Archive | Commentary

In 2006, things seemed to be going badly for the U.S. military efforts in Iraq.  The Iraq war became a top issue in the 2006 Congressional elections in the United States.  It is generally agreed that the Republicans did poorly in those elections, largely because the U.S. electorate had become disillusioned with the viability and […]

Kendall Hale.  Radical Passions: A Memoir of Revolution and Healing.  Bloomington, Indiana: iUniverse, 2007.   225pp.  $18.95 (pbk). Radical memoirs of 1960s veterans seem to be coming out in considerable numbers now, and that’s no surprise.  The veterans are getting old and summing up their lives’ experiences, just at the moment when the Iraq war […]

Nine US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this week in a major attack attributed to the Taliban. More US troops have been killed in Afghanistan than Iraq in the past several months. We can expect as a result that the Democrats and their Presidential candidate Obama will intensify their calls for shifting the “war […]

On Wednesday, July 16 the House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs will meet to mark-up the FY’09 International Affairs budget.  Included in the budget is the so-called program to “promote democracy” in Iran, the regime change slush fund. The FY’09 International Affairs budget request (also known as Function 150) includes $65 million […]

The popular perception of the recently skyrocketing oil price is that there is an oil shortage in global energy markets.  The perceived shortage is generally blamed on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting countries (OPEC) for “insufficient” production, or on countries like China and India for their increased demand for energy, or on both. This perception […]

With oil prices having more than doubled over the last 12 months, various reasons are being cited for the price increases. Adhip Chaudhuri, a visiting professor of economics at Georgetown University’s campus in Doha, Qatar, explains the cause and effect of high oil prices. Is the increase in oil prices plunging the global economy into […]

  Introduction by Michael D. Yates Over the past several years, a vigorous debate has taken place within organized labor and among its allies over how best to rebuild a dying labor movement.  Much of the is debate has centered around the actions and arguments of the leaders of the nation’s largest union, The Service […]

July 13, 2008 It is hard to believe that I am in my fifth week of working and living in South Africa.  I am doing really well in acclimating to new work, new home, and new challenges. I moved into a small place in a seaside town called Gonubie, just outside of East London.  It […]

  On Monday, May 12, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., in an operation involving some 900 agents, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed a raid of Agriprocessors Inc, the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse and meat packing plant located in the town of Postville, Iowa.  The raid  — officials boasted — was “the largest single-site operation of […]

WASHINGTON, DC — The answer to one of the biggest questions in Washington D.C. has been manifesting for over five months and more than 8,000 miles that span across the sacred grounds of living sovereign nations.  The question is what steps can be taken to make known that “All Life Is Sacred, Save Mother Earth?” […]

  The Red Dance (with English subtitles)   Memoria de los silenciados: el baile rojo Colombia: Film Documents ‘Red Dance’ of Annihilation by Constanza Vieira BOGOTA, Jan 24 (IPS) — The Colombian documentary film “El baile rojo” (The Red Dance), competing this week at an international film festival, marks an effort to restore collective memory […]

  Songs of My Country I’m dying from cold and my voice is angry because at this gate of the river they stabbed the sun because at this gate of the river, my country, they stabbed the sun oh, my country, my country, my country This land has a name from the sea to the […]

  Hollmann Morris is a Colombian television journalist.  A recipient of many awards, he was awarded the Human Rights Defender Award by Human Rights Watch in 2007.  “In Memorian,” like The Red Dance (Dir. Yezid Campos Zornosa, 2003), documents the Colombian government’s campaign of assassinations to destroy La Unión Patriótica (Patriotic Union), a political party […]

  On June 19th, twenty of us from Gainesville, Florida traveled to Jacksonville to protest Blue Cross Blue Shield, my health insurance company.  The effort was part of a nationwide protest of insurance companies, led by the coalition Healthcare NOW: Cigna in Philadelphia, Aetna in Hartford, Humana in Louisville, and many more.  The biggest demonstration […]

  Dear Anti-War Activists, Mina Doroud, Jamshidieh Park, Tehran.   Photo by Hamed Saber. As you all know, the Bush administration is ratcheting up its rhetoric on Iran, and all of us are concerned and wondering how best to react and counter this growing threat.  As a resource to the anti-war movement, Global Exchange organizes […]

He receives us at the door, at the entrance to a one-story house located on the hills of Damascus. No protocol, no security measure: we are not searched, nor are our recording devices inspected. “Here is the house where I read, where I work. There are only this room, a conference room, and a kitchen. And, of course, the Internet and television. My wife Asma often comes here, too. Here I am productive; at the presidential palace, that is not the case.” For nearly two hours, he covers all topics, without evading any question. He takes obvious pleasure in discussion and uses his hands to emphasize his arguments.

ISLAMABAD JULY 8, 2008 — Another couple of days of bombings in Pakistan and Afghanistan, each with its own message and each by a different group.  A couple of days ago the Americans hit a wedding party and killed over 20 people in Afghanistan.  In Kabul yesterday the Indian embassy was struck by a suicide […]

  National Call-in Day on Iran Blockade Resolutions Wednesday, July 9 is a national call-in day for H.Con.Res 362, the blockade resolution.Call your member of Congress and ask him or her not to support a blockade on Iran. Washington, DC — A law has been passed by the Florida legislature making it significantly more difficult […]

Islamabad, Pakistan — Some lessons learned while spending time in a different culture come from paying attention to the wide diversity in how we humans arrange ourselves socially.  Equally crucial lessons come from seeing patterns in how people behave similarly in similar situations, even in very different cultural contexts. This week in Pakistan, as I […]

Dear Supporter of a Just Foreign Policy, Recently we’ve seen an escalation of threats to attack Iran.  In the New Yorker, Seymour Hersh reported that Congressional leaders agreed last year to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran.1 The House of Representatives is currently considering a resolution promoted by AIPAC that would effectively demand […]