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Commentary Last Updated: Jul 2nd, 2009 - 00:52:06


Commentary
Happy Fourth! China is bidding on Iraq’s oilfields
By Jerry Mazza

As July 4th, our Independence Day, rolls around and we begin our troop withdrawal; as the Iraqis celebrate and after untold thousands of US soldiers have died and a million Iraqis to boot . . .

Jul 2, 2009, 00:20

Commentary
Pirates of the Mediterranean
By Paul Craig Roberts

On June 30, the government of Israel committed an act of piracy when the Israeli Navy, in international waters, illegally boarded the “Spirit of Humanity,” kidnapped its 21-person crew from 11 countries, including former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Laureate Mairead MaGuire, and confiscated the cargo of medical supplies, olive trees, reconstruction materials, and children’s toys that were on the way to the Mediterranean coast of Gaza. The “Spirit of Humanity,” along with the kidnapped 21 persons, was towed to Israel’s Port of Ashdod.

Jul 2, 2009, 00:18

Commentary
‘And we elect them again and again’*
By Howard Lisnoff

Americans (at least some of those who reside in the U.S.) have a very limited sense of history. This can be seen in all the bluster from politicians regarding the rebellion in Iran. Nowhere is there any recounting of the U.S.-backed government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, who ruled for decades by way of draconian policies toward his own people for the sake of British, U.S., French, and Dutch oil interests. Even the taking of the American Embassy by Iranian students in 1979 was seen here as divorced from the prior history of U.S.-Iranian relations.

Jul 2, 2009, 00:12

Commentary
Liberté includes freedom of dress
By Linda S. Heard

The burqa worn by Muslim women is “a sign of subjugation” that is not “welcome” in his country, says French President Nicholas Sarkozy.

Jul 2, 2009, 00:10

Commentary
Iraq war: Not another whitewash, please!
By Linda S. Heard

A scheduled independent inquiry into Britain’s role in the Iraq war is long overdue. The invasion of Iraq arguably constitutes Britain’s greatest blunder since the 1956 Suez Crisis, which resulted in the then Prime Minister Anthony Eden suffering an emotional breakdown and being forced to quit office.

Jul 1, 2009, 00:15

Commentary
Tribal Marxism for Dummies
By Gilad Atzmon

For very many years the Palestinian solidarity discourse was dominated by leftist ideology carried largely by Jewish Marxists. Though the support of Jewish leftists was rather important at an early stage, it lost its primacy and urgency as Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian solidarity discourse evolved into a vivid autonomous discourse based on widely accepted ethical grounds.

Jul 1, 2009, 00:13

Commentary
Waking up
By Pablo Ouziel

We wake up in the morning to hear and watch the newest tragedy that has swept the attention of the world's media.

Jun 30, 2009, 00:24

Commentary
Illusory return to economic normalcy
By Ben Tanosborn

“Everything would be okay if it weren’t for that CNN scaring us out of our wits, giving us all those stories and commentary on the recession and presumed bad economy,” was the statement someone made at the table, as we were having breakfast at a delightful bedand breakfast of the most charming Victorian-accented town in Washington State: Port Townsend.

Jun 30, 2009, 00:20

Commentary
Cap and trade or distance tariffs?
By Kent Welton

Cap and trade is overly complicated and byzantine to say the least and, worse, easily subject to corruption and private profiteering from within a necessary public interest and mission. It’s a huge mistake.

Jun 30, 2009, 00:16

Commentary
40 years after Stonewall, still a long way to go
By Mary Shaw

I am writing this on June 28, 2009 -- the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1969, which marked the beginning of the LGBT rights movement here in the U.S.

Jun 30, 2009, 00:14

Commentary
Gun control: What is the agenda?
By Paul Craig Roberts

Some years or decades ago, I researched and reported on the Sullivan Act, one of America’s first gun control laws.

Jun 29, 2009, 00:16

Commentary
Beyond politics: People for sale in hungry world
By Ramzy Baroud

One might be tempted to dismiss the recent findings of the US State Department on human trafficking as largely political. But do not be too hasty.

Jun 29, 2009, 00:12

Commentary
A different take on the Holocaust
By Jerry Mazza

Norman Finkelstein is not a wild-eyed Holocaust denier. In fact, his parents were both survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto and the camps, his father from Auschwitz, his mother from Majdanek.

Jun 26, 2009, 00:26

Commentary
The real situation in Iran: Moving fast
By Reza Fiyouzat

In the fog of the swift repression that followed the Iranian elections, and intensified in some American ‘leftist’ corners by commentaries about a CIA-led coup by the Mousavi camp (whereas the real coup, as described by Sahimi among others, was going the other way), a very elementary question has been completely lost sight of: Since the Iranian authorities are so wonderfully efficient and super speedy at vote counting -- so much so, that they could announce the full results of tens of millions of votes in less than two hours after the closing of polling stations -- then, surely they could have just taken one, more, day, and counted all the votes one more time, just to make sure; with different campaigns’ representatives present, etc., no?

Jun 26, 2009, 00:22

Commentary
Ideologue
By Nick Egnatz

Recently a friend said that I had become an ideologue in my condemnation of the American government’s historic record and the two-party political system which has facilitated the crimes.

Jun 26, 2009, 00:18

Commentary
Those over 55 need not apply
By Howard Lisnoff

In 1965, in the midst of the zeitgeist for change created in the 60s era that was the Free Speech Movement at the University of California at Berkley, Jack Weinberg, one of the leaders of that movement said: “Don’t trust anybody over 30.” While the context in which that quote was made is debatable, its irony upon a generation that came of age long ago is not lost. Even a stock investment company has taken up that clarion call, using a famous icon from that period, in an appeal to baby boomers to seek new opportunities through investing.

Jun 26, 2009, 00:16

Commentary
A very unlucky man
By Linda S. Heard

No wonder Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown looks as though he has all the cares of the world on his shoulders. As well-intentioned as he undoubtedly is, nothing seems to work out for him. Ever since he stepped into Tony Blair’s shoes two years ago, he has been battling a series of unprecedented problems not of his own making. Yet, try as he might, there are few kudos heading his way.

Jun 25, 2009, 00:12

Commentary
Iran falling to US PSYOPS?
By Paul Craig Roberts

President Obama called on the Iranian government to allow protesters to control the streets in Tehran. Would Obama or any US president allow protesters to control the streets in Washington, D.C.?

Jun 24, 2009, 00:15

Commentary
Are Iran’s protests manufactured?
By Linda S. Heard

Recent events in Iran are being generally perceived through an emotive or subjective lens, while the protests are invariably being coloured by the Western media in line with the foreign policy leanings of their respective countries.

Jun 24, 2009, 00:11

Commentary
Reading between more Netanyahu lines
By Jerry Mazza

This time, according to Haaretz, Israel’s Prime Minister told a German newspaper that he could see peaceful relations between Israel and Iran if new leadership took power in Tehran. What comes to mind is that new leadership in Israel, i.e., a less militaristic, theocratic government, could bring peace to Palestine as well as Iran. Idiomatically, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander(s).

Jun 23, 2009, 00:24


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Long on rhetoric, short on memory
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Iran faces greater risks than it knows
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Commentary
Happy Fourth! China is bidding on Iraq’s oilfields
Pirates of the Mediterranean
‘And we elect them again and again’*
Liberté includes freedom of dress
Iraq war: Not another whitewash, please!
Editors' Blog
Reporting from Cairo
It's a question of Congress acting responsibly
What propaganda does “24” have in store this season?
More Dem factionalism on the way
"24" reflects betrayed America
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Fixing the system: There must be some way out of here
Restore constitutional government to America
Reinventing America: A return to thinking
Taser jolts on the road toward mutiny; hope is not enough!
The Splendid Failure of Occupation
Part 45: How the U.S. engineered the Iraqi holocaust
Part 44: Burning the cradle of civilization
Part 43: The scheme behind the bombardment of Iraq
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