The Soviet days are back

William Blum’s Anti-Empire Report on the paucity of real debate in the US: Like clinical paranoia, “the threat from Iran” is impervious to correction by rational argument. Two new novels have just appeared, from major American publishers, thrillers based on Iran having a nuclear weapon and the dangers one can imagine that that portends —…

Obama in Cairo

My following article was published today on the popular US website Mondoweiss: Back in 2005, then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a rousing speech at Cairo’s American University. “For sixty years”, she argued, “my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region here in the Middle East…

The luxury of distance and money

Sometimes, Jewish blogger Richard Silverstein nails it: Bill Clinton and George Bush Jr. spoke in Canada yesterday, each earning more than $150K for the gig. Frankly, I can’t imagine anyone possessing enough wisdom to be worth paying such a sum to them for dispensing it. But I guess enough people are star struck that they…

What’s a few illegal wars here and there?

Zionist stenographer Jeffrey Goldberg tries to reassure a worried world: If Israel does strike Iran, it would bomb military targets while trying to minimize civilian casualties. Goldberg backed the US-led invasion of Iraq. His predictions then were almost criminally inaccurate.

And they wonder why they lost

A fascinating story in GQ magazine about the incompetence and arrogance of Donald Rumsfeld. An excerpt: Shortly before the Iraq invasion, King Abdullah II of Jordan decreed that warplanes could not overfly his country if they had previously flown over Israel. The king’s demand meant that U.S. fighters would need to make a multiple-hour detour…

We should be so proud of our liberation

Iraq remains in dire shape, despite what many in the media are saying. Take the ever-increasing stories of religiously-decreed rulings against homosexuals. One Iraqi human rights activist says: Iraqi militias are deploying an unprecedented new form of torture against homosexuals, which involves inserting a particularly strong adhesive into the anus (of the victim) and sealing…

Oh well, no harm done

The former deputy head of MI6 now says that Britain was “dragged into a war in Iraq which was always against our better judgment.” Better late than never. The official British position, however, remains hilariously delusional.

This is the new major Zionist lobby

Israel lobby J Street in the US is a mixed bag. Its recent statement on Israeli Independence Day is pretty lame and can’t even mention the Palestinians by name. There’s no doubt, however, that the Zionist lobby needs to be challenged. But this statement, just sent to supporters, is an interesting document, an attempt to…

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