International

Sy/Raq: Creepy Mission Or Mission Creep?

Filed in International by on July 1, 2014 6 Comments
Sy/Raq:  Creepy Mission Or Mission Creep?

300 more to Iraq, for a total of 800. But we’re told, no boots on the ground. Just security forces for the 500 already there, mostly in the Taj Majal U.S. Embassy, just a few in foward positions as “advisors”. Sound familiar? It does for those of us who survived the 60’s and 70’s.

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It’s Baaaack: The Domino Theory And Iraq/Syria

Filed in International by on June 25, 2014 5 Comments
It’s Baaaack: The Domino Theory And Iraq/Syria

I’ve lived long enough to see now three iterations of the old Domino Theory; it goes something like…if we allow a country to fall, it will spiral into a cascade of other nearby countries to follow suit and be taken over by nefarious forces.

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Kneejerk War Is Weakness, Not Strength

Filed in International by on June 19, 2014 10 Comments
Kneejerk War Is Weakness, Not Strength

The drumbeat for a renewed Iraq intervention from the neo-cons and neo-liberals within and outside the administration is pissing me off. The media learned nothing from Vietnam, Iraq II and Afghanistan; they are fielding all the totally discredited talking heads to tell us President Obama needs to show strength.

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Bomb Iraq? Why?

Filed in International by on June 16, 2014 37 Comments
Bomb Iraq?  Why?

Can anyone give me one rational reason why we would even consider launching a bombing/missile/drone attack on so called Iraq militants? No, I mean a really rational reason?

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Vladimir, Stop It. Just Friggin’ Stop It !

Filed in International by on April 26, 2014 15 Comments
Vladimir, Stop It.  Just Friggin’ Stop It !

Ok, Vladimir. Enough of the belligerence. Crimea was an outrage and eastern Ukraine doubly so. So was Georgia. Speaking for myself and possibly millions of my fellow Americans, we don’t want a renewal of one of our worst mutual eras, the Cold War.

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It’s The Trade, Stupid !

Filed in International by on March 25, 2014 6 Comments
It’s The Trade, Stupid !

One of my favorite investigative reporters, David Cay Johnston observes that our foreign trade deals in the last couple of decades figure in a big way in the systemic weakness of our domestic economy. Particularly hard hit by really bad trade deals are the non-college educated in the workforce.

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This Annexation Is An Outrage: Let’s Go To War

Filed in International by on March 20, 2014 7 Comments
This Annexation Is An Outrage: Let’s Go To War

Oh, wait. They’re talking about Crimea, not Texas. Nor Hawaii, or Midway, American Samoa, Wake Island and half dozen other pacific islands we annexed, from what I can see, without money changing hands. And there are a dozen other annexations the good old U.S. of A. pulled off where we actually paid the owner while we held a gun to their head. Such as Puerto Rico and Guam, not to mention the Panama Canal zone.

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Venezuela In Chaos: Why Should We Care?

Filed in International by on March 13, 2014 5 Comments
Venezuela In Chaos: Why Should We Care?

I’ve been trying to follow recent events in Venezuela. Here’s my take, informed by the work of activist Tom Hayden of Peace Exchange, Chris Gilbert, professor at Universidad de Venezuela and Rory Carroll, a reporter for the Guardian and Observer Latin America, based in Caracas for six years until recently.

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Code Pink Co-Founder Brutalized in Egypt

Filed in International by on March 5, 2014 2 Comments
Code Pink Co-Founder Brutalized in Egypt

Medea Benjamin, the indomitable co-founder of the women’s activist group Code Pink has reported that en-route to a women’s conference in Gaza, she was physically attacked at an airport in Egypt.

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Ukraine: Geopolitical Chess

Filed in International by on March 3, 2014 18 Comments
Ukraine: Geopolitical Chess

Some sentimentalists have been characterizing the Ukraine crisis as a popular revolution. Not so fast. This situation requires some careful analysis, not platitudes. Hear that CNN and mainstream media? Probably not.

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Trans-Pacific Partnership: Corporations Reign Supreme

Filed in International by on February 15, 2014 6 Comments
Trans-Pacific Partnership:  Corporations Reign Supreme

You might have read that the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, developed under the auspices of the Obama Administration is currently stymied, bottled up in both the House and the Senate, with lots of opposition. Let’s count our blessings while we can on this one. Here’s why, in a nutshell.

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New Analysis Of U.S. Misjudgement on Sarin Gas Source

Filed in International by on January 21, 2014 14 Comments
New Analysis Of U.S. Misjudgement on Sarin Gas Source

Robert Parry, of ConsotiumNews and noted investigative reporter has just published an investigative report on the August 21 Sarin Gas attack in Syria. The report is entitled “The Mistaken Guns of Last August” and can be seen at ConsortiumNews.com. He cites the work of Richard Lloyd of Tesla Labs and Theodore A. Postol, science professor at MIT. Parry says:

“A new report by two American weapons specialists, entitled “Possible Implications of Faulty US Technical Intelligence in the Damascus Nerve Agent Attack,” makes clear that the case presented by Kerry and the Obama administration was scientifically impossible because the range of the key rocket carrying Sarin was less than a third of what the U.S. government was claiming.

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NSA/Surveillance: A First Step In Reining It In

Filed in International by on January 18, 2014 4 Comments
NSA/Surveillance: A First Step In Reining It In

The President’s speech on Friday, pre-empting the final report he commissioned on NSA restraints, is a good first step. So, we applaud a beginning in rolling back the Surveillance State aimed at the American people.

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