International

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International, Middle East, military budget, National Politics November 22, 2014

The Fourth Estate in Flames: On the US Media’s Award-Winning War Propaganda

Common Dreams by Medea Benjamin A war-weary American public that a year ago resoundingly rejected US military intervention in Syria to overthrow the Assad regime now is rallying behind the use of force to destroy the so-called Islamic State (ISIS). In just three months, from June to September, support for US airstrikes in Iraq soared from 45% percent to 71%, and to 65% for airstrikes in Syria. How did such an astounding turnabout occur? Certainly it wasn’t due to the persuasive powers of President Obama, who seems to have been reluctantly dragged into a conflict that he once acknowledged has…

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International, Middle East, peace August 19, 2014

Palestinian/Israeli Conflict Redux

by Justine Mccabe Litchfield County Times Friday, August 01, 2014 I’m responding at length to letters of Messrs. Wilkins and Kilchevsky, who expressed similar views opposing my 7/11 letter, “Decolonization” and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. They both deny my claims: That Israel was founded by the same national formative act as the U.S.: ethnic cleansing of the majority native inhabitants; and That Israel practices apartheid within both Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). As a scholar, who has worked in the Navajo Indian Medical Center and Navajo reservation, as well as in the Middle East (Lebanon, Iran and the OPT),…

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Climate Change, Economy, Environment, Fracking, Green Party, International, Labor, National Politics, New York January 20, 2014

Secretive trade agreement would undermine democracy

Post-Standard by Ursula Rozum January 20, 2014 Any speck of democracy and sovereignty we the people have left in this country is under attack. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a new international trade pact crafted by multinational corporations and currently being negotiated in secret by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) along with 11 other foreign governments. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) describes the agreement as “an attack on democratic governance” and “a punch in the face to the middle class of America.” The TPP began as trade talks among a few Pacific Rim countries, but has been expanded…

International, Middle East September 9, 2013

The Path from 9/11 to Syria

by Mark A. Dunlea Every year on the anniversary of 9/11, I have written an op ed reflecting on the horrors of that day and on the still many unanswered questions. And the lack of justice for those that were murdered. This year’s anniversary is especially jarring because President Obama wants to bomb Syria – over their alleged use of chemical weapons – the type of weapons we couldn’t find after we invaded Iraq over 9/11. Obama also wants to send a variety of messages: that he is tough enough to enforce his redline; that he wants to break the…

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Environment, International July 5, 2013

The Capitalist Infesto

A shortened version for presentation at the University of Havana on Friday, June 28th 2013, at the “Seminar on Socialist Renewal and the Capitalist Crisis: A Cuban-North American Exchange” by Mitchel Cohen I dedicate this talk to our comrade and teacher John “Tito” Gerassi, who died last year, and who remained to the end a true friend of the Cuban revolution. South African freedom fighter Steve Biko observed: “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” Nowhere do those sentiments apply more than they do to Cuba during the special period of the…