by Paul Koring
From The Globe and Mail
July 12, 2008
MOSCOW — Head bowed, exhausted, the statue of a young soldier back from Afghanistan’s killing fields is flanked by long, grim, lists of his dead comrades. It’s a cautionary monument for Western politicians and generals who boldly boast they will succeed where the Soviets failed.
In Russia, a [...]
Stephen Harper, Bush’s Last Yes Man?
by Robert Fantina
Counterpunch, July 12/13, 2008
During the administration of Tony Blair as Prime Minister of Britain, he was sometimes referred to as the ‘Yankee Poodle,’ due to the constant and humiliating spectacle he made of himself with his obvious adoration of U.S. President George W. Bush.
Now, it seems, Canadian [...]
“Why, of course, the people don’t want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor [...]
Preparing the Battlefield
The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.
by Seymour M. Hersh
The New Yorker July 7, 2008
Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the [...]
New War Brewing
U.S., Israel take dangerous steps
by Eric Margolis
Edmonton Sun, July 6, 2006
GENEVA — The U.S., Israel and Iran are playing a very dangerous game of chicken that soon could result in a new Mideast war.
U.S. intelligence has concluded that Iran is not working on nuclear weapons. But the Bush administration and Israel, recently joined [...]
Speaking in Brandon last week, Defence Minister Peter MacKay pointed to plans to spend another half billion on the Canadian military and asserted that it is a “good time to be a soldier.” Needless to say, this is not a perspective we would share.
Nor was Mackay’s message well received by at least two readers of [...]
by Patrick Cockburn
Counterpunch, June 26, 2008
The American occupation of Iraq follows the same course as that of British rule after the First World War. At first there was imperial over-confidence following military victory and a conviction that what Iraqis did was of no importance. Then there was the shock and surprise of [...]
Lost in the System
By George Monbiot
Published in the Guardian 17th June 2008
. . . Three days before Bush arrived in Britain, the US Supreme Court ruled that the inmates at Guantanamo Bay were entitled to contest their detention in the civilian courts. This is the third time the supreme court has ruled against the prison [...]
A Line Not to be Crossed
By Eric Margolis
Toronto Sun
June 15, 2008
The killing of 11 Pakistani soldiers by U.S. air and artillery strikes last week shows just how quickly the American-led war in Afghanistan is spreading into neighbouring Pakistan . . . Widening the Afghan War into Pakistan is military stupidity on a grand scale, and [...]
If you rely on the mainstream media, especially in North America, for your understanding of the battles waged in Iraq or Afghanistan, the most you will get is place names, body counts and sound bites that rarely stray from officially vetted talking points. Here are a couple of antidotes.
Princess Patricia and the Taliban
By Eric Walberg
COUNTERPUNCH, [...]