From Countercurrents.org -
12 June, 2008
A
Failed Project For The New American Century?
By Tim Buchholz
So the war in
Iraq led to an increase in the short term, but looks like it will lead to a
decrease in the future. The dollar is reaching new lows and people are starting
to invest in Euros and Yen instead. Our housing market has crashed. Our deficit
continues to grow. And even PNAC’s website, www.newamericancentury.org, has
been taken down, saying only “This account has been suspended. Please contact
the billing/support department as soon as possible.”
23 May, 2008
How
The American Imperial Dream
Foundered In Iraq
By Michael Schwartz
It is past
time for the rest of the world to shoulder at least a small share of the burden
of resistance. Just as the worldwide protests before the war were among the
upstream sources of the Iraqi resistance-to-come, so now others, especially
Americans, should resist the very idea that Iraq could ever become the
headquarters for a permanent United States presence that would, in the words of
Bush speechwriter David Frum, "put America more wholly in charge of the
region than any power since the Ottomans, or maybe even the Romans." Unlike
the Iraqis, after all, the citizens of the United States are uniquely positioned
to bury this imperial dream for all time
17 May, 2008
Terror
Most Imperial
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
Today, one of
the more subtle tools of imperialism is the use of value-laden language that
seeks to define the Arab and Muslim world. With labels such as ‘terrorists’
and ‘Islamofascism’, they wish to establish an ‘Orientalist’ perspective
of otherness denoting barbarism as set apart from Israel and the West which
represents admirable qualities. It is imperative to reject this imperial
imposition of characterization and for each state, individually and
collectively, to self-rule, foremost through self-definition
30 April, 2008
America's
University Of Imperialism
By Chalmers Johnson
This essay is
a review of Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the
American Empire by Alex Abella
02 April, 2008
Empire
Or Humanity?
By Howard Zinn
What the
Classroom Didn't Teach Me About the American Empire
14 March, 2008
The
Ruthless American Empire
By Timothy V. Gatto
On Wednesday,
March 19th, there will be a mass civil disobedience demonstration on the steps
of the Capitol. If you can be there, then be there. If you cannot attend, go to
a rally near where you live. The future of this nation is at stake. This means
our future is at stake. This monster that has been created must come to an end
and this nation must return to its borders and re-join the community of nations.
The simple fact is that all Empires fall. Do you want to be here when this one
does?
02 December, 2007
World
Of Terror, Sidr And The US 'Help'
By Anu Muhammad
The world has entered into a
permanent system of war, militarization, destruction and dehumanisation. After
Second World War, for different reasons, the US has emerged as the centre of
this global system. The survival of the US as a super power, expansion of its
hegemony and the function of global capitalism now mostly depend upon war
machine and militarism. That gives birth to a new phase of imperialism and
becomes a threat not only people and nations in the periphery but for whole
human civilization
17 November, 2007
Averting
World War III, Ending
Dollar Hegemony And US Imperialism
By Rohini Hensman
If the Bush administration has
decided to attack Iran militarily, is there any power on earth that can stop it
if the people of the US are unable or unwilling to do so? The argument below is
that if the USA’s ability to undertake imperial conquests depends on its
obvious military supremacy, this in turn is ultimately based on the use of the
US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. It is the dominance of the dollar
that underpins US financial dominance as a whole as well as the apparently
limitless spending power that allows it to keep hundreds of thousands of troops
stationed all over the world. Destroy US dollar hegemony, and the “Empire”
will collapse
14 November, 2007
Cost
Of US Wars $1.6 Trillion
By Bill Van Auken
The price tag for the wars
being waged by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan will hit nearly $1.6
trillion during the coming year, according to a report released Tuesday by the
Democratic staff of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee
25 October, 2007
Torture,
Paramilitarism, Occupation And Genocide
By Stephen Lendman
On October 5, George Bush
confronted a public uproar and defended his administration claiming "This
government does not torture people." Again he lied. Once secret US
Department of Justice (DOJ) legal opinions confirm the Bush administration
condones torture by endorsing "the harshest interrogation techniques ever
used by the Central Intelligence Agency." It also condones paramilitary
thuggery, oppressive occupation, and genocide. This unholy combination is the
ugly face of an imperial nation run by war criminals
24 October, 2007
The
Imperial Presidency
By Ralph Nader
To what level of political
insanity has this Washington Caesar descended? Only two countries can start
World War III-Russia and the United States. Is Bush saying that if Russia,
presently opposed to military action against Iran, persists with its position,
Bush may risk World War III? If not, why is this law-breaking warmonger, looking
for another war for American GIs to fight, while his military-age daughters bask
in the celebrity lime light?
10 October, 2007
Reviewing
James Petras' "Rulers And Ruled
In The US Empire"
By Stephen Lendman
The book is information rich
on a core issue of our time. It discusses the US empire's "systemic
dimensions," evolving changes in its ruling class, its corporatist system,
myths about its coming collapse, contradictions in the current debate on
immigration and market liberalization policies, the use of force and genocidal
carnage, corruption as a market penetrating tool, the Israeli Lobby's power and
influence, Latin American relations and events in the region, social and armed
resistance, and much more in four power-packed parts under 17 subject chapter
headings
05 October, 2007
The
American Empire And The Commonwealth Of God
By Jim Miles
Book Review: The American
Empire and the Commonwealth of God – A Political, Economic, Religious
Statement. By John Cobb, Richard Falk, David Griffin and Catherine Keller
01 October, 2007
A
Global Satyagraha Against Imperialism
By Rohini Hensman
Gandhi's birth anniversary on
October 2 provides a fitting occasion to launch a global satyagraha against
imperialism. Such a struggle is urgently needed today, given the carnage being
inflicted by imperialism in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the threat of
even greater carnage in Iran. Support for the people of these countries needs to
be stepped up to a higher level globally if the continuing holocaust is to be
halted
28 September, 2007
The
State of the American Empire –
How the USA Shapes the World
By Jim Miles
Book Review: The State of the
American Empire – How the USA Shapes the World By Stephen Burman. University
of California Press, Myriad Editions,2007
26 September, 2007
A
Culture Of Violence
By Stephen Lendman
What kind of country glorifies
mass killing, assaults and abuse; one that looks down on pacifist non-violence
as sissy or unpatriotic, yet claims to be peace loving. It's not in the third
world, under dictatorship or controlled by religious extremists. It's the
"land of the free and home of the brave, America the Beautiful" where
human rights, civil liberties, common dignity and personal safety are more
illusion than fact
21 August, 2007
Oil
Wars: Fueling Both U.S. Empire And Ecocide
By Dan Brook
The war will end. U.S. troops
will return home. The empire is running on fumes and will eventually stall out.
The only questions are: How many more people will have to die before that
happens? How many more billions of dollars will have to be wasted?
16 July, 2007
Plan
Iraq:Permanent Occupation
By Stephen Lendman
Drawdowns, withdrawal,
timelines, mission shifting, building democracy and all the other current and
long-standing phony rhetoric aside, America is in Iraq to stay as a conqueror
and occupier - that is, until Iraqis finally kick us out as they will in time in
a part of the world long a graveyard for foreign invaders. But it won't happen
quickly or before countless more thousands die, are injured, suffer
immeasurably, are displaced, and lose everything
US
Middle East Wars: Social Opposition
And Political Impotence
By James Petras
Everywhere I visit from
Copenhagen to Istanbul, Patagonia to Mexico City, journalists and academics,
trade unionists and businesspeople, as well as ordinary citizens, inevitably ask
me why the US public tolerates the killing of over a million Iraqis over the
last two decades, and thousands of Afghans since 2001?
09 June, 2007
Report
Details CIA Prisons In Europe
By Joe Kay
A report released Friday by
the Council of Europe confirms that the CIA has used interrogation centers in
Europe, including in Romania and Poland, to secretly hold and torture prisoners
captured in Afghanistan, Iraq and other parts of the globe
16 May, 2007
Is
Imperial Liquidation Possible For America?
By Chalmers Johnson
When Ronald Reagan coined the
phrase "evil empire," he was referring to the Soviet Union, and I
basically agreed with him that the USSR needed to be contained and checkmated.
But today it is the U.S. that is widely perceived as an evil empire and world
forces are gathering to stop us
15 May, 2007
Notes
On A Cultural Renaissance
In A Time Of Barbarism
By James Petras
We live in a time of
imperial-driven destructive wars in the name of ‘democracy’, savage
exploitation in the name of ‘emerging world powers’, massive forced
population displacement in the name of ‘immigration’ and large-scale pillage
of natural resources in the name of ‘free markets’
27 April, 200
Mr.
Bush, Tear Down These Walls!
By Scott Ritter
The ongoing policy of building
walls in Baghdad designed to segregate Sunni neighborhoods from Shiite
neighborhoods is as morally despicable as it is ineffective. The Soviets built
walls; the Nazis walled off entire communities, often as a precursor to rounding
up the segregated population and shipping it off to concentration camps
24 April, 2007
Deaths
In Other Nations Since WW II
Due To Us Interventions
By James A. Lucas
The overall conclusion reached
is that the United States most likely has been responsible since WWII for the
deaths of between 20 and 30 million people in wars and conflicts scattered over
the world
23 April, 2007
Blacksburg
To Baghdad:US Mass Murder
At Home & Abroad
By Gideon Polya
The Blacksburg Massacre was
enabled because America is awash with guns, has a power-obsessed, abusive and
racist culture and IGNORES the appalling human consequences of its actions
17 April, 2007
Blood
For Oil Control
By Paul Street
U.S. forces are in Iraq to
protect Iraq oil from the Iraqis themselves and from the possibility that the
Iraqis might act to accelerate U.S. global decline by aligning their energy
resources with the development of competing states and sectors in the world
system
14 April, 2007
Iran
May Be The Greatest Crisis Of Modern Times
By John Pilger
It is time we in Britain and
other Western countries stopped looking from the side. We are being led towards
perhaps the most serious crisis in modern history as the Bush-Cheney-Blair
"long war" edges closer to Iran for no reason other than that nation's
independence from rapacious America
27 March, 2007
A
Cluster Bomb Treaty: Again,
It's The U.S. v. The World
By Scott Stedjan & Laura Weis
In an historic step forward,
Norway hosted the Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions in late February 2007,
where 49 countries met to discuss how to address the indiscriminate and lasting
effects of cluster munitions on civilians. The Bush administration did not send
a representative to the Oslo meeting and, absent a policy change, is unlikely to
participate in subsequent meetings
19 March, 2007
If
Elected, Hillary Clinton Vows
To Keep US Troops In Iraq
By Bill Van Auken
In a calculated bid to
position herself for the 2008 Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton
told the New York Times Wednesday that, if elected president, she would keep
significant US military forces in Iraq for the foreseeable future
13 March, 2007
America's
Perpetual Nuclear War
By Robert Weitzel
The world should note that
America has been waging a “low yield” nuclear war that has been killing
civilians for almost two decades. Missing from this war are mushroom clouds and
very loud booms. Present is nuclear fallout with its insidious long-term effects
on both combatant and civilian and its perpetual contamination of land and water
resources
11 March, 2007
A
Predator Becomes More Dangerous
When Wounded
By Noam Chomsky
Washington's escalation of
threats against Iran is driven by a determination to secure control of the
region's energy resources
10 March, 2007
Democrats
“Withdrawal” Plan Paves
Way To Escalation Of Iraq War
By Bill Van Auken
Speaker of the House Nancy
Pelosi and other Democratic congressional leaders unveiled a toothless plan
Thursday that they claim would result in the withdrawal of US combat troops from
Iraq a year and a half from now. The main purpose of this political exercise,
however, is to unite the party behind supplemental funding legislation that will
provide at least $100 billion more to pay for the escalation of the illegal war
and occupation that has been waged by Washington for the past four years
02 March, 2007
Nemesis:
The Last Days Of The American Republic
By Chalmers Johnson & Amy Goodman
In his new book, CIA analyst,
distinguished scholar, and best-selling author Chalmers Johnson argues that US
military and economic overreach may actually lead to the nation's collapse as a
constitutional republic. It's the last volume in his Blowback trilogy, following
the best-selling "Blowback" and "The Sorrows of Empire."
A
Review Of Chalmers Johnson's Nemesis
By Stephen Lendman
Volume three is Nemesis and
the subject of this review. In it, Johnson "tried to present historical,
political, economic, and philosophical evidence of where our current behavior is
likely to lead." He believes our present course is a road to perdition in
the form of fiscal insolvency and a military or civilian dictatorship
Never
Again To Antiwar Battle Fatigue
By David Howard
From the Holocaust witnesses
we have learned to say never again to regimes of racism and fascism. From
Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors we have learned to say never again to nuclear
weapons. From the Iraq War we must learn to say never again to preemptive war,
to torture, and to the insidious ideology of democratizing by the sword
01 March, 2007
America's
March Madness
By Mickey Z.
Last month, I touched on a
fraction of February's forgotten history vis-à-vis America's long history of
global brutality. Here's a small taste of March's madness
14 February, 2007
The
World Can Halt Bush’s Crimes
By Dumping The Dollar
By Paul Craig Roberts
If the rest of the world would
simply stop purchasing US Treasuries, and instead dump their surplus dollars
into the foreign exchange market, the Bush Regime would be overwhelmed with
economic crisis and unable to wage war. The arrogant hubris associated with the
“sole superpower” myth would burst like the bubble it is
13 February, 2007
Bush’s
Plan For Iraq And The Middle East
By Abid Mustafa
Over the past few months, the
Bush administration in the backdrop of the Iraq Study Group’s (ISG) report has
announced its plan for Iraq—apart from the Presidents refusal to formally
engage Iran and Syria— the plan broadly concurs with the recommendation laid
out by the ISG. Furthermore, the US has mobilised its surrogates in Egypt,
Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the gulf countries to implement this plan
and prepare the ground for the emergence of a new middle east. What follows is a
brief summary of what America is planning to achieve in Palestine, Iraq and Iran
12 February, 2007
“You
Cannot Oppose The War And Fund This War”
By Kevin Zeese & Anthony Arnove
An interview with Anthony
Arnove
War:
It's Just A Pretext Away
(Lessons From Yugoslavia)
By Mickey Z.
Anyone viewing international
events with even a shred of objectivity knows that the U.S. government is just a
pretext away from bombing Iran. American history, after all, is teeming with
convenient provocations that created an opening for military intervention
07 February, 2007
Forgotten
February
By Mickey Z.
A brief peek at America's
unrestrained brutality
Clinton,
Edwards And Obama: Strike Iran
Why The Democrats Won’t Save Us
By Joshua Frank
None of the front running
Democrats are opposed to Bush’s dubious “war on terror” or his bullying of
Iran. They support his aggression in principle but simply believe a Democratic
presidency could handle the job more astutely. All put Israel first and none are
going to fundamentally alter U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East
02 February, 2007
Stepped
Up US Preparations
For War Against Iran
By Peter Symonds
A relentless and unmistakable
American buildup for war against Iran is currently underway. Military
preparations are being accompanied by a daily barrage of propaganda against
Tehran issuing from US sources and relayed uncritically via a compliant media
01 February, 2007
US
Holocaust Commission And Holocaust Denial
By Dr Gideon Polya
The US recently successfully
put a Resolution to UN General Assembly rightly condemning Holocaust Denial.
However the Resolution ignored huge non-Jewish Holocausts e.g. the US-driven
Iraqi Holocaust and thus was Holocaust Ignoring, something even worse than
Holocaust Denial because it is Passive Holocaust Denial that admits of no
refutation – who does one refute something that has not even been asserted?
24 January, 2007
Gangsters
For Capitalism
By Clinton L. Cox
Although benign U.S.
intentions are an article of faith among many Americans, theft, murder and
oppression have always been central to U.S. policies and practices in the
non-white world. George Bush’s crusade for ‘democracy’ is yet another
chapter in the shameful saga
Bush
The Empire Slayer
By Bernard Chazelle
Victors are never war
criminals. That's because they get to write the history books. Bush won't have
that chance. The die has been cast and the hour is too late for him or anyone to
alter the unforgiving judgment of posterity
20 January, 2007
Rice’s
Middle East Tour: Arab Rregimes
Back US War Drive In Iraq And Iran
By Jean Shaoul & Chris Marsden
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan,
Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the Emirates have all signed up to the Bush
administration’s escalation of its aggression against Iraq and its plans for a
military attack on Iran
Truth
Is Speaking… Is Power Listening?
By Carolyn Baker & Jason Miller
Carolyn Baker interviewed by
Jason Miller
19 January, 2007
Is
The U.S. Planning A Horrific Global Nuclear War?
By Michel Chossudovsky
At no point since the first
atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, has humanity been
closer to the unthinkable, a nuclear holocaust which could potentially spread,
in terms of radioactive fallout, over a large part of the Middle East
17 January, 2007
Turning
On The War
By Joshua Frank
It seems the only way the war
will come to an end will be when soldiers start resisting by the droves. It’s
already happening with little fanfare all across the country. Many are finding
refuge in Canada and elsewhere. These brave soldiers must be congratulated for
taking such a path. They are the answer the antiwar movement has been looking
for. Let’s hope they lead by example. If their peers don’t follow, we are in
for a much longer, deadlier war
11 January, 2007
Bringing
To Book The Guilty Men Of Baghdad
By Siddharth Varadarajan
The legal arguments used by
the U.S.-sponsored Iraqi court to convict Saddam Hussein of crimes against
humanity apply even more forcefully to those American leaders who ordered the
illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq
Air
strikes On Somalia: A New Stage
In Washington’s Illegal “Terror” War
By Chris Marsden
US air strikes against targets
in the south of Somalia have claimed a substantial number of civilian lives. The
bombing campaign, begun Sunday night and continued on Monday, mark a major
escalation in the Bush administration’s lawless use of violence to achieve
Washington’s strategic aims under the auspices of its “global war on
terrorism.”
A
Dark Anniversary
By William Fisher
This week, as the world marks
the fifth anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at the U.S. naval
facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a growing number of people and organizations
– from military officers to religious leaders to legal scholars to human
rights groups – continue to label the prison a black hole of injustice and
demand that it be closed
08 January, 2007
The
Tower Of Wealth Without A Foundation
By Siv O'Neall
The two mainstays of the
neoconservative and neoliberal agenda can be reduced to the accumulation of more
wealth for the tiny upper clique of the American population and to assuring the
ever-lasting continuation of the U.S. empire. The rest of the world is simply of
no consequence to the neocon way of thinking and that's where they make the huge
mistake that is one day going to be their downfall
07 January, 2007
Bush’s
Solution To Iraq – No Mystery
By Dan Lieberman
Jordan and Syria, that feel
threatened by Iraq and Iran, might become more conciliatory to the U.S. and
Israel (USrael) and seek their protection (as in mafia protection). The U.S.
might bow out and let Israel proceed in its own plans. Israel might be the
biggest victor in this calamitous and haunting adventure
04 January, 2007
Hussein
And Ford = Dead Criminals
By Mickey Z.
All you need to know about
America is summed up here: Saddam Hussein was "the next Hitler" while
Gerald Ford was a "healer."
|