Not the familiar Iraq

Iraq remains a fractured society and far more complex than the vast majority of Western media allows us to see. So what of the country away from the headlines?

The Iranian perspective

Sadegh Zibakalam, Bitterlemons International, August 28: Iranian support for the newly established Iraqi regime was quite reasonable and to be expected. The Iranians fought eight long years to witness a Shi’ite-dominated government in Iraq. Iran lost a million of its people in that war, its economy was shattered and the Islamic republic lost nearly all…

Bombing. Iran. Never. Makes. Sense

The Lowy Interpreter is the blog for one of Australia’s leading think-tanks, the Lowy Institute. Following a post last week that discussed Israel’s supposed fears of Iran’s nuclear facilities – strongly suggesting that an Israeli military strike was not unlikely and even understandable because the Zionist state feared destruction – I wrote a response that…

Just what the US needs

Joseph Biden is Barack Obama’s Vice-Presidential pick. Hold the excitement. Biden will supposedly provide foreign policy “experience” and gravitas to Obama’s youthful exuberance (or so the mainstream media likes to call it, in typically meaningless bluster.) Counterpunch’s Alexander Cockburn tells it like it is: His [Biden’s] “experience” in foreign affairs consists in absolute fidelity to…

The biggest lie of all

How is this not front page news across the world? Tape: Top CIA official confesses order to forge Iraq-9/11 letter came on White House stationery.

How to lose Jewish friends in one easy step

Naomi Ragen is a prominent American-Israeli writer and playwright about to visit Melbourne for the writer’s festival. She is a typical, radical Zionist who believes that “terrorists” should be killed by the Jewish state. “We need to kill these people”, she told the Sydney Morning Herald today. Her message of peace? No withdrawals from occupied,…

Thank you, Tehran

Through all the difficulties in Iraq, people look now to Iran, not the U.S., for a better life. Why? The average house in Baquba, capital of Diyala province north of Baghdad, has less than 12 hours of electricity a day. “I cannot exclude electricity from my thinking; when I think of making any plans, I…

Chaos limited

So, the Iraq war was launched by the Bush administration thanks to a forged letter (according to a new book in the US.) And now, due to Wikileaks, more essential background: “The legal basis for the war itself was, and still is, controversial. There is a military need, at least, at the outset of operations…

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

Site by Common