December 2009

Jones: Bin Laden still spends time in Afghanistan

by Paul Woodward 12.06.2009

Jones: Bin Laden still spends time in Afghanistan AP, December 6, 2009 National security adviser James Jones said Sunday that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden still spends some time inside Afghanistan. Most recent U.S. estimates have placed bin Laden inside Pakistan. But Jones, a retired general, said the best estimate is that bin Laden “is [...]

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Obama’s ideal partner: Turkey

by Paul Woodward 12.06.2009

Obama’s ideal partner: Turkey By Joshua W Walker, Today’s Zaman, December 6, 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama laid out his new Afghanistan strategy on Tuesday night by ordering an additional 30,000 US forces to the country. While the majority of the analysis and discussion in Washington has centered on the levels of US forces or [...]

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Iran will not quit treaty, its nuclear chief asserts

by Paul Woodward 12.06.2009

Iran will not quit treaty, its nuclear chief asserts By Nazila Fathi, New York Times, December 6, 2009 Urging moderation after a week of harsh rhetoric over Iran’s nuclear program, the head of the country’s nuclear agency emphasized Saturday that Iran would not seek to pull out of the international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran’s state-run [...]

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Barghouti’s release a wild card in Mideast

by Paul Woodward 12.06.2009

Barghouti’s release a wild card in Mideast By Joshua Mitnick, Washington Times, December 6, 2009 Amid swirling speculation about an imminent Israel-Hamas prisoner swap, the possible release of Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti could change the political dynamic in stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. More than any other of the hundreds of Palestinians that are expected to [...]

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Cardinal Foley: Wall dividing Israelis and Palestinians is not the answer

by Paul Woodward 12.06.2009

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The Invention of the Jewish People

by Paul Woodward 12.05.2009

Shlomo Sand interviewed on Al Jazeera, speaking about The Invention of the Jewish People Book review: Shlomo Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People By Raymond Deane, Electronic Intifada, October 22, 2009 Sand traces how Zionist ideology drove the project of Jewish nationalism by turning Judaism “into something hermetic, like the German Volk …” (255). [...]

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Ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem while Israel implements a fake settlement freeze

by Paul Woodward 12.05.2009

Ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem while Israel implements a fake settlement freeze By Paul Woodward, War in Context, December 3, 2009 Ever since Hillary Clinton officially declared the peace process dead and buried — well, her precise words were that Israel was making “unprecedented” concessions on the issue of settlements — the settlement freeze-hoax has hardly [...]

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There is a tremendous struggle to be waged, to force Israeli introspection, and change

by Paul Woodward 12.05.2009

There is a tremendous struggle to be waged, to force Israeli introspection, and change By Ali Abunimah, Hampshire College (via Mondoweiss), November 21, 2009 I want to talk about a little bit of history, not too much, and then I want to talk about where I think BDS fits in to where we’re going in [...]

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Imposing idiot sanctions on Iran is a direct route to war

by Paul Woodward 12.05.2009

Imposing idiot sanctions on Iran is a direct route to war By Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, December 1, 2009 What is the difference between Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran? The answer, future historians may relate, is none. At the dawn of the 21st century, all three states were ruled by nasty undemocratic regimes to which America [...]

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Hizbollah’s new manifesto

by Paul Woodward 12.05.2009

Hizbollah’s new manifesto By Paul Woodward, The National, December 2, 2009 Hizbollah noted that the previous administration in Washington had made no distinction between terrorism and national resistance movements. The document said: “the Bush administration sought to establish a conformity between terrorism and resistance to remove the latter’s legitimacy and therefore justify wars against its [...]

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‘People woke up, and they were gone’

by Paul Woodward 12.05.2009

‘People woke up, and they were gone’ By Anthony Shadid, Washington Post, December 4, 2009 The U.S. military called it shock and awe, and it began on March 21, 2003 — 8:09 p.m., to be exact. It concluded here with a sigh. No one quite remembers when the Americans withdrew from Forward Operating Base Summers. [...]

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Gaza’s tunnel economy

by Paul Woodward 12.05.2009

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Palestinian deemed ‘terrorist’ in ‘Bruno’ sues NBC, Baron Cohen

by Paul Woodward 12.05.2009

Palestinian deemed ‘terrorist’ in ‘Bruno’ sues NBC, Baron Cohen By Amir Efrati, Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2009 We’ll have to admit that before the movie “Brüno” premiered earlier this year, we watched and chuckled as its star, British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, promoted the film on David Letterman’s late-night show. In what quickly became [...]

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30 Rock mocks the New York Times

by Paul Woodward 12.05.2009

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Our timeline, and the Taliban’s

by Paul Woodward 12.04.2009

Our timeline, and the Taliban’s By Max Hastings, New York Times, December 4, 2009 It is hard to be optimistic about the outcome of President Obama’s troop “surge” in Afghanistan. The additional forces sound large in headlines, but shrink small in the mountains. The commitment is intended as an earnest indication of America’s will. But [...]

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Erik Prince: tycoon, contractor, soldier, spy

by Paul Woodward 12.04.2009

Erik Prince: tycoon, contractor, soldier, spy By Adam Ciralsky, Vanity Fair, January, 2010 “I put myself and my company at the C.I.A.’s disposal for some very risky missions,” says Erik Prince as he surveys his heavily fortified, 7,000-acre compound in rural Moyock, North Carolina. “But when it became politically expedient to do so, someone threw [...]

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Meet the commanded-in-chief

by Paul Woodward 12.04.2009

Meet the commanded-in-chief By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch, December 3, 2009 Let others deal with the details of President Obama’s Afghan speech, with the on-ramps and off-ramps, those 30,000 U.S. troops going in and just where they will be deployed, the benchmarks for what’s called “good governance” in Afghanistan, the corruption of the Karzai regime, the [...]

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Obama’s war of necessity

by Paul Woodward 12.03.2009

Obama’s war of necessity By Paul Woodward, War in Context, December 3, 2009 Among the many unanswered questions about President Obama’s approach to the war in Afghanistan, there is at this point one thing about which we can be certain: He does indeed regard this as a war of necessity. But necessary for what? Necessary [...]

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The Afghanistan parenthesis

by Paul Woodward 12.03.2009

The Afghanistan parenthesis By David Bromwich, Huffington Post, December 2, 2009 … who exactly are Al Qaeda now, and where are they located? In many ways the Vietnam War, though of an atrociousness the Afghanistan War has not yet approached, was pursued by the U.S. obedient to a much sounder theory than any offered for [...]

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Obama’s folly

by Paul Woodward 12.03.2009

Obama’s folly By Andrew J. Bacevich, Los Angeles Times, December 3, 2009 Through war, Bush set out to transform the greater Middle East. Despite immense expenditures of blood and treasure, that effort failed. In choosing Obama rather than John McCain to succeed Bush, the American people acknowledged that failure as definitive. Obama’s election was to [...]

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US strategy in Afghanistan

by Paul Woodward 12.03.2009

Something from nothing By Nir Rosen, Boston Review, January/February, 2010 McChrystal’s announcements of new rules of engagement were part of a larger change of strategy in the eight-year-old war: a move to counterinsurgency (COIN). In March 2009 the Obama administration gave itself one year to “shift the momentum” in the war—meaning, to stop losing. Three [...]

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Between the lines, an expansion in Pakistan

by Paul Woodward 12.03.2009

Between the lines, an expansion in Pakistan By David E Sanger and Eric Schmitt, New York Times, December 2, 2009 President Obama focused his speech on Afghanistan. He left much unsaid about Pakistan, where the main terrorists he is targeting are located, but where he can send no troops. Mr. Obama could not be very [...]

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America’s Afghan can-do folly

by Paul Woodward 12.01.2009

Going beyond necessity By Paul Woodward, War in Context, December 1, 2009 Over the course of eight years in Afghanistan, the United States has failed to demonstrate an ability to make a clear distinction between what it wants to do and what it can do. In many ways this represents a failing embedded in the [...]

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How many Muslims has the U.S. killed in the past 30 years?

by Paul Woodward 12.01.2009

How many Muslims has the U.S. killed in the past 30 years? By Stephen Walt, Foreign Policy, November 30, 2009 Contrary to what Friedman thinks, our real problem isn’t a fictitious Muslim “narrative” about America’s role in the region; it is mostly the actual things we have been doing in recent years. To say that [...]

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