March 2010

Mohamed ElBaradei challenges Western support for repressive Middle East regimes

by Paul Woodward 03.31.2010

The former IAEA chief and a possible challenger to Egypt’s dictator Mubarak, gave an interview with The Guardian: Western governments risk creating a new generation of Islamist extremists if they continue to support repressive regimes in the Middle East, the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, has told the Guardian. In his [...]

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The president’s conscience, on hold

by Paul Woodward 03.31.2010

Dan Froomkin writes: The White House counsel ideally serves as the president’s conscience. But late last year, Barack Obama’s conscience was surgically removed. Greg Craig, as Obama’s top lawyer, was the point man on a number of hot-button issues, the fieriest being how to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Craig argued for holding fast [...]

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Congress to Obama on Israel: Do what we say, not what we do

by Paul Woodward 03.31.2010

Following AIPAC’s lead, 327 members of Congress wrote a letter to President Obama last week whose core message resonates with the approach to politics favored by Pope Benedict: difficulties should be handled discreetly with the minimum of publicity. It’s a tried and tested practice that has throughout history been shown to be as rotten as [...]

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The opium wars in Afghanistan

by Paul Woodward 03.30.2010

At TomDispatch, Alfred W. McCoy writes: To understand the Afghan War, one basic point must be grasped: in poor nations with weak state services, agriculture is the foundation for all politics, binding villagers to the government or warlords or rebels. The ultimate aim of counterinsurgency strategy is always to establish the state’s authority. When the [...]

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Effortless, carefree war

by Paul Woodward 03.30.2010

What was the most significant thing about President Obama’s surprise trip to Afghanistan on Sunday? He wore a leather bomber jacket. Or, to be more precise, the most significant thing about Obama’s six-hour visit was nothing that he said, nor the fact that he went, but that in the utterly trivialized view of war that [...]

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Kandahar, a battlefield even before U.S. offensive

by Paul Woodward 03.30.2010

Carlotta Gall reports from Kandahar: American forces have begun operations to push back Taliban insurgents in this most important southern province, the birthplace and spiritual home of the Taliban, and a full-scale offensive is expected in coming weeks. But the Taliban have already turned this city into a battlefield as they prepare for the operation, [...]

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Karzai refuses to be an American puppet

by Paul Woodward 03.30.2010

The New York Times reports: This month, with President Hamid Karzai looking ahead to a visit to the White House, he received a terse note from aides to President Obama: Your invitation has been revoked. The reason, according to American officials, was Mr. Karzai’s announcement that he was emasculating an independent panel that had discovered [...]

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War tourists

by Paul Woodward 03.30.2010

The McClatchy blog, Nukes and Spooks reports: Amongst the swirl of soldiers, diplomats and contractors at America’s largest military bases in Afghanistan are congressional delegations, CODELs as they are often called. Members of Congress and their staffs come through, take a lot of photos with various commanders and ask questions that frankly could have been [...]

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The growing challenge to Israel

by Paul Woodward 03.30.2010

Scott McConnell writes: [T]wo streams of anti-settlement, pro-peace-process discourse have begun to merge and reinforce one another. The realist argument about Israel—which can be traced from President Truman’s secretary of state George Marshall through Kennedy and Johnson aide George Ball to Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer—now appears to have the patronage of American’s most respected [...]

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The world is sick of Israel

by Paul Woodward 03.29.2010

A commentary in Haaretz by Akiva Eldar opts for a Biblical theme with the headline: “The plague of darkness has struck modern Israelites.” But the observation in my headline comes directly from the text as Eldar bemoans the fact that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “simply refuses to see that the world is sick of [...]

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Sadrists hold key to Iraq’s political future

by Paul Woodward 03.29.2010

As if to mock America’s role in the future of Iraq, the single point of continuity since the fall of Saddam has been the rising power of Moqtada al Sadr. Even after his movement seemed to have been bludgeoned into submission and he took refuge in Iran, this period of dormancy during which the rough-mannered [...]

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Children of Gaza: scarred, trapped, vengeful

by Paul Woodward 03.28.2010

(h/t to Ann El Khoury at Pulse.) The Independent previewed “Children of Gaza” which aired on Channel 4 in the UK on March 14: Omsyatte adjusts her green school uniform and climbs gingerly on to a desk at the front of the classroom. The shy 12-year-old holds up a brightly coloured picture and begins to [...]

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Dennis Ross ‘peddling the same snake oil’

by Paul Woodward 03.28.2010

If one man can be said to epitomize the failure of the peace process more than any other American official, it’s probably Dennis Ross. Why then, one might then ask, would he have such a central role in getting this “derailed” process “back on track”? According to this report from Laura Rozen, Ross is provoking [...]

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After losing election, Maliki fights to stay in power

by Paul Woodward 03.28.2010

The New York Times reports that even if Maliki lost the Iraqi election he shows no interest in stepping down: Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s party lost the Iraqi election, but a day after the results were announced it became clear that he would fight to hold on to his post — and had taken [...]

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UK needs to be less deferential to US, MPs say

by Paul Woodward 03.28.2010

In a new report, Global security: UK-US relations, members of Britain’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee say that the so-called “special relationship” between Britain and America is a thing of the past and it’s time for British leaders to stop kissing American ass — well, they didn’t use those exact words, but that’s what they meant. [...]

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The loner in the White House

by Paul Woodward 03.28.2010

Howard LaFranchi, (in a rather superficial treatment), raises an interesting issue: Does it matter that Obama has no foreign friends? When French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, sit down for dinner with the Obamas in the White House family dining room March 30, it will be a rare occasion for Barack Obama: [...]

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Apartheid inside Israel

by Paul Woodward 03.27.2010

Jonathan Cook reports: The Zakai and Tarabin families should be a picture of happy coexistence across the ethnic divide, a model for others to emulate in Israel. But Natalie and Weisman Zakai say the past three years – since the Jewish couple offered to rent their home to Bedouin friends, Ahmed and Khalas Tarabin – [...]

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Medicating the military

by Paul Woodward 03.27.2010

Military Times reports: At least one in six service members is on some form of psychiatric drug. And many troops are taking more than one kind, mixing several pills in daily “cocktails” — for example, an antidepressant with an antipsychotic to prevent nightmares, plus an anti-epileptic to reduce headaches — despite minimal clinical research testing [...]

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Hamas rule in Gaza: three years on

by Paul Woodward 03.27.2010

Prof. Yezid Sayigh writes: More than a year after Israel’s Operation Cast Lead against Gaza, and with the crippling siege well into its fourth year, the rule of the Islamic Resistance Movement/Hamas over the narrow strip of territory looks set to endure. Fortuitous circumstances and the mistakes of others, rather than the coherence of its [...]

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Listen to the Arabs

by Paul Woodward 03.27.2010

Parag Khanna writes: If Arabs are supposed to be lining up with the United States and Israel to contain the hegemonic ambitions of Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, then why did Syria host a “war council” of Iran and Hezbollah in Damascus last month? And why is Qatar exploring gas fields jointly with Iran? The fact is [...]

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What planet do these people live on?

by Paul Woodward 03.26.2010

A letter signed by 300 members of Congress and sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declares: A strong Israel is an asset to the national security of the United States and brings stability to the Middle East. What an accomplishment! That so many fallacies could be packed into a single sentence! But the lunacy [...]

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Iraq’s election result declared

by Paul Woodward 03.26.2010

The New York Times reports: When the votes were all finally counted, Iraq’s election left almost everything unresolved, from who would finally rule the country to whether American combat troops would be able to leave on schedule by August. The former interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite once derided as an American puppet, [...]

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Being there

by Paul Woodward 03.26.2010

After a recent piece by Tom Engelhardt was republished in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes — his op-ed was on opposition to the scheduled US withdrawal from Iraq — a reader from the military sent Tom an email posing this pointed question: “When was the last time you visited Iraq?” The obvious implication being: [...]

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No peace without equality

by Paul Woodward 03.25.2010

(h/t to Adam Horowitz at Mondoweiss.) When Israel defines itself as a “Jewish State,” it not only sees itself as the state of Jews worldwide. It also sees Arab identity in this homeland as a threat to that definition. That’s why the state sees discrimination against Arabs as part of its “job description.” — Hassan [...]

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