Here’s the thing: This may be our next “Vietnam moment,” but Afghanistan is no Vietnam: there are no major enemy powers like the Soviet Union and China lurking in the background; no organized enemy state with a powerful army like North Vietnam supporting the insurgents; no well organized, unified national liberation movement like the Vietcong, and that’s just a beginning. Almost everywhere, in fact, the Vietnam analogy breaks down — almost everywhere, that is, except when it comes to us. Because we never managed to leave Vietnam behind, even when we were proclaiming that we had kicked that “syndrome,” it turns out that we’re still there. Our military leaders, for instance, only recently dusted off the old Vietnam-era counterinsurgency doctrine that once ended in catastrophe, shined it up, and are now presenting it as an ingenious new solution to war-fighting. Let’s face it: everything about American thinking still stinks of the Vietnamese debacle, including the inability of our leaders to listen to a genuinely wide range of options. Read the rest of this entry »
William Astore: Apocalypse Then, Afghanistan Now
Posted by smeddum on October 13, 2009
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: Obama | Leave a Comment »
The fire-sale flop: Gordon Brown’s plan to sell £16bn of assets sends pound plummeting
Posted by smeddum on October 13, 2009
By Tim Shipman
13th October 2009
There was a Gordon of Brown
Who sold gold when it was down
Right at the bottom
Now in the Autumn
He looks to sell the whole town (fromMaxKeiser.com)
The pound fell to its lowest level in six months last night on news of Gordon Brown’s £16billion asset sale to ease the growing national debt.
Sterling plunged after the Prime Minister announced the plan to sell central and local government assets over the next two years. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis, UK economy | Tagged: pound's pounding | Leave a Comment »
Iceland Shrinks 8% as Prices Increase 11% in Deepest Recession
Posted by smeddum on October 12, 2009
Iceland Shrinks 8% as Prices Increase 11% in Deepest Recession
By Chad Thomas and Omar Valdimarsson
Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) — Arni Hallgrimsson lost his job as a public relations consultant when Iceland’s three biggest banks collapsed last year, putting him out of work for the first time since 1980. After a stint cleaning the docks at a whaling station during the summer hunt, he’s unemployed again. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Revolution in Iceland | Tagged: Revolution in Iceland | Leave a Comment »
Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive?
Posted by seumasach on October 11, 2009
David Ray Griffin
11th October, 2009
Is Osama bin Laden still alive? I have dealt with this question in a recent little book entitled Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive? The present essay summarizes the main points of this book.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: "War on Terror", 9/11, Afghanistan | Leave a Comment »
Radio: Dr Andrew Goldsworthy on electrosensitivity
Posted by smeddum on October 11, 2009
Posted in Ecological and Public Health Crisis | Tagged: ehs, electromagnetic hypersensitivity, electrosmog, es, mobiles, wifi, wireless | Leave a Comment »
Europe is under imminent threat-The NATO First Act of the United States
Posted by seumasach on October 11, 2009
Christopher King
8th October, 2009
Christopher King analyses the current state of relations between Europe and the United States. He argues that the US military presence in Europe, and the transformation of NATO into an American tool, is tantamount to military occupation and is an obstacle to the development of pan-European and European-Russian relations.
Posted in Disband NATO!, Drive to Global War | Tagged: Britain into Europe-Europe out of NATO | Leave a Comment »
On the road to justice? Why The Goldstone Report Matters
Posted by seumasach on October 10, 2009
Richard Falk
9th October, 2009
In dissecting the Goldstone Report, Richard Falk points to a number of limitations and pitfalls which he himself would undoubtedly have averted. He nevertheless acclaims the report as an historic milestone in the struggle for Palestinian justice, which has already shaken Israel’s pedestal of impunity. As the power cards in the region are being reshuffled, it remains to be seen just how far-reaching its impact will really be. But, as it is, the “before and after” line has already been drawn.
Posted in Palestine | Tagged: Gaza, Palestine | Leave a Comment »
Death of Petro-Dollar, Told You So
Posted by seumasach on October 10, 2009
Jim Willie
8th October, 2009
The story hit like a thief in the night, even bearing Biblical proportions. The end of the exlusive sale of MidEast oil in USDollars, the rise of Russian and Chinese influence in the Persian Gulf, the rise in importance for the Intl Monetary Fund basket of currencies, the final clarion call for the free ride by Americans on the Dollar Credit Card, and hidden implications that the Saudis must shop for a new security lord in the region with broad military might, these are revolutionary steps with profound geopolitical implications.
Posted in Financial crisis, Multipolar world | Tagged: dollar collapse, End of empire, gold, Multipolar world, new financial architecture, reserve currencies | Leave a Comment »
War Criminal Obama Deserves An Oscar, But Not A Nobel Peace Prize
Posted by seumasach on October 10, 2009
Paul Joseph Watson
9th October, 2009
In a world where war criminals like Tony Blair are rewarded and those that oppose war criminals, like the Iraqi shoe thrower Muntadhar al-Zeidi, are imprisoned and tortured, it comes as no surprise that another war criminal – Barack H. Obama – has been rewarded for his stoic service to imperial bloodletting with the Nobel Peace Prize.
Posted in Drive to Global War | Tagged: Obama agenda | Leave a Comment »
Greater Albania: Threat of A New US-NATO sponsored Conflict In Europe
Posted by seumasach on October 10, 2009
Rick Rozoff
8th October, 2009
Europe may be perched above the precipice of its first armed conflict since NATO’s 78-day bombing war against Yugoslavia in 1999 and the resultant armed invasion of Macedonia from NATO-occupied Kosovo two years later.
Posted in Disband NATO!, Drive to Global War | Tagged: Greater Albania, KLA terror, Kosovo, NATO bombing of Serbia, Nato Terrorism | Leave a Comment »
Code Yellow: The selling-out of the antiwar movement
Posted by smeddum on October 10, 2009
Code Yellow
The selling-out of the antiwar movement
Right on time for the somber eighth anniversary of the Afghanistan war and occupation, Code Pink founder and primary spokeswoman Medea Benjamin has announced that her organization – which made so many headlines and newscasts protesting “Bush’s war” – is now “rethinking” their position on Afghanistan. A piece in the Christian Science Monitor, which Code Pink is now strenuously trying to spin, reports that the famous antiwar group is seriously amending their position after listening to the views of Afghan women. On a recent trip to Afghanistan, the leaders of Code Pink met Afghan women who opposed the idea of a US withdrawal, and this somehow forced them into a reevaluation of their views. As the Monitor reports:
“When Medea Benjamin stood up in a Kabul meeting hall this weekend to ask Masooda Jalal if she would prefer more international troops or more development funds, the cofounder of US antiwar group Code Pink was hoping her fellow activist would support her call for US troop withdrawal.
“She was disappointed.
“Ms. Jalal, the former Afghan minister of women, bluntly told her both were needed. ‘It is good for Afghanistan to have more troops – more troops committed with the aim of building peace and against war, terrorism, and security – along with other resources,’ she answered. ‘Coming together they will help with better reconstruction.’”
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 