The USA should be thankful to the Republican Senators at the Hagel’s hearing: They managed to sanction open public discourse, (e.g. Juan Cole’s), on the USA-Israel relationship.
All that is fine Dr. C.
However, the main point here is DECENCY: Trespassing is bad, let alone when its purpose is to kill the neighbors and to destroy their property.
Dear Juan: Your (accurate) description evokes in me Gilad Atzmon’s words, and music.
What Israel’s government has been doing to the Jews is sad, tragic.
"Hagel will be nominated and he will be passed by the Senate. And that process will be a turning point in the relationship of the US government to Israel and to its US lobbies. It is an extremely positive development, most of all for Israel itself, which cannot survive if it tries to annex the Palestinian West Bank (as Netanyahu obviously intends to do)."
Good point,I agree with it.
The hearing will help to define the senator's loyalty to the USA.
Ira Chernus' position is credible. It's substantiated by the fact that in the last election Obama bit the Lobby. That means the Lobby is no longer untouchable.
Our gun culture is very bad but it would be a minor problem in comparison with the civil rights derailment by possible new legislation on detainment and treatment,-Civil Commitment Laws-, of “dangerous” people, adjudicated as such upon psychiatric testimony (psychiatric legal testimony for the State can be very lucrative; the State pays for it.)
Such legislation would be based on a falsehood because psychiatry is not able to predict individual dangerous behavior. Psychiatrists can testify on the bases of personal experience and opinions but not on scientific evidence of dangerousness.
The implementation of such legislation would lead to capricious, arbitrary, discriminatory detention and forced treatment of whomever the State or social group considers undesirable. We would be back to the Middle Ages: State-run, witch-hunting, evil- eradicating times.
Dr. Cole’s observations substantiate the fact that the USA has developed a gun culture of enormous national and international proportions,(plus the right-to-shoot.) All of which is overlooked by the press. Even the President tries to ignore it as he speaks on the Newtown tragedy. Instead, the President and most commentators talk about the “mental” condition of the guns’users. This is a travesty with terrible consequences to civil rights. The fact is that Psychiatry/Psychology is not able to predict criminal behavior. Any psychiatrist/psychologist that claims the contrary should come forward publicly and state it in scientific terms.
Unsubstantiated medical information such as the ability to predict criminality should not be used as preventive detention and forced treatment of people. The main victims of such procedures would be those with records of psychiatric/psychological consultations
It’s an excellent reminder Dr. Cole. Thanks, it takes courage to mention the obvious.
The US’s minds have become dull. They do not seem to be able to see the similarities between the Connecticut’s shooting at defenseless targets and the USA (and it’s “ally”) doing the same thing around the world. Since there are so many people asking and speculating on the “Why”, why not to include that as a possible factor, if not the cause, of the Connecticut shooting?
Dear Professor Cole: many thanks for your most valuable contribution to political discourse. My yearly money contribution to Informed Comments is in the mail.
Wikipedia on "Time inmemorial":
"Reviewing the book for the November 28, 1985 issue of The New York Times, Israeli historian Yehoshua Porath described the book as a "sheer forgery," stating that "[i]n Israel, at least, the book was almost universally dismissed as sheer rubbish except maybe as a propaganda weapon."[16] In 1986, Porath repeated his views in The New York Review of Books, and published a negative review that cites many inaccuracies.[14]"
"American politics is mainly about domestic issues, and the presidential election season has caused a sort of black out of international news on US networks for the most part." Because that IS the ELEPHANT.
"No country under active inspection by the UN has ever developed a nuclear weapon. Israel, which always refused such inspections, has some 400 nuclear warheads."
Never mind Netanyahu but mind the American MSM that refuses to publish about Israel's warheads, seating us to massive suicide.
David Gregory, like other MM (pseudo) journalists, are dis-informers by omission or commission. They and their bosses know that if the popular media was open to political discourse the American folks would mount a new Forth of July in no time.
" American mass media has abdicated its responsibility to inform the American public."; right Dr. Cole.
Shame on the American MM journalists, they are traitors.
It's VIOLENCE or LAW. The choice is equal to all humans. Rationalizing it doesn't work. If the USA wants to be the world leader it should choose LAW, no matter what.If Obama needs help on that he should consult with the Quakers.
Bill, you got it: The key to the whole mess is the press: There is a world of difference between what one finds in the Internet (everything left and right, good and bad) and the MSM. Hopefully the general public is moving more and more to the Internet so that they can make informed decisions.
The Republicans have become neo-con coverts. That's a pithy because in doing so they have abandoned the conservative platform so necessary in political discourse.
The Aurora perpetrator made himself a large forum,(as the customary trite goes: The "Collateral damage is very regrettable.") The question is now whether they'd let him talk.
Excellent comments, thanks. On the other hand this terrible (domestic)massacre resembles other (abroad) massacres. The perpetrator may have a lot to say. Let's hope he does not die of "natural" causes or "suicide" while in jail.
I fully agree with you: it's vital for the survival of the USA that President Obama speaks on the mater, even if he fears it may cost him a second term. History will be the judge!
The USA's true policy was never to "liberate or reconstruct" Iraq, destabilize it to pave the way for the Greater I. Likewise about other "rebellious" ME states.
Bill H., it is worse than that. If the Secret Service is infiltrated and something happen to the President or his family, we would experience a civic catastrophe in our country.
I am sure the President is well aware of it and wishes to avoid it not only for personal reasons but for the sake of the country. He's also aware that the journalist that suggested his demises remains free! Therefore the President has to keep on "compromising."
The "West" should stop beefing up with weapons and support, the Syria's opposition, thus fomenting a civil war for the benefit of...we all know who.
Obama is playing excellent politics under very difficult circumstances.
The "external threat" has always been the tool of the Jewish ruling class to control the Jewish peasants and gentiles. Israel Shahak, in his book "Jewish History, Jewish Religion", describes plenty of evidence how the Jewish ruling class cultivated the Jewish haters to justify their control over the lower classes.
Throughout history many Jews managed to get out of the oppression. More recently many Jews branched out by creating
the Reform movement to which most American Jews belong, (at least silently because the hierarchy is very punitive to dissidents.)
The joker is Ron Paul, who the MSM as a neo-con tool is very bust trying very hard to suppress. Dr. Paul will continue to denounce the proxy wards (and other anti-American items) all the way to the Republican Convention and possible to a third party candidacy. Ron Paul already has the ears of many Americans because he talks straight American sense.
The unconditional"devotion" to Israel by some Christian and semi-Christian politician is basically a religious faith, rooted on the biblical Zechariah 14: Give them rope to hang themselves. The trouble is that those folks control the (USA) weapons, so we are going to en up with the "Samson Option", as Seymour M. Hersh discussed it in his 1991 book.
Excellent piece Dr. Cole, thank you.
Of course, the idea is regime change or better destabilizing Iran in the Iraq-Libya fashion. The overall goal is the Euphrates.
Of course, manufacturing animosity between A and B religious branches is the best (cheapest) way to destabilize a society.You infiltrate branch A, detonate a bomb in its temple and sign it as "Present from B." The war between A and B will be self sustainable. If not, you can occasionally ad a bit of extra fuel into the fire.
It's worth noticing that up till thirty years or so nobody had heard of of fights between Sunnis and Shiites!
Excellent, scholarly piece! Thank you.
Bet you no MSM journalist/editor would mention Dr. Cole's piece, let along reproducing it.
The MSM is monopolized by stenographers. That's destroying our republic.
Excellent piece, thank you
The OWS movement should
demandant free speach in the MSM. We should have open unrestricted, internet like political dialogue in the MSM
The MSM, its journalists, are the main culprit. Democracy can not function under a Goebbels-like propaganda. The movement should demand the MSM invites authors like Juan Cole to write columns in it.
"Obama came into office convinced that the negotiating table was the only plausible way to deal with Iran. He should go back to that." He'd surely do that if he was his own agent.
Free political speech means PUBLIC FREE POLITICAL SPEECH. It does not mean out of reach speech. Let Aljazeera have access to the general public as Fox, ABC, CBS or NBC do. Let it compete ideologically and commercially with the big guys.
"It is not completely clear what is driving the looting that has come in the wake of the rioting."
May be the public lost respect for the police because their involvement with Murdoch
Prof.Cole's guest commenter did not suggest that Breivik is "insane." On the contrary, he wrote wrote: "In the end, responsibility lies with Breivik and his conscious decision to commit these atrocities."
There is no objective way/medical test, to tell whether an idea/action is caused by a (mental) illness or is is just a (bad) idea.
The issue in Egypt, as well as elsewhere, including the USA, is freedom of verbal political expression. The best model is Israel, with its pros and cons, including the DEMOCRATIC establishment of a tyrannical theocracy.
Let people learn from their own mistakes.
Congratulations Dr. Cole you said it all. However incredible is the situation in the ME, the USA politicians and the MSM top it with their support to the ongoing ME genocide.
The handwriting is on the wall, all you have to do is to open the eyes and read it: 1-The domino has begun with the Muslin countries' oligarchies; 2- The domino will end when all other oligarchies are deposed by the people. In the meantime the world's fire that begun in Tunisia will continue, more ore less destructively, depending on how much the oligarchs continue to believe and enforce the notion that they have a God given exclusiveness and power over the masses. They will eventually fail for the domino can not be stop. Amy Chua has it figured out in her book "World on Fire"
1-How do you know he/she "hears voices"?
2- How do you know whether the person tells you the truth?
3- "Hearing" your own voice or talking to yourself (hopefully in silence) is something we all do all the time.
"different mentally"...? v "normal mentality"?
The only worthwhile distinction to consider resides on the power to enforce one or the other (you can end up in a mental hospital if you got the wrong mentality e.g. Ezra Pound). Nonenforceable distinctions are just juvenile rhetoric.
"(Jared Lee Loughner)was clearly mentally unstable." This is an erroneous,regrettable comment coming from the usually level headed,scholarly professor Cole. If he uses "mentally unstable" as a metaphor he should indicate it clearly.If he uses it as a medical entity, as a Mental Illness, I would challenge him to define, describe it.
The implications are profound: If the perpetrator is ruled as "mentally ill" his action is nothing but a symptom, a product of his illness, having nothing to do with the real world.
"Sadr’s return to Najaf symbolizes the futility of George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, which achieved virtually none of its stated objectives": wrong. The US/Israel's (covert)objective was to destabilize Iraq which has been accomplished.
Excellent commentary, thank you.
Traitors are all over, but the greatest traitors are the corporate press and its agents, the so-called "journalists", all of whom collaborate by ignoring "inconvenient" facts and opinions.
No amount of airport checking will prevent mischief. Not even if they add vaginal and rectal examination of people 2 year old and older.
The so called "al-Qaeda" is a metaphor for personhood, respect and equality which the USA continue to deny by supporting Israel's Zionist regime whose main doctrine is that of "exceptionalism" more so with respect of the "Arabs."
Mutual respect among humans is the way to go.
© 2025 All Rights Reserved
Keep-an-eye-on-the-prize: Chuck Hagel’s central policy is to be sure we make sure that the GI’s life is sacrificed for a just cause only.
The USA should be thankful to the Republican Senators at the Hagel’s hearing: They managed to sanction open public discourse, (e.g. Juan Cole’s), on the USA-Israel relationship.
Shame on us.
All that is fine Dr. C.
However, the main point here is DECENCY: Trespassing is bad, let alone when its purpose is to kill the neighbors and to destroy their property.
Dear Juan: Your (accurate) description evokes in me Gilad Atzmon’s words, and music.
What Israel’s government has been doing to the Jews is sad, tragic.
Obama all but declare (new) USA Independence. Now it is up to all of us to go to the (new) 4th-of-July.
"Hagel will be nominated and he will be passed by the Senate. And that process will be a turning point in the relationship of the US government to Israel and to its US lobbies. It is an extremely positive development, most of all for Israel itself, which cannot survive if it tries to annex the Palestinian West Bank (as Netanyahu obviously intends to do)."
Good point,I agree with it.
The hearing will help to define the senator's loyalty to the USA.
I join Bill in wishing Professor Cole, and all the savants a HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Here's an excellent piece related to the generals and other violence.http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/364-ptsd/15265-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-or-qmoral-injuryq
Ira Chernus' position is credible. It's substantiated by the fact that in the last election Obama bit the Lobby. That means the Lobby is no longer untouchable.
Our gun culture is very bad but it would be a minor problem in comparison with the civil rights derailment by possible new legislation on detainment and treatment,-Civil Commitment Laws-, of “dangerous” people, adjudicated as such upon psychiatric testimony (psychiatric legal testimony for the State can be very lucrative; the State pays for it.)
Such legislation would be based on a falsehood because psychiatry is not able to predict individual dangerous behavior. Psychiatrists can testify on the bases of personal experience and opinions but not on scientific evidence of dangerousness.
The implementation of such legislation would lead to capricious, arbitrary, discriminatory detention and forced treatment of whomever the State or social group considers undesirable. We would be back to the Middle Ages: State-run, witch-hunting, evil- eradicating times.
Dr. Cole’s observations substantiate the fact that the USA has developed a gun culture of enormous national and international proportions,(plus the right-to-shoot.) All of which is overlooked by the press. Even the President tries to ignore it as he speaks on the Newtown tragedy. Instead, the President and most commentators talk about the “mental” condition of the guns’users. This is a travesty with terrible consequences to civil rights. The fact is that Psychiatry/Psychology is not able to predict criminal behavior. Any psychiatrist/psychologist that claims the contrary should come forward publicly and state it in scientific terms.
Unsubstantiated medical information such as the ability to predict criminality should not be used as preventive detention and forced treatment of people. The main victims of such procedures would be those with records of psychiatric/psychological consultations
Answers:#1 yes; # 2 the USA portraits itself as the world's poster nation.
It’s an excellent reminder Dr. Cole. Thanks, it takes courage to mention the obvious.
The US’s minds have become dull. They do not seem to be able to see the similarities between the Connecticut’s shooting at defenseless targets and the USA (and it’s “ally”) doing the same thing around the world. Since there are so many people asking and speculating on the “Why”, why not to include that as a possible factor, if not the cause, of the Connecticut shooting?
This looks like word domination! The question is who really commands the whole thing?
The best way to honor the victims of the ill-conceived wards is to clean up the US press.
Dear Professor Cole: many thanks for your most valuable contribution to political discourse. My yearly money contribution to Informed Comments is in the mail.
Dr. Alfred Lilienthal was a great man. His words on the ME should be revived.
President Obama can not do much without the support of the American public on the Israel-Palestina so called "conflict."
Of course, the Palestinian people deserve "standing" at the UN, they are humans too.Denying it is indecent.
Wikipedia on "Time inmemorial":
"Reviewing the book for the November 28, 1985 issue of The New York Times, Israeli historian Yehoshua Porath described the book as a "sheer forgery," stating that "[i]n Israel, at least, the book was almost universally dismissed as sheer rubbish except maybe as a propaganda weapon."[16] In 1986, Porath repeated his views in The New York Review of Books, and published a negative review that cites many inaccuracies.[14]"
Plain and clear:US MSM journalism is pathetic.
Viva the "Great USA Free (MSM) Press."
Well put!
The ultimate significance of this election is that Obama beat the Lobby. The Lobby is now wounded, it’s no longer “omnipotent.”
"American politics is mainly about domestic issues, and the presidential election season has caused a sort of black out of international news on US networks for the most part." Because that IS the ELEPHANT.
Tom Engelhardt adds to the "trillion words" without naming the elephant> What a farce!
"No country under active inspection by the UN has ever developed a nuclear weapon. Israel, which always refused such inspections, has some 400 nuclear warheads."
Never mind Netanyahu but mind the American MSM that refuses to publish about Israel's warheads, seating us to massive suicide.
Hopefuly the Mormon Church would distance itself from Romney because he Is a moral turpid. The SLD Church is not like that.
David Gregory, like other MM (pseudo) journalists, are dis-informers by omission or commission. They and their bosses know that if the popular media was open to political discourse the American folks would mount a new Forth of July in no time.
" American mass media has abdicated its responsibility to inform the American public."; right Dr. Cole.
Shame on the American MM journalists, they are traitors.
It's VIOLENCE or LAW. The choice is equal to all humans. Rationalizing it doesn't work. If the USA wants to be the world leader it should choose LAW, no matter what.If Obama needs help on that he should consult with the Quakers.
Violence is wrong, Obama's included.
Bill, you got it: The key to the whole mess is the press: There is a world of difference between what one finds in the Internet (everything left and right, good and bad) and the MSM. Hopefully the general public is moving more and more to the Internet so that they can make informed decisions.
Excellent,thanks.
The Republicans have become neo-con coverts. That's a pithy because in doing so they have abandoned the conservative platform so necessary in political discourse.
BRAVO!!!
Hope not, England would be responsible for codifying the Law of the Jungle.
Right on Juan.
If you want to ignore how well it pays the unconditional support to Zionism,you might be Paul Ryan.
And we never hear from the ADL on the "terrorists" labeling. Could they,at least,praise Juan Cole's observations?
The Aurora perpetrator made himself a large forum,(as the customary trite goes: The "Collateral damage is very regrettable.") The question is now whether they'd let him talk.
Excellent comments, thanks. On the other hand this terrible (domestic)massacre resembles other (abroad) massacres. The perpetrator may have a lot to say. Let's hope he does not die of "natural" causes or "suicide" while in jail.
That is in S. Hersh book THE SAMPSON OPTION.
I do.
I fully agree with you: it's vital for the survival of the USA that President Obama speaks on the mater, even if he fears it may cost him a second term. History will be the judge!
The USA's true policy was never to "liberate or reconstruct" Iraq, destabilize it to pave the way for the Greater I. Likewise about other "rebellious" ME states.
Bill H., it is worse than that. If the Secret Service is infiltrated and something happen to the President or his family, we would experience a civic catastrophe in our country.
I am sure the President is well aware of it and wishes to avoid it not only for personal reasons but for the sake of the country. He's also aware that the journalist that suggested his demises remains free! Therefore the President has to keep on "compromising."
Of course, the elephant is in the room: Gas price/Israel's Iran agenda. Tragic: The no-cons have embraced S. Hersh's "Samson Option".
Israel's atomic capability is number one issue in the world. Ignoring it is equivalent to ignoring a mad man with a fully loaded machine gun.
The "West" should stop beefing up with weapons and support, the Syria's opposition, thus fomenting a civil war for the benefit of...we all know who.
Obama is playing excellent politics under very difficult circumstances.
Excellent points Dr. Cole, thanks. I hope that the MSM also denounces the insult to our Military.
By now anything goes: THE MAN THAT CALLED FOR THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT REMAINS FREE.
The "external threat" has always been the tool of the Jewish ruling class to control the Jewish peasants and gentiles. Israel Shahak, in his book "Jewish History, Jewish Religion", describes plenty of evidence how the Jewish ruling class cultivated the Jewish haters to justify their control over the lower classes.
Throughout history many Jews managed to get out of the oppression. More recently many Jews branched out by creating
the Reform movement to which most American Jews belong, (at least silently because the hierarchy is very punitive to dissidents.)
The joker is Ron Paul, who the MSM as a neo-con tool is very bust trying very hard to suppress. Dr. Paul will continue to denounce the proxy wards (and other anti-American items) all the way to the Republican Convention and possible to a third party candidacy. Ron Paul already has the ears of many Americans because he talks straight American sense.
Excellent points! The anti-Antisemitism propaganda machine will not last forever either.
The unconditional"devotion" to Israel by some Christian and semi-Christian politician is basically a religious faith, rooted on the biblical Zechariah 14: Give them rope to hang themselves. The trouble is that those folks control the (USA) weapons, so we are going to en up with the "Samson Option", as Seymour M. Hersh discussed it in his 1991 book.
Another alternative is to cause Israel to get rid of its atomic bombs.
“regime change” is not the idea. The idea is to destabilize, to create self feeding chaos in "uncooperative" countries.
Excellent piece Dr. Cole, thank you.
Of course, the idea is regime change or better destabilizing Iran in the Iraq-Libya fashion. The overall goal is the Euphrates.
Of course, manufacturing animosity between A and B religious branches is the best (cheapest) way to destabilize a society.You infiltrate branch A, detonate a bomb in its temple and sign it as "Present from B." The war between A and B will be self sustainable. If not, you can occasionally ad a bit of extra fuel into the fire.
It's worth noticing that up till thirty years or so nobody had heard of of fights between Sunnis and Shiites!
I wouldn't call it "shining" but just "success story": complete destabilization of Iraq. That was the goal.
You'll never see this in the MSM either;the stenographers, whose selective inattention is at all times high, remain comfortable in cloud nine.
Good point.That may be the ultimate reason for the Christian Fundamentalists fanatical "support" of Israel!
Excellent, scholarly piece! Thank you.
Bet you no MSM journalist/editor would mention Dr. Cole's piece, let along reproducing it.
The MSM is monopolized by stenographers. That's destroying our republic.
Good!!!, a mouthful.
Excellent piece, thank you
The OWS movement should
demandant free speach in the MSM. We should have open unrestricted, internet like political dialogue in the MSM
The 9/11 "skirmish" is the elephant-in-the-room.
The MSM, its journalists, are the main culprit. Democracy can not function under a Goebbels-like propaganda. The movement should demand the MSM invites authors like Juan Cole to write columns in it.
"Obama came into office convinced that the negotiating table was the only plausible way to deal with Iran. He should go back to that." He'd surely do that if he was his own agent.
Thoughtful piece, thanks.
Well said Juan, thank you.
Worry not Delia, Israel fears Turkey.
Free political speech means PUBLIC FREE POLITICAL SPEECH. It does not mean out of reach speech. Let Aljazeera have access to the general public as Fox, ABC, CBS or NBC do. Let it compete ideologically and commercially with the big guys.
It is a shame the the USA Government does not allow Aljazeera to broadcast in the USA. That censorship harms our democratic process.
What about an eleven "Myth": The Libya War was manufactured by the hidden hand of the Mossad to de-stabilize Libya?
"It is not completely clear what is driving the looting that has come in the wake of the rioting."
May be the public lost respect for the police because their involvement with Murdoch
Prof.Cole's guest commenter did not suggest that Breivik is "insane." On the contrary, he wrote wrote: "In the end, responsibility lies with Breivik and his conscious decision to commit these atrocities."
There is no objective way/medical test, to tell whether an idea/action is caused by a (mental) illness or is is just a (bad) idea.
Excellent piece! Yes Juan, ideas have consequences.
WA!!!...Well, after all that Juan, you can no longer deny you post opinions.
Excellent observation...(to make things worse the US MSM advertises itself as free to dis-inform the public.)
The issue in Egypt, as well as elsewhere, including the USA, is freedom of verbal political expression. The best model is Israel, with its pros and cons, including the DEMOCRATIC establishment of a tyrannical theocracy.
Let people learn from their own mistakes.
Kudos to the Egyptian journalists. Let's hope the American journalists emulate them.
Juan, you are too harsh on Obama. You ignore the fact that the Lobby has a rope on his neck, so he has to play submissive,stupid.
Congratulations Dr. Cole you said it all. However incredible is the situation in the ME, the USA politicians and the MSM top it with their support to the ongoing ME genocide.
The handwriting is on the wall, all you have to do is to open the eyes and read it: 1-The domino has begun with the Muslin countries' oligarchies; 2- The domino will end when all other oligarchies are deposed by the people. In the meantime the world's fire that begun in Tunisia will continue, more ore less destructively, depending on how much the oligarchs continue to believe and enforce the notion that they have a God given exclusiveness and power over the masses. They will eventually fail for the domino can not be stop. Amy Chua has it figured out in her book "World on Fire"
Amy Chua's 2003 prophesy,"World on Fire" is becoming a reality!
The USA MSM is the worst in the wold: a-spins the news; b-advertises itself (ad nauseam)as the-best-free press in the world.
G W Bush likes to impersonate God.
Right! It's all about the power to enforce labels.
1-How do you know he/she "hears voices"?
2- How do you know whether the person tells you the truth?
3- "Hearing" your own voice or talking to yourself (hopefully in silence) is something we all do all the time.
"different mentally"...? v "normal mentality"?
The only worthwhile distinction to consider resides on the power to enforce one or the other (you can end up in a mental hospital if you got the wrong mentality e.g. Ezra Pound). Nonenforceable distinctions are just juvenile rhetoric.
"(Jared Lee Loughner)was clearly mentally unstable." This is an erroneous,regrettable comment coming from the usually level headed,scholarly professor Cole. If he uses "mentally unstable" as a metaphor he should indicate it clearly.If he uses it as a medical entity, as a Mental Illness, I would challenge him to define, describe it.
The implications are profound: If the perpetrator is ruled as "mentally ill" his action is nothing but a symptom, a product of his illness, having nothing to do with the real world.
"Sadr’s return to Najaf symbolizes the futility of George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, which achieved virtually none of its stated objectives": wrong. The US/Israel's (covert)objective was to destabilize Iraq which has been accomplished.
Amen...
Excellent commentary, thank you.
Traitors are all over, but the greatest traitors are the corporate press and its agents, the so-called "journalists", all of whom collaborate by ignoring "inconvenient" facts and opinions.
No amount of airport checking will prevent mischief. Not even if they add vaginal and rectal examination of people 2 year old and older.
The so called "al-Qaeda" is a metaphor for personhood, respect and equality which the USA continue to deny by supporting Israel's Zionist regime whose main doctrine is that of "exceptionalism" more so with respect of the "Arabs."
Mutual respect among humans is the way to go.
The most guilty ones are the USA citizens that remain silent upon Israel's occupation and desecration of our country.
US conventional journalism is guilty of criminal cooperation.
Horrible!!!