War & Peace

Mission Accomplished: China Gets Half of Iraq’s Oil.

"You may remember the promise of the neocons in 2003: America’s war with Iraq would be paid for by Iraqi oil. Besides, the war would cost only $50 billion — $60 billion, tops. The war cost $2.2 trillion — $3 trillion, tops — and the oil is being gobbled up by China. The story of how China is buying almost half of Iraq’s oil has not gotten much attention. It does not seem to be consistent with President Bush’s war aims. But that’s how the fortune cookie crumbles. The war cost the Chinese government nothing. It is now using its newly printed counterfeit money to buy the oil that it could not legally buy under the Clinton Administration’s oil export restrictions on Iraq." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMission Accomplished: China Gets Half of Iraq’s Oil.

Gazing at Egypt With Shock and Awe

"First Egypt was destabilized and then the Muslim Brotherhood was virtually invited to take over. Presumably Washington had no problem with the ascent of the Muslim Brotherhood because it is amenable to Western Intel and has been for decades. But increasingly, it seems something went wrong in Egypt once the Brotherhood was installed. Not only did they not observe the (misleading) niceties of regulatory democracy; more egregiously they declined a loan from the International Monetary Fund. And so ... exit the Muslim Brotherhood and enter, once more, the Egyptian military – Washington's main ally of power in the Upper and Lower lands of the Nile." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGazing at Egypt With Shock and Awe

Gazing at Egypt With Shock and Awe

"First Egypt was destabilized and then the Muslim Brotherhood was virtually invited to take over. Presumably Washington had no problem with the ascent of the Muslim Brotherhood because it is amenable to Western Intel and has been for decades. But increasingly, it seems something went wrong in Egypt once the Brotherhood was installed. Not only did they not observe the (misleading) niceties of regulatory democracy; more egregiously they declined a loan from the International Monetary Fund. And so ... exit the Muslim Brotherhood and enter, once more, the Egyptian military – Washington's main ally of power in the Upper and Lower lands of the Nile." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGazing at Egypt With Shock and Awe

Egyptian security forces open fire in dawn raid on praying pro-Morsi supporters, 42 dead

"At least 42 people were killed on Monday during an attack on supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi outside an elite army base in Cairo, a senior medical official said. 'The death toll is 42 dead and 322 wounded,' Ahmed al-Ansari, the deputy head of emergency services, told AFP. The Muslim Brotherhood, which has led pro-Morsi demonstrations, said 35 of its supporters were killed when police and troops fired at them while they were praying at dawn. Witnesses, including Brotherhood supporters at the scene, said the army fired only tear gas and warning shots and that 'thugs' in civilian clothes had carried out the deadly shooting." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEgyptian security forces open fire in dawn raid on praying pro-Morsi supporters, 42 dead

Ron Paul on New Egyptian War: Americans Lose, Again

"Looking at the banners in the massive Egyptian protests last week, we saw many anti-American slogans. Likewise, the Muslim Brotherhood-led government that was deposed by the military last week was very critical of what it saw as US support for the coup. Why is it that all sides in this Egyptian civil war seem so angry with the United States? Because the United States has at one point or another supported each side, which means also that at some point the US has also opposed each side. It is the constant meddling in Egyptian affairs that has turned Egyptians against us, as we would resent foreign intervention in our own affairs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRon Paul on New Egyptian War: Americans Lose, Again

Marc Rich, King Of Commodities, Dead At 78

"He sold Soviet oil to apartheid South Africa, despite a UN embargo, and between 1979 and 1994 made profits of around $2 billion there. He sent Soviet and Venezuelan oil to Cuba in exchange for sugar, ignoring America’s ban on trade. He sold on the global market surplus Iranian oil that had flowed to Israel down a secret pipeline, and kept the arrangement going seamlessly despite the Iranian revolution of 1979, another embargo, and the American hostage crisis. In 1983 he fled to Switzerland with his family. Thereafter he became a fugitive, a star of the FBI’s most-wanted list. In 2001 Bill Clinton pardoned him." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMarc Rich, King Of Commodities, Dead At 78

It Is Now Common Knowledge That US Drones Bomb Civilian Rescuers

"That tactic is known as the 'double tap,' which bombs multiple targets in relatively quick succession — meaning that the second strike often hits first responders. In 2007 the FBI said the tactic as commonly used by terrorist organizations such as Hamas. Last year a study by NYU and Stanford detailed the U.S. use of the double tap, providing first-hand accounts of its devastating effect on rescuers and humanitarian workers. Last June the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Christof Heyns said he considers secondary strikes to be 'war crimes.' The fact that it is now normalized as a common tactic of the U.S. drone war is stunning." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIt Is Now Common Knowledge That US Drones Bomb Civilian Rescuers

Can You Pass The Terrorism Quiz? (Updated June 2013)

"It should be banal to read in the mainstream media that the US not only engages in terrorism but often aggravates it; that if the current crop of terrorists in, say, the Middle East were killed, new terrorists would simply arise if the underlying political and economic conditions remained unchanged; and, that if a particular country is perceived as actively supporting dysfunctional political and economic conditions in a part of the world, it will become the target of anger and, possibly, violence. Yet, instead of such obvious conclusions about terrorism, we are daily exposed to much bias and distortion. To counter such inadequate journalism, I have prepared the following quiz." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCan You Pass The Terrorism Quiz? (Updated June 2013)

Wall Street Journal says Egypt needs a Pinochet

"Presumably, the WSJ thinks the Egyptians now have 17 years in which to think themselves lucky when any who dissent are tortured with electricity, raped, thrown from planes or – if they’re really lucky – just shot. That’s what happened in Chile after 1973, causing the deaths of between 1,000 and 3,000 people. Around 30,000 were tortured. Presumably, the WSJ hopes a general in the mold of Pinochet (or generals, as they didn’t break the mold when they made him) will preside over all this with the assistance of Britain and America. Perhaps he (or they) will return the favour by helping one of them win a small war." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWall Street Journal says Egypt needs a Pinochet

US Obsession With the Importance of the Mideast and Solving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

"Recent developments in Egypt–with a sizeable minority of the population justifiably concerned about their rights at the hands of the majority of fundamentalist Islamists—show that arriving at liberal democracy from democracy may be a difficult and destabilizing prospect. The lesson from this messy process is not that the United States should intervene and remain until liberal democracies take hold in developing nations, but that the process is so chaotic that the United States should stay out of these nations, especially in the Middle East. This recommendation will be hard for the government of a swaggering superpower to stomach." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS Obsession With the Importance of the Mideast and Solving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict