Geography Archives: Iraq

  • Protest 10 Years of War on Afghanistan

    Oct. 15 is a day of nationally coordinated antiwar actions in cities across the U.S., the 10th anniversary of the massively destructive and criminal U.S. war on Afghanistan. When the U.S. government began its attack on Afghanistan 10 years ago, President Bush called it a “war on terror.”  It was followed by 8 years of […]

  • Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya: Worthy Victims and Unworthy Victims

      Trafalgar Square, London, 8 October 2011, Video by Harry Fear TV At the very moment we are here, the United States, Britain, and France are bombing a city in Libya called Sirte.  There are 100,000 people.  Day and night, residential buildings, clinics, schools have been hit with fragmentation bombs and Hellfire missiles. . . […]

  • What Happens If the Call for “International Protection” of Protesters in Syria Gets Answered?

    (1) “We Call for Foreign Intervention” (2) But if the call gets answered. . . . Ibrahim Jaza is a Syrian cartoonist.  Cf. “US State Department tool Radwan Ziadeh today called for a war on Syria.  Speaking on Aljazeera’s prime-time, evening newscast ‘daily harvest’, Washington’s favorite Syrian ‘human rights activist’ did not actually utter the […]

  • Libya: NATO Provides the Bombs; The French “Left” Provides the Ideology

      Last April, former Le Monde diplomatique director Ignacio Ramonet published (in Mémoire des Luttes) a text entitled “Libya, the Just and the Unjust.”  The war had been started a few weeks earlier, inaugurated by French aircraft which had the honor of dropping the first bombs on Tripoli.  On March 19, “a wave of pride […]

  • Bahrain’s al-Wefaq, Pressured by Regional Players to Compromise

      Bahrain’s largest opposition group is resisting grassroots demands for renewed full-scale street protests amid regional pressure to strike a compromise solution with the regime. Al-Wefaq and other Bahraini opposition groups boycotted the country’s parliamentary by-elections last Saturday.  But al-Wefaq did not support the latest calls for demonstrations at Pearl Square and may be pushing […]

  • WFTU: ‘Support People, Oppose Imperialist Interference in Arab Countries’

      The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) organised on September 13-14 a two-day international trade union meet in the European Parliament complex in Strasbourg, France, to express solidarity with the fighting people of Arab countries and voice strong protest against the hegemonic interference of US imperialism and its European allies in the internal affairs […]

  • Change at Al Jazeera

      The Western and Arabic press is full of stories about Al Jazeera and the new direction it will inevitably follow with the selection of a new director-general for its operating networks.  The ouster (the official statement did not mention resignation) of Waddah Khanfar has opened doors for speculation.  No one really knows what goes […]

  • Smart New Syria Strategy: Call the Monarchies’ Bluff and Make Them Do What They Are Demanding of You!

    For a regime which has, as ICG put it, really inflicted so many wounds on itself (not to mention Syrians) . . . this strikes me as a very effective strategy going forward.  You corrupt, collaborationist, monarchical, brutal regimes in the region want us, Syria, to reform and transition out. . . .  OK — […]

  • Al Jazeera and U.S. Foreign Policy: What WikiLeaks’ U.S. Embassy Cables Reveal about U.S. Pressure and Propaganda

    “Al Jazeera is a vital component to the USG’s strategy in communicating with the Arab world.” — Joseph E. LeBaron, U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, November 6, 2008 “Al Jazeera Board Chairman Hamed bin Thamer Al Thani has proven open to creative uses of Al Jazeera’s airwaves by the USG beyond straightforward interviews.” — Joseph E. […]

  • Syria: What Kind of Revolution?

      The Syrian uprising which erupted nearly six months ago seems to be settling into a dangerous deadlock with neither side — the regime or the opposition — willing to budge from its stated position.  The daily toll of deaths and injuries climb ever higher with no resolution in sight.  The regime seems insistent on […]

  • Syria: Testing Time

      Syria remains relatively calm as efforts to destabilise its government through orchestrated attacks by rebels fail. Life in the Syrian capital, Damascus, seems to be continuing as normal.  The streets and the mosques are crowded after the devout break their Ramazan fast in the evening.  The security presence is minimal.  In fact, there are […]

  • The Neocolonization of Libya: Interview with Aijaz Ahmad

    Aijaz Ahmad: . . . Europeans, and Italians in particular, are celebrating the 100th anniversary of their first aerial bombing ever done in the world.  The Italians bombed in Libya in 1911.  Now, of course, with 100 years of development of the technology, there have been 20,000 aerial attacks on Libya. . . .  They […]

  • Gene Bruskin of USLAW, Live Radio Interview on Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 6-8 PM Central Time

    Folks, As many of you know, I’m a veteran of the US Marine Corps, who turned around while on active duty (1969-73).  I work with some Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at our university, Purdue University North Central in Westville, IN, in the northwest part of Indiana, just below Lake Michigan. One of the young vets […]

  • UN Troops in Haiti Accused of Sexual Assault

    The video is profoundly disturbing.  It shows four men, identified as Uruguayan troops from the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), apparently raping an 18-year old Haitian youth.  Two of them have the victim pinned down on a mattress, with his hands twisted high up his back so that he cannot move.  Perhaps the most unnerving […]

  • George Monbiot and the Guardian on “Genocide Denial” and “Revisionism”

    On Tuesday, June 14, the Guardian of London published “Left and Libertarian Right Cohabit in the Weird World of the Genocide Belittlers.”1  In this nearly 1,100-word commentary, the British writer George Monbiot attacked the two of us (among others) as “genocide deniers” and “revisionists” for our writings on the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.  Monbiot also […]

  • Libya, Africa, and the New World Order

      “The letter was signed by more than 200 prominent Africans, including ANC national executive member Jesse Duarte, political analyst Willie Esterhuyse of the University of Stellenbosch, former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils, lawyer Christine Qunta, former deputy foreign affairs minister Aziz Pahad, former minister in the presidency Essop Pahad, Sam Moyo of the African Institute […]

  • Abdulhakim Bashar of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Syria: “The Kurdish Parties of Syria Don’t Want Blood Spilled between Us and the Syrian Regime”

    Rudaw: The situation in Syria is turning increasingly violent and the western world has called on President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Where do you think things will go from here?

    Abdulhakim Bashar: The Syrian regime will not fall merely based on the words and pleas of the west. The regime has made up its mind. Sanctions and international pressure will make things difficult, but the regime won’t collapse. We saw this in Iraq where 13 years of sanctions did not end Saddam Hussein’s regime until it was invaded. Syria is complicated. International pressure may encourage the protesters, but it will not be decisive.

  • Washington’s Syria Policy Battle: Interventionists versus Non-Interventionists

    Two distinct camps are forming to battle over Syria policy in Washington. The first is made up of the neocons, who are busy fitting the Arab Spring into US strategic interests as they see them.  John Bolton, Michael Doran, and Elliott Abrams have been leading the charge in articulating this argument. The second group are […]

  • Libya News Roundup

    Richard Seymour (20 August 2011): “I think we would see a recomposition of the old regime, without Qadhafi but with the basic state structures intact.  The former regime elements would become regime elements, within a pro-US, neoliberal state with some limited political democracy.  In addition, those calling for intervention in Syria would be strengthened, as […]

  • Brazilian Defense Minister Amorim Supports Withdrawal of Troops from Haiti — But When?

    One month ago I argued in this space that Brazil should set a timetable for getting its troops out of Haiti, since there is no war in Haiti and no legitimate reason — nor legal justification — for the UN military force (MINUSTAH) to be there.  Now Brazil’s new Defense Minister, Celso Amorim — who […]