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Tuesday 09th March 2010
The Israeli peace camp didn't die. It was never born in the first place. While it's true that since the summer of 1967, several radical and brave political groups have been working against the occupation - all worthy of recognition - a large, influential peace camp has never existed here. The problem is rooted in the left's impossible adherence to Zionism in its historical sense. In precisely the way there cannot be a democratic and Jewish state in one breath, one has to first define what comes before what - there cannot be a left wing committed to the old-fashioned Zionism that built the state but has run its course. This illusory left wing never managed to ultimately understand the Palestinian problem - which was created in 1948, not 1967 - never understanding that it can't be solved while ignoring the injustice caused from the beginning. A left wing unwilling to dare to deal with 1948 is not a genuine left wing.
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Tuesday 09th March 2010
For weeks, the US public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan War against what it was told was a "city of 80,000 people" as well as the logistical hub of the Taliban in that part of Helmand. That idea was a central element in the overall impression built up in February that Marja was a major strategic objective, more important than other district centers in Helmand. It turns out, however, that the picture of Marja presented by military officials and obediently reported by major news media is one of the clearest and most dramatic pieces of misinformation of the entire war, apparently aimed at hyping the offensive as a historic turning point in the conflict.
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Tuesday 09th March 2010
Fears that a United States congressional committee's vote to condemn the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians during World War I as genocide would poison bilateral relations with Turkey are being realized, starting with Ankara recalling its ambassador to Washington. This is bad news, given Turkey's heavy geostrategic importance to Washington.
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Monday 08th March 2010
Washington rhetoric, echoed by the stenographers of the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) over the past eight years, has brought a veneer of respectability to the international crime of aggressive war, as long as it is launched or sanctioned by the United States. With nodding approval from the FCM, Bush and Cheney sold the notion that such attacks can be justified to "prevent" some future hypothetical threat to the United States or its allies. This provided a thin, fig-leaf rationale for invading Iraq seven years ago this month. The Obama administration has not fully backed away from such thinking. War monger Benjamin Netanyahu is supremely confident of the solidity of his position with the movers and shakers in Congress, Washington opinion makers, and even within the Obama administration. And he gives off signs of being singularly underwhelmed by the President. These factors enhance the possibility Netanyahu will opt for the kind of provocation that would confront Obama with a Hobson's choice regarding whether to join an Israeli attack on Iran.
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Monday 08th March 2010
The UK government's attempt to have a case about torture heard entirely behind closed doors would extend secrecy to a new area of hearings, overriding ancient principles of English law. The only reason that this is done is to prevent allegations of collusion in torture and extraordinary rendition coming to light.
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Monday 08th March 2010
The leaders of Indonesia's special forces division, Kopassus, visited Washington to discuss the possible resumption of United States training. Despite the dubious records of some of the members of Kopassus, the Barack Obama administration wants to expand its military partnership and counter-terrorism cooperation with Jakarta under the dubious Bush-era mantra of the war on terror.
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Thursday 04th March 2010
Zionist exceptionalism is at the heart of the "civilized" west's policy of protecting the practitioners of ethnic cleansing and war crimes. The rewards for these criminals is a warm embrace with the promise that international law will be subverted to allow the shared values of torture, genocide and crimes against humanity to be strengthened. Since the UK government has abdicated its principles to uphold the law, citizens with a sense of justice and outrage will not hesitate to bring these zionist war criminals to book. Israeli Kadima Party leader Livni, in particular, has been glorifying terrorism in the wake of the Mossad murder squad expose in Dubai. She should be barred from the UK on these grounds if the Brown regime is to be consistent.
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Thursday 04th March 2010
The itch in Uncle Sam's nether regions has just got worse. With the likes of Chavez providing the necessary irritation, it is now the turn of Washington's allies to cock a snoot at the White House. America's backyard is now turning against its masters as the emperor begins to realise that it has no clothes.
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Thursday 04th March 2010
Nigeria's ruling party wants a Muslim from the north as its candidate in next year's presidential election, ruling out acting President Goodluck Jonathan. In the largest Muslim majority country, there is an unwritten power-sharing agreement within the PDP, that the party's candidates for the presidency should alternate between north and south after every two terms in office.
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Thursday 04th March 2010
To say the late economist deserves credit for the country's building codes shows a lack of knowledge of pre-coup Chile. The Chile of the 1960s had the best health and education systems on the continent, as well as a vibrant industrial sector and a rapidly expanding middle class. Chileans believed in their state, which is why they elected Allende to take the project even further. After the coup and the death of Allende, Pinochet and his Chicago Boys did their best to dismantle Chile's public sphere, auctioning off state enterprises and slashing financial and trade regulations.
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