Category: Opinions and Debates

Haiti’s Great White Hope?

March 10, 2009: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton greets United Nations workers in Port-au-Prince. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File) By JOHN MAXWELL, Sunday, Jamaica Observer, May 24, 2009 History is littered with treachery. In the noisome Slough of Dishonour are mired…

The Torture Memos and Historical Amnesia

by Noam Chomsky The torture memos released by the White House elicited shock, indignation, and surprise. The shock and indignation are understandable. The surprise, less so. For one thing, even without inquiry, it was reasonable to suppose that Guantanamo was…

The Case of the Missing H-Bomb

by Jeffrey St. Clair, Counterpunch, May 15, 2009 hings go missing. It’s to be expected. Even at the Pentagon. Last October, the Pentagon’s inspector general reported that the military’s accountants had misplaced a destroyer, several tanks and armored personnel carriers,…

A toxic war

Iraq’s Wrecked Environment By Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank, Counterpunch, May 1, 2009 The ecological effects of war, like its horrific toll on human life, are exponential. When the Bush administration (parts one and two) and its congressional allies…

Torture brutalizes and corrupts

America’s Shame by Eric Margolis Nations that use torture disgrace themselves. Armed forces and police that torture inevitably become brutalized and corrupted. “Limited” use of torture quickly becomes generalized. “Information” obtained by torture is mostly unreliable. I learned these truths…

Obama’s Unwinnable Wars

Al Jazeera’s Washington-based current affairs program, Empire, examines the war path from Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan. This 47 minute special looks at recent developments in each country and features a discussion involving host Marwan Bashiri and a panel of…

Iraq: The U.S. withdrawal starts when?

Photo: Maya Alleruzzo/Associated Press Exceptions to Iraq Deadline Are Proposed By Rod Nordland, The New York Times, April 26, 2009 BAGHDAD — The United States and Iraq will begin negotiating possible exceptions to the June 30 deadline for withdrawing American…