Dissent Mag

By Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith, The Nation. Posted July 19, 2008.

Why we can’t let the Bush Administration get away with its crimes.

Retired General Antonio Taguba, the officer who led the Army’s investigation into Abu Ghraib, recently wrote in the preface to the new report, Broken laws, Broken Lives:

“There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”

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The Gathering Tempest

By Ayaz Amir

19 July, 2008
The News International

The government is unworried by the worsening security situation on our North West frontier. It is in a happy position because it has neither time nor inclination to think about such unpleasant matters. For now it is grappling with its own ineptitude. Let this battle be over—and there is no telling when this will be—before it can shift its attention to other issues. The army, however, is deeply worried, and for good reason because it is the army which is bearing the brunt of the undeclared war now raging along our western border. And it is the army which has to deal with the American pressure to “do more”. The luxury of indifference available to the government—and one which the government is enjoying to the full—is not available to the army.

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Little Crimes Get Punished, Big Ones Don’t
War Crimes Paradox

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

National Public Radio has been spending much news time on Darfur in Western Sudan where a great deal of human suffering and death are occurring. The military conflict has been brought on in part by climate change, according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Drought is forcing nomads in search of water into areas occupied by other claimants. No doubt the conflict is tribal and racial as well. The entire catastrophe is overseen by a government with few resources other than bullets.

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Posted: 2008/07/16

By Eric Margolis
(Lew Rockwell)

Pakistan, with 163 million people, and a poorly equipped but very tough 550,000-man army, will offer no easy victories. Those Bush Administration officials who foolishly advocate attacking Pakistan are playing with fire.

The Bush Administration may be preparing to lash out at old ally Pakistan, which Washington now blames for its humiliating failures to crush al-Qaida, capture its elusive leaders, or defeat Taliban resistance forces in Afghanistan.

One is immediately reminded of the Vietnam War when the Pentagon, unable to defeat North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong forces, urged invasion of Cambodia.

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by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, January 20, 2008

The following text was first published in Italian in: Giuletto Chiesa (Editor), Zero, Perché la versione ufficiale sull’ 11/9 è un Falso [Zero: Why the Official Version on 9/11 is a Falsehood], Piemme, Casale Monferrato, 2007.

A detailed analysis of the relevant issues covered in this article is also contained in the author’s book America’s “War on Terrorism”, Global Research, 2005

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Anatomy of a Price Surge

June 19, 2008

By Michael T. Klare

As the pain induced by higher oil prices spreads to an ever growing share of the American (and world) population, pundits and politicians have been quick to blame assorted villains–greedy oil companies, heartless commodity speculators and OPEC. It’s true that each of these parties has contributed to and benefited from the steep run-up. But the sharp growth in petroleum costs is due far more to a combination of soaring international demand and slackening supply–compounded by the ruinous policies of the Bush Administration–than to the behavior of those other actors.

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By Brad Reed, AlterNet. Posted July 1, 2008.

A shorter version of our long national nightmare.

In a lot of ways, choosing the Bush administration’s 10 greatest moments — disastrous failures, all — is about as pointless as picking out your 10 least favorite hemorrhoids: There are entirely too many of them, and taken together they all add up to a throbbing mass of pain. But unfortunately, history demands that we at least make the effort so that future generations will understand why we perform voodoo rituals cursing Bush’s memory before we go to bed every night.

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by Don Bacon

Operation Enduring Freedom is the official label for the US military invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. After almost seven years of fighting, what has been gained? What might be gained?

Militarily, US frustration with heavy casualties and lack of progress came to a head recently when Defense Secretary Robert Gates blamed NATO allies for US casualties. “I know I’ve been a big nag, and I know I’ve been a pain, … but for NATO to continue to be tied up in politics [because of a lack of public support] and issues between governments that are irrelevant to whether we are making progress in Afghanistan, I just don’t have patience any more . . .We’ve got kids dying because of the gaps.”

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