What is America? Is it merely a flag? Is it an armed force, with tanks and guns and planes? After all, that’s what many people see in villages around the world. That’s what simple groups of small villagers saw in Iraq…people with no television, no media elite, no sophisticated intellectual government in their region to [...]
Entries Tagged as 'International affairs'
Do We Run the Military or Does the Military Run Us?
June 22nd, 2010 · No Comments · International affairs, Lobbying, Politics, wars and militarism
In the living memory of many seniors in this country, a relatively unpopular President of the United States fired one of the most popular Generals of all time.
Harry Truman had been a minor Senator who became President because the most popular President in our history died. Roosevelt had been considered, and still is by [...]
Tags: Afghanistan·ending the war·General McCrystal·government control of military·Iraq·military affairs·President Obama·the War in Afghanistan
Helen Thomas and the Problem of Palestine
June 9th, 2010 · No Comments · Human Rights, International affairs, wars and militarism
Helen Thomas is a long-time, award-winning, ground-breaking reporter and columnist for the Associated Press, one of the remaining news services. She has, for many years, lead the press conferences at the White House, asking the first question and often ending the press conferences. She is not technically a member of the White House [...]
Tags: Arab countries·Hamas·Helen Thomas·Israel-Arab wars·Israeli-Palestinian conflicts·Palestine·persecution of the Jews·PLO·the state of Israel
The Iraq War. Flesh and Blood.
May 20th, 2010 · No Comments · International affairs, Politics, wars and militarism
The war in Iraq was a mistake. Whatever point of view one takes, there is no real benefit to us any longer to have troops in Iraq. They should come home as soon as possible. But that is not the end of it. We need to tell the rest of the world we’re sorry.
We’re [...]
Tags: a war of choice·Bush and Cheney war criminals·Cheney·deliberate aggression·George W. Bush·illegal wars·Iraq war·Rumsfeld·war crimes·weapons of mass destruction
A Radical Proposal: Peace and Justice
May 18th, 2010 · No Comments · Courts and the Law, International affairs, Politics, wars and militarism
This is about war and peace. Yes, the most important thing today is more jobs. That is the very first item that should be on the White House agenda every morning and every afternoon and every evening. That is number one. And there are good and relatively simple ways to create jobs and really jump-start [...]
Tags: Bush and Cheney as War Criminals·end Iraq War·lied into war·Saddam Hussein·the Iraq War·unjust wars·war crimes·war criminals
It Can Happen Here. It’s Happening Now.
May 16th, 2010 · No Comments · Corporations and Industry, International affairs, Lobbying, Politics, Wall Street
First they came after our land. Then they came after our trees. Then they came after our money. Now they want to take our water. The Gulf of Mexico is now polluted and large parts are becoming unusable for life-sustaining fishing as we speak. The people of Mississippi and Louisiana, parts of Florida and Texas [...]
Tags: big oil·conservative lobbyists·corporate campaign contributions to Republicans·corporate environmental mistakes·corporate influence·corporate pollution·corporate profits·corporate takeover·Gulf of Mexico oil spill·Republilican support of corporations
Facts About Global Warming
April 26th, 2010 · No Comments · Culture, General, International affairs, Science & Technology, energy
The fact is that the earth is warming. Glaciers are melting, and most importantly, the earth’s weather patterns are beginning to change. Northwest United States, which in some parts had over 150 glaciers in the early 1910s, now has less than 40. Some areas of the Arctic ocean that had been impassable now can be [...]
Tags: cap and trade·carbon dioxide·carbon emissions·climate change·climate stabilization·effects of increased temperatures·global warming
Are Neocons Making Us Latin America?
April 6th, 2010 · No Comments · Economics, Education, International affairs, Politics
This is not about immigration or our borders. It is not about cultural differences or becoming more Hispanic. This is about a growing income inequality in the United States that is just now beginning to mirror some parts of Latin America.
While we are in the midst of the Great Recession, the United States has [...]
Tags:
More on…Project for a Ruined American Century
December 30th, 2009 · No Comments · International affairs, Politics
We have come to the end of December 2009. We recently completed a year in which a former political administration, the Republican Bush Administration, did its best to ruin our country. And, as you will see, men portraying themselves as patriots were everything but patriots. We are talking about the Project for the New American [...]
Tags: military industrial complex·Project for the New American Century·war mongers·wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Lessons for the “Tea Baggers” on the Bush Recession and Republican Aid to the Rich
December 14th, 2009 · No Comments · Economics, International affairs, Politics
In November of 2008, while Barack Obama was winning an election, George W. Bush was already planning his exit. In addition to the two wars he was leaving us, the Bush Administration was preparing a surprise, a giant drop in the economy. Republicans in Wall Street had engineered speculative financial instruments based on derivatives tied [...]
Tags: Bush administration·deficit·Economic meltdown·jobs·national debt·Neoconservatives·obstruction·tea parties·the Great Recession·unemployment
Dick and Junior Go to War
December 2nd, 2009 · No Comments · International affairs, Politics
This will be short. There is not much to say that is not obvious to anyone with a brain. In 2001 we were attacked by Al Qaeda, a terrorist organization headquartered in Afghanistan and supported by the tribes that encompass the Taliban, a severely strict and radical Muslim group that was in power in much [...]
Tags: Afghanistan·Bush·Bush administration·Dick Cheney·Iraq war·Right Wing·Rumsfeld·war in Afghanistan
The Cost of War in Iraq and Afghanistan
November 16th, 2009 · No Comments · Economics, International affairs, Politics
Since 2001, the United States alone has spent over $687 billion on the Iraq war. We have spent over $228 billion on the war in Afghanistan. By the end of this year, 2009, we will have allocated about a trillion dollars for these two wars.
Even more important is the fact that, in these two [...]
Tags: costs of war in Afgahnistan·costs of war in Iraq·Iraq and Afghanistan·Iraq war·lives lost in Afghanistan·lives lost in Iraq·war in Afghanistan
Lou Dobbs and the Mystery of the Missing Birth Certificate
November 13th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Culture, International affairs, Media, Politics
Lou Dobbs has been on the air for 30 years. In chronological years, he is not an old man these days. But in keeping up with the times, in educating himself, and in thinking of the future, is he living in a past age? Has time passed him bye? Does he still wear brown shoes [...]
Tags: birthers·guns·illegal aliens·illegal immigration·Lou Dobbs·Media·President Obama·President Obama's birth certificate
The Case for Ending the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan–Now.
November 3rd, 2009 · 2 Comments · International affairs, Politics
After almost one trillion dollars spent and over 4,000 lives lost, it is time to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our troops home.
The arguments are pretty clear by now and the people responsible are standing, not in front of the forest, where they cannot see the trees, but in the [...]
Tags: Afghanistan·General McCrystal·Iraq·military strategy·strategic plan·terrorists·war in Afghanistan·war on terror·wars