Alice K. Ross writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: The Pakistani government estimates at least 400 civilians have been killed in drone strikes – a figure close to the Bureau’s own findings. In evidence to Ben Emmerson QC, UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism, the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that CIA drones […]
Nuke’em: Russia’s Plan to Nix Meteor Danger
US lawmakers are having a hearing on how to deal with the threat of asteroids, which polished off the dinosaurs and could polish off us. The US is now namby pamby, lacking a manned space program and clueless. Contrast with Russia: Aljazeera English reports on a Russian hearing on dealing with the real threat of […]
Iranians in West Slam Impact of US Sanctions on People
Iranian expatriates don’t agree on much. But as this video interview with a range of high-powered thinkers by the National Iranian-American Council shows, they all agree that the very severe US sanctions, which amount to a kind of financial blockade, are harming ordinary Iranians and not the regime.
Our Coal addiction is Killing Us
Documentary on what the 600 coal plants in the US are doing to our health and well-being. The government should announce a crash program to close them all by 2023 and replace them with green energy. If it won’t municipalities (your city) should go into the business of solar and wind electricity generation itself. The […]
What we Did to Iraq
Sunni radicals hit Baghdad Tuesday morning on the anniversary of the beginning of the US war on Iraq, killing over 50 people in attacks on soft targets (shopkeepers, pedestrians) in Shiite areas of the capital. They were signaling their continued die-hard opposition to the new Iraq, which is dominated by Shiite political parties, in which […]
UAE Launches 100 Megawatt Solar Energy Plant, Largest in Mideast
Although the Gulf makes its way in life by selling petroleum, countries like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates don’t engage in that sordid game of the American rich, of climate-change denial. The emirs are in no doubt about its dangers to their region and the need to use their current wealth to move to […]
What Would a Rand Paul Libertarian Foreign Policy Look Like? (Cole @ Truthdig)
My essay, “What Would a Rand Paul Libertarian Foreign Policy Look Like?”, is out at Truthdig Excerpt: “On Saturday, Paul emerged as the winner of the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. Although none of the straw poll winners has gone on to become president, Paul can’t be ruled out […]
What we Lost: Top Ten Ways the Iraq War Harmed the US
As the tenth anniversary of the launching of the Iraq War approaches, I’ll be making some comments about the episode at this blog, which for the years 2003-2010 intensively covered events in Iraq. A decade is long enough for some things to become clear. The first set of issues I want to discuss has to […]
Iraq’s Teens Drowning in Hopelessness (Arwa Damon)
CNN’s Arwa Damon reports from Baghdad on the sense of hopelessness among even upper-class Iraqi teens today. AFP gives support to Ms. Damon’s findings: a 2011 poll of Iraqi men under 30 found that 89% of them wanted to emigrate from the country. A more upbeat treatment by the Associated Press turns out to depend […]
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