liberal Zionism means. The second rule of liberal Zionism is never acknowledge the inherent blindspots within liberal Zionism. Hence an essay in this month’s Monthly magazine by Australian academic Nick Dyrenfurth – yes, the man does spend an amazing amount of time policing the…
Obama’s war in Afghanistan simply becoming more privatised
It’s occupation by another name. Pratap Chatterjee explains: The number of contractors in Afghanistan is likely to increase significantly in the next year as the Obama administration pulls back some of the extra 68,000 troops that it has dispatched there since January 2009. Typically, the U.S. pays one contractor to support every soldier that has…
How privatised war only brings profit before people
What the “war on terror” has become; countless companies making a killing. And what do they want? More war in more places: Najlaa International Catering Services won a $3 million five-year contract in February 2010 to prepare food for the U.S. Agency for International Development compound in Iraq. The deal was approved despite the fact…
Praising Sri Lanka for murdering countless Tamils
Oh what a glorious war. After killing up to 40,000 Tamils civilians during the end of the country’s civil war, Colombo recently organised a conference to show the world the wonderful techniques used to silence, intimidate and destroy Tamil hopes for a homeland. Naturally, many other countries were keen to hear such wise words, including…
What privatised war does to ethics; render them irrelevant
Evidence for the prosecution: In December 2008, South Asian workers, two thousand miles or more from their homes, staged a protest on the outskirts of Baghdad. The reason: Up to 1,000 of them had been confined in a windowless warehouse and other dismal living quarters without money or work for as long as three months.…
Of course Wikileaks is a force for good in the world
Stuart Rees, head of the Sydney Peace Foundation and presenter to Julian Assange of the Sydney Peace Medal recently, writes in today’s Sydney Morning Herald why Wikileaks matters: The WikiLeaks revelations are a watershed in decades of struggles to unmask what really occurs in the conduct of powerful people and institutions, in governments, corporations and…
Your Iraq war is soon to be even more privatised for freedom
Wars are increasingly about profit and have nothing to do with freedom or liberation or human rights: The State Department is preparing to spend close to $3 billion to hire a security force to protect diplomats in Iraq after the U.S. pulls its last troops out of the country by year’s end. In testimony Monday…
