Eric Margolis is one of the world’s leading experts on Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is particularly insightful in this interview with Scott Horton of Antiwar Radio.
Click here to hear interview.
Posts Tagged ‘Afghanistan’
Eric Margolis on Pakistan and Afghanistan
Posted by seumasach on April 30, 2009
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: "War on Terror", Afghanistan, bombing Pakistan. Obama foreign policy, Pakistan | Leave a Comment »
9/11: Time for a Second Look- Lecture by Prof. David Ray Griffin
Posted by seumasach on April 21, 2009
18 APRIL 2009
From
Brussels (Belgium)
My lecture is called “9/11: Time for a Second Look.” In suggesting that it is time for people to take a second look at 9/11, I have in mind primarily people who decided long ago that the attacks of 9/11 happened essentially the way the Bush-Cheney administration and the official reports about 9/11 said they happened, and who therefore decided that the so-called 9/11 Truth Movement, which disputes that account, is comprised of crazy conspiracy theorists with no capacity to evaluate evidence objectively. Having formed these views long ago, such people, including most journalists, have been impervious to any arguments presented by the Truth Movement. They simply roll their eyes and move on.
However, both the Truth Movement and the available evidence have changed dramatically in the past 3 years. Because of these changes, it is not rational to reject the claims of this movement out of hand, without taking a second look. If you are a person who has had such an attitude, you cannot, in the face of these changes, simply roll your eyes without exhibiting the very irrationality of which you accuse the people you dismiss as “conspiracy theorists.”
My lecture is also addressed, albeit indirectly, to fellow members of the Truth Movement. Some members have decided that, now that Bush and Cheney are out of office and the Obama administration has reversed some of their 9/11-based policies, getting the truth about 9/11 revealed is no longer so important. Other members of the movement, seeing that the Obama administration is still presupposing that al-Qaeda attacked America on 9/11, have concluded that there is no hope that this truth will ever be revealed, so we might as well give up. To such people, I suggest that getting the truth revealed is just as important as ever, because many 9/11-based policies, especially the war in Afghanistan, have not been reversed. I also suggest that, because of the changes in the political landscape combined with developments in the 9/11 Truth Movement, we now have, really for the first time, a realistic chance of getting a genuine investigation. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: "War on Terror", 9/11, 9/11 commission, 9/11 truth, Afghanistan | 1 Comment »
US blitz continues to kill Afghan civilians
Posted by seumasach on April 13, 2009
13th April, 2009
Fresh US air strikes have again killed at least six Afghan civilians, including women and children in the eastern province of Kunar. Seventeen others were also injured in the overnight attacks which hit civilian homes in Watapour district of the province, a Press TV correspondent reported Monday.
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: Afghanistan, Obama agenda, Stop the bombing of Afghanistan | Leave a Comment »
Growing Anger at US Killings in Afghanistan
Posted by seumasach on April 11, 2009
Unborn Baby Shot in the Womb Definitely Not a Militant
10th April, 2009
The Khost Province killings yesterday have sparked a growing level of outrage at the behavior of US forces across Afghanistan, and have led Afghan President Hamid Karzai to demand once again that foreign forces adhere to their previous agreement to coordinate planned raids with the national government, and base them on accurate information.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: "War on Terror", Afghanistan, Afghanistan civilian deaths | Leave a Comment »
Globocop versus the TermiNATO
Posted by seumasach on April 5, 2009
Pepe Escobar
4th April, 2009
The people of Strasbourg have voted in their apartment balconies for the French-German co-production of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 60th birthday this Saturday. Thousands of “No to NATO” banners, alongside “Peace” banners, sprung up all around town until forcibly removed by French police.
Posted in Afghanistan, Disband NATO! | Tagged: Afghanistan, Obama agenda | Leave a Comment »
Obama’s War Has the “peace movement” become part of the war machine?
Posted by seumasach on March 31, 2009
29th March, 2009
PR Watch’s John Stauber took on the Obama administration and the “antiwar” movement in a recent series of posts on his blog. I’ve compiled them here:
Afghan Escalation OK with MoveOn, Anti-War Insiders
Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent noted last week that “President Obama’s announcement of an escalation in the American presence in Afghanistan is being met with mostly silence – and even some support – from the most influential liberal groups who opposed the Iraq War. … MoveOn.org … declined to make any public statement about Obama’s Afghan policies in response to my queries. An official close to the group confirmed to me that MoveOn wouldn’t be saying anything in the near term. … Nor will we hear anything from Americans United for Change, which ran $600,000 worth of TV ads against the Iraq War in the summer of 2007. ‘Americans United for Change doesn’t plan to comment on President Obama’s new strategy,’ a spokesperson for the group, Lauren Weiner, just emailed. Jon Soltz, the head of VoteVets … came out in support of Obama’s Afghan strategy in an Op Ed with The Huffington Post. … Liberal groups don’t want to distract from passing Obama’s enormous domestic agenda. … And officials with some of these groups don’t want to lose inside influence with the White House.”
Posted in Drive to Global War | Tagged: Afghanistan, Obama agenda | Leave a Comment »
Dangerous decisions in Afghanistan Pt. 3
Posted by seumasach on March 15, 2009
Posted in Afghanistan, Multipolar world | Tagged: Afghanistan, Afghanistan. Khyber Pass, End of empire, Multipolar world, New Cold War, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
The trade-off season begins on Afghanistan
Posted by seumasach on March 10, 2009
It looks like the New Cold War is already over as, not only have US/UK efforts to put a wedge between Iran and Russia have clearly failed, but NATO dependence on Russia with regard to Afghan supllies is confirmed. We can now expect Russian diplomacy to become more forceful with their brokering of a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East back on the agenda:
Also, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week, “[The] American side should join the position of the ‘[Iran] Six’ [the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany] not only on paper, but also the talks with Iran as proposed by the six … At issue is also involving Iran on an equal, worthy basis in efforts to resolve the Iraqi and Afghan conflicts, as well as in all aspects of the Middle East settlement.”
By M K Bhadrakumar
Asia Times
11th March, 2009
With the likelihood of the United States engaging Iran in the near future and with Washington “resetting the button” in relations with Moscow, the air is thick with rumors of trade-offs. This is almost inevitable, given the interlocking cross-currents swirling around the three-way US-Iran-Russia equations.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: Afghanistan, End of empire, Iran, Multipolar world, Obama agenda, Russian diplomacy, SCO | Leave a Comment »
US, EU seek Iran help on Afghanistan
Posted by seumasach on March 5, 2009
5th March, 2009
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The new US administration reportedly plans to invite Iran to an international conference to discuss the worsening Afghan security situation.
“Iran will be invited to attend,” Reuters quoted an unnamed senior US official as saying on Thursday.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington was looking to engage Tehran on Afghanistan.
Clinton also unveiled that there had been consultations between Iran and the US ambassador on a daily basis regarding Afghanistan just after the US military toppled the Taliban in 2001.
Following seven years of occupation and the failure of some 70,000 US and NATO-led troops to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan, Washington has called on the war-ravaged country’s neighbors to help deal with the situation.
Posted in Iran | Tagged: Afghanistan, Obama agenda | Leave a Comment »
La méthode Holbrooke, du Kosovo au Pakistan
Posted by seumasach on March 4, 2009
3rd March, 2009
La méthode Holbrooke, du Kosovo au Pakistan
L’administration Obama a contraint ses principaux alliés engagés en Afghanistan à modifier leur organisation administrative et à désigner un interlocuteur unique à l’ambassadeur Richard Holbrooke pour créer un « groupe de contact sur l’Afghanistan et le Pakistan ». De cette manière, Washington espère dépasser les résistances nationales et mobiliser le maximum de moyens, militaires et civils, au service de l’OTAN.
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: Afghanistan, bombing Pakistan. Obama foreign policy, Obama agenda, Richard Holbrooke | Leave a Comment »
US finds 13 civilians died in Afghanistan strike
Posted by seumasach on February 22, 2009
The Taliban are getting ” increasingly violent”although, obviously, they have a lomg way to go before reaching American standards.
“An expert on civilian casualties said she was “cautiously optimistic” the U.S. is taking a new approach in dealing with civilian casualties. Sarah Holewinski, the executive director of The Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, said more high-ranking military officials are visiting gravesites and apologizing”
These little courtesies go a long way.
“Instead of immediately denying civilian deaths, which deeply angers Afghans and with good reason, he said the U.S. will instead immediately investigate, make apologies and provide amends where appropriate,”
Well, Obama did promise change!
KABUL – An operation the American military at first described as a “precision strike” instead killed 13 Afghan civilians and only three militants, the U.S. said Saturday, three days after sending a general to the site to investigate.
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: Afghanistan, End of empire, Obama agenda | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 