1. What a loser:
“Terrorism watch video narrated by … John Elway?
If you take notes, use binoculars, snap photographs, give to charity or carry blueprints for anything, you may be a terrorist and should be treated with suspicion.
That’s the gist of a new Web video produced by the Colorado-based Center for Empowered Living and Learning, narrated by former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway.
…
He adds: “Anyone can become a victim of terrorism, any time, anywhere. Together, we can change this. Each of us has a responsibility to protect our community and we can do so by recognizing the signs of terrorism and taking proper action to stop it.”
http://rawstory.com/2009/10/john-elway-narrates-paranoid-terrorism-watch-video/
2. Bastards:
“How Israel Killed UN’s War Crimes Probe
Israel celebrated over the weekend its success at the United Nations in forcing the Palestinians to defer demands that the International Criminal Court investigate allegations of war crimes committed by Israel during its winter assault on the Gaza Strip.
The about-turn, following vigorous lobbying from Israel and the United States, appears to have buried the damning report of Judge Richard Goldstone into the fighting, which killed some 1,400 Palestinians, most of them civilians.
….
But, according to Israeli and Palestinian analysts, diplomatic arm-twisting was not the only factor in the PA’s change of heart. Ha’aretz newspaper reported last week that, behind the scenes, Palestinian officials had faced threats that Israel would retaliate by inflicting enormous damage on the beleaguered Palestinian economy. “
http://original.antiwar.com/cook/2009/10/06/how-israel-killed-uns-war-crimes-probe/
3. What a surprise:
“This, of course, leads to bizarre Middle Eastern policy anomalies rarely acknowledged in this country. In the midst of all the screaming headlines about an Iranian bomb which does not yet (and may never) exist, none of the acts the administration is demanding of the Iranians (and around which it is threatening to impose even stronger sanctions), including allowing International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors into its nuclear sites and providing greater transparency about the state of its nuclear program, have been put into practice by Israel, despite its perfectly real – in fact, staggeringly large – program. And no penalties have been imposed.”
http://original.antiwar.com/engelhardt/2009/10/06/cold-wars-ghost-blocks-mideast-peace/
4. “The suffocatingly narrow Afghanistan “debate”
Apparently, “all options” does not mean “all options.” As usual for American wars, examining “all options” means everything other than “ending the war.”
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If one were to add the various military actions from the last several decades that aren’t on this list — our constant covert wars in Central America of the 1980s; our involvement in the Balkans; our invasions of Somalia, Haiti, Grenada, and Panama, etc. etc. — that is as pure a picture of a perpetual war state as one can imagine.
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But whether a war is “justified” is a completely separate question from whether it’s “wise.” Just as was true for Iraq, the supposed “costs” of leaving Afghanistan are endlessly highlighted (the Taliban will return, Al Qaeda will come back, it’ll be a brutal and lawless state), while the costs to the U.S. from staying — and from continuing to be a nation in a state of perpetual war and occupation — are virtually ignored.
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Regarding the primary rationale for escalating (or even remaining) in Afghanistan — namely, that if the Taliban control Afghanistan, Al Qaeda will return and once again have a “safe haven” there — DDay asks an excellent question: since the Taliban already control a huge portion of Afghanistan and have for a couple of years (up to 80%, in fact), why hasn’t Al Qaeda returned? He argues that “this persistent lie about Al Qaeda’s aims in the region underpins the entire case for escalation, just the way the domino theory underpinned consistent troop buildup in Vietnam,”
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/
