Patrick Cockburn, a Western journalist who doesn’t celebrate when the military “kills terrorists”, challenges the relationship between the mainstream media and the armed forces: The press likes short wars. Its audience is never so eager for news as during an armed conflict. The first newspapers date from the wars of the late 16th and early…
Showing all posts tagged Iraq
Washington sets its eyes on taking Iraq forever
If you believed that America was permanently removing itself from controlling Iraq, think again: The State Department plans major increases in its Iraq mission, with hundreds more employees there and a stepped-up diplomatic presence outside Baghdad as the U.S. military prepares to leave later this year. A new fiscal 2010 supplemental request asks for $2.1…
An American soldier explains what he did in the Middle East
Back in 2008, a number of former American soldiers gave testimony at the “Winter Soldier” hearings and detailed the horrific crimes committed in our name in America’s imperial pursuits. This video powerfully articulates the inherent racism within Washington’s Middle East adventures:
Over one million killed in Iraq but let’s not focus on details, writes Murdoch editorial
Unsure what to really think of the Iraq war? Let Murdoch’s Australian guide you through the complexity: Tony Blair was called a murderer on Friday by outraged activists after his evidence before the Chilcot inquiry into the origins of the war to remove Saddam Hussein. It is the sort of foolish sloganising that always characterised…
Blackwater murders children and must be held accountable
Leading American investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill has spent years reporting on the actions of private military contractor Blackwater and the privatisation of war across the world: Here’s his latest: Democracy Now! exclusive report from Jeremy Scahill about a nine year old boy, shot in the head and killed by Blackwater in the infamous Nisour Squre…
Donna Mulhearn’s “Ordinary Courage”
I’m honoured to be launching Donna Mulhearn’s first book, Ordinary Courage, which primarily examines her role as a human shield in Iraq in 2003: Murdoch Books and The Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at The University of Sydney are delighted to invite you to the launch of Donna Mulhearn’s first book, Ordinary Courage To…
Why protesting Petraeus is so important
I mentioned here recently the protest at Georgetown University against visiting speaker General David Petraeus. Soon after I received the following email from a participant of the action: I am writing to thank you for mentioning last week’s protest of General Petraeus on Georgetown’s campus in your blog. As one of the students involved, it…
Why our commentator class love to love war
Salon’s Glenn Greenwald rightly concludes that the responsibility-free media class that advocates “for more wars that never touch their lives” should be treated with the contempt they deserve (while, in contrast, somebody like Howard Zinn, who opposed wars, is side-lined or even ignored by the mainstream): I’m periodically criticized for an… “angry” tone in my writing,…
Tony Blair will always be remembered for supporting colonial wars
The evidence given by Tony Blair to the Chilcot inquiry in London over his decision to invade Iraq showed a man utterly incapable or unwilling to understand the gravity of the decision. The hundreds of thousands killed, the lies told in the service of war and the criminality of the entire enterprise. Many in the…
Every leader that invaded Iraq will face a court hearing one day
Fascinating evidence in London about the criminality of the Iraq war (though this begs the question: why didn’t more senior officials resign before the invasion?) The invasion of Iraq was illegal, a senior government lawyer told the Chilcot inquiry into the war today. Sir Michael Wood, legal adviser to the Foreign Office in the run-up…