Scrambling to plant a stake in the heart of Detroit’s once-vibrant democracy, pundits, pols, and journos are touting a dubious statistic in order to cast doubt on the ability of black citizens to govern themselves. In recent weeks numerous new stories and op-eds (e.g., here, here, and here) have cited a “2011 study” purporting to […]
Author Archive | Jacob Levich
“Collectivized Torture”: Drone Warfare and the Dark Side of Counterinsurgency
The recent Stanford University report on drone strikes in Pakistan, Living Under Drones, raises the possibility that the US is intentionally using drones, not merely as hi-tech assassination devices, but also as weapons of state terror intended to subdue unruly regions and populations. The appalling reality of drone warfare along the Afghanistan border closely resembles […]
Did the US Co-opt OWS in Order to Legitimize Egypt’s Flawed Elections?
Although Occupy Wall Street protesters have so far resisted attempts by the Democratic Party to co-opt their movement, a New York City “General Assembly” was bamboozled by what may be a State Department and/or NED initiative aimed at granting legitimacy to Egypt’s flawed election process. According to a November 16 story in Ahram Online and […]
Intercepted Phone Call: NATO Ground Troops Assisted Tripoli Invasion; “Mass Graves” in Misurata
US and European troops participated in the invasion of Tripoli and are still stationed there, according to an intercepted telephone call between officials of Libya’s National Transitional Council, the body purporting to represent NATO-allied rebels in the Libyan civil war. The call also reveals the existence of mass graves in or near Misurata which, one […]
A Counter-Revolution in Military Affairs? Notes on US High-Tech Warfare
When Colonel Harry Summers told a North Vietnamese counterpart in 1975 that “[y]ou know you never defeated us on the battlefield,” the reply was: “That may be so, but it is also irrelevant.1 News stories surrounding the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq proclaimed the arrival of a long-promised “Revolution in Military Affairs” (RMA), a […]
