Geography Archives: Asia

  Once again the Turkish generals threaten to invade areas in Northern Iraq, or, if you want, Southern Kurdistan. Historically, these areas with their flat fields around the Euphrates and Tigris, surrounded by peaked mountaintops, were home to a multitude of religions and cultures, in the way mountainous areas often are.  But, after decades of […]

A new dimension of immense importance is being added to the contradictions of US policy in Iraq and the Middle East at large.  Turkey, a staunch US ally for over half a century and a NATO member, is threatening to militarily intervene in Northern Iraq, i.e. Iraqi Kurdistan.  A resolution was passed by the Turkish […]

  This meeting, after thorough discussion of all aspects of the situation arising from the imposition of State of Emergency by the Chief of the Army Staff, resolves as follows: We strongly condemn the imposition of State of Emergency, promulgation of Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), suspension of fundamental rights and the dismantling of the entire […]

Author’s Note:  The appearance of General Petraeus’s Counterinsurgency Field Manual, published recently for the US book trade by the University of Chicago Press, has created a stir because of charges of pilfered scholarship, damage to the reputation of UC, and the role of anthropologist Montgomery McFate in writing the book.  The mission of social science […]

On October 9, the Oregon AFL-CIO passed a resolution opposing the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement and three other pending trade deals with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea.  A state federation condemning a free trade deal would normally be an unremarkable event, except for the remarkable absence in the Peru case of a typically heavy-weight free […]

Everything went well during the summer of 2007.  The economy was in an upswing and stock-market prices rose even faster.  Then the end of the housing boom in the United States triggered an international financial crisis.  Up to now it has been contained by heavy central-bank intervention; but the euphoria is gone.  The world of […]

From Dictatorship Watch, via Al Musawwir. | | Print

Many Iranians, ranging from university presidents in Iran to immigrants here in the United States, feel insulted by the treatment president Ahmadinejad received in New York in September.  This is understandable, coming in the midst of a larger media campaign to demonize Iran, including the newspaper cartoon last month that depicted Iranians as cockroaches crawling […]

Interview with IRNA Information Agency and Iranian State Television and Radio ABBAS ALI HADJI PARVANE: In the name of Allah!  Mr President, we are very grateful to you for finding the time to give us this interview in spite of your busy schedule and to answer our questions on Russia’s international position and bilateral relations […]

Understanding globalization, the main trend of capitalism at the beginning of the 21st century, is critical because of the many ways that it is undermining the lives and communities of working people in North America and around the world.  Few industries in the developed nations that are not specifically location-bound have been able to resist […]

The U.S. corporate media have been widely criticized for their refusal to question the Bush administration’s motives and assertions during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.  Armed with one-sided experts and pundits, the media fanned the passions of the American public, acting as a kind of perverse cheerleader for war with slick TV […]

In the fuss about Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York, a finer point was lost.  Columbia University and its current president, Lee Bollinger, have for some time each been a leader in the fields of foreign policy opportunism and service to global oppressors. In 1955, a mere two years after the CIA reinstated the Shah […]

In October 2006, internationally renowned Columbian artist Fernando Botero exhibited an important and jarring collection of new work at Manhattan’s Marlborough Gallery.  A visible departure from his whimsical robust figures popular in the international art market, Botero’s Abu Ghraib series (2004-05) of paintings and drawings are overtly political, haunting and difficult to confront.  The series […]

In 1978, then United Auto Worker (UAW) President Douglas Fraser, frustrated with corporate America’s new aggressiveness, accused US business of waging a “one-sided class war against working people, the unemployed, the poor, the minorities, the very young and the very old, and even many in the middle class of our society.”  In response, he warned, […]

The ultracons have it all wrong and the neocons are glad that they do. The straw dog that the ultracons are beating to death in print and on the Internet is the chimerical North American Union, purported to be a supranational state that intends to override the sovereignty of the United States and subject all […]

Today’s two most conspicuous global flashpoints — the Middle East and Latin America — have widely exposed the fact of US imperialism and highlighted some of its limitations.  Adding the apparent cracks in US economic hegemony seems to indicate an empire in decline.  Yet a more cautious assessment would recall that the earlier defeat in […]

September 14, 2007 — The release of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chair Jose Ma. Sison from detention in the Netherlands is “a victory for the Filipino people and their revolutionary forces, a big slap in the face of the US-Arroyo regime and a stinging blow against the fascist machinations of its National […]

In recent days, the US public has been satiated with a variety of press reports about numerous “new” plans aimed at addressing the US occupation and war in Iraq.  Some of these plans are rumored to include recommendations for an eventual withdrawal of all US forces from that country while some urge the Pentagon and […]

When George Bush began trying to justify the occupation of Iraq by invoking the “lessons” of Vietnam, I had the urge to send him a copy of the new documentary War Made Easy featuring Norman Solomon.  That’s hardly surprising — no doubt we’ve all had the occasional desire to try to educate our president. Then […]

Foreign countries are awash in dollars because they sell so much more to the US than they buy.  Increasingly, their governments use some of those dollars to establish and operate investment funds.  The funds buy shares in companies around the world.  Sometimes they buy companies directly.  Called “sovereign investment funds,” the IMF estimates that they […]