Entries Tagged 'Middle East' ↓

A Muslim writer begins an article with, ‘who says the campaign for animal rights was started in the West ..’ She goes on to argue that Islam provided the original treatise on the humane treatment of animals. Her case was poorly constructed, inadequately executed, although the essence of her idea was to a degree, accurate. Islamic tradition has indeed laid a foundation, with clear boundaries regarding the humane treatment of animals.

But why did the author, like so many others, choose to turn what should have been a constructive argument, into a diatribe? Was it necessary to charge Western discourses, resorting to the ever predictable classification of “us and them”, instead of trying to find a common cause? Continue reading →

I have been re-reading James Howard Kunstler’s “The Long Emergency” recently and I recommend you read it, if you haven’t already.  Kunstler is a big thinker and, unfortunately for his career, is not on board with the happy-face mood of our country.  His is not the message America wants to hear at this moment, but if you want to see around the next turn of fate to protect yourself and your assets, you need to get familiar with what he has to say.

For a prophet of doom, Kunstler is a lot of fun to read — a big improvement over the Old Testament prophets.  I think you could summarize his attitude to his writing with the phrase, “You’ve got to laugh to keep from crying.”  And he will make you laugh!

He writes somewhat like Hunter S. Thompson, but describes the real world with humorous insight rather than his personal hallucinations. Continue reading →

We are responsible for overthrowing Iran’s first democratic government. In 1951 Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq demanded a share of the profits from Iran’s vast oil reserves. For this affront to western moneyed interests, he was deposed by a CIA backed coup.

Operation Ajax was the codename for the CIA’s plan. The agency paid Islamic clerics, dis-affected army officers, and employed mobs as demonstrators to foment unrest and carry out the military coup. Mossadeq was removed from power, imprisoned, and later died under house arrest.

The CIA installed the Shah as the ruler of Iran, and for the next 26 years the United States supported and funded his government. This included supplying Iran’s military forces with modern weapons and training for the Shah’s dreaded secret police unit, SAVAK. The Shah’s corrupt dictatorship created the revolution that took over the country in 1979. Continue reading →

Why are U.S. media always referring to Iran’s “nuclear weapons program” when the question arises of what Israel has the right to do about it?  From the reports of the UN inspectors, Iran has only a fledgling nuclear enrichment program directed toward creating nuclear power for its national use.  Nothing more.

But the mass media usually refer to Iran’s program as aimed at creating a nuclear weapon.  So it was reported on a Yahoo! News blurb the other day. Continue reading →

There is always some reason that they will try to convince you not to believe what you feel in your gut. They will try to bamboozle you
– Barack Obama

I admit I was swept up in the national euphoria of President Obama’s election. I really believed that something would be done about the economic crisis, our unjust “War on Terror”, and the creeping fascism these wars have engendered. But by now it should be clear that President Obama has no plans to change anything. Continue reading →

Featured Post for 05-/22-05/28:

“It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it”

I recalled this statement while I was reading a very powerful look at the My Lai massacre that took place during the Vietnam War. The depravity of humanity gone mad is revealed in this account and one would think that we would never again commit such atrocities. But the powers that be convinced us that we should put it behind us and move on. And now it seems we have repeated the depravity again in Iraq.

Is it true that our future is shaped by what and how we react to events and realities of the present? Have we gone even deeper into depravity since My Lai? And if that is true, what did we not do that would have kept us from drifting into an open acceptance of torture and unjustified bloodletting today? If the future we get IS up to us, what failures of our past determine what we leave for our children today? Continue reading →

Incongruous. One can hardly think of a more suited term to describe the new US administration’s approach to peacemaking in the Middle East. Though there is little evidence that previous US administrations had genuinely attempted to play a balanced role in forging a just peace between Israel and the Palestinians, many hoped — and a few still hope — that Barack Obama’s administration would bring about new standards. FULL ARTICLE

The Iraqi war was brought against an innocent people who had nothing to do with 9/11, the war was unnecessary to effect regime change, it was ginned up by lies of those who sought a war to open a new profit line, and it is just one of the seven wars that was planned in the early ninety’s, to aid the American Neo-Con vision of Empire in the Middle East. FULL ARTICLE

With the passing of time, the strength of the lobby, and the level of influence of Israel’s “friends” in the Congress has grown immensely to the point that US allegiances actually jeopardize the interests of their own citizens. Even from an imperialistic viewpoint, the US has no particular interest in supporting Israel’s genocidal policies in Gaza, for example, considering the fact that the US is struggling to find any semblance of ’stability’ in the region that is saturated with anti-American sentiment. FULL ARTICLE

Aside from Obama’s unparalleled clarity, thus far, on his utter and “unconditional” commitment to Israel, he, along with his officials, continue to borrow similar vague slogans that were used enthusiastically by the Bush administrations: national security, national interests, spreading of American ideals, values, and all the rest.  FULL ARTICLE