WikiLeaks now has the Afghan “war logs” up in html, which you can browse a number of different ways: be sure to read the introduction for navigation instructions (it’s easy).
And, again, thanks to Wikileaks, Julian Assange, and – especially – Bradley Manning, who sacrificed his career (and his freedom) so that we might know the truth.
Antiwar columnist Eric Margolis was fired in a shake-up at Sun Newspapers.
In what is unlikely a coincidence, it was recently revealed that Sun Newspapers is now receiving Canadian government money.
Margolis has written for the Toronto Sun newspaper chain for 27 years and his column has remained popular.
Margolis, like other high-profile Sun columnists who have been axed or forced into retirement without an opportunity to say farewell to readers, will remain visible online.
“My weekly columns on foreign affairs will still be available at EricMargolis.com each Sunday, and at Huffingtonpost.com and LewRockwell.com. I am also on Twitter and Facebook.”
As Eric says, there was a time during the glory years of the Toronto Sun when opposing views were welcomed by management and appreciated by readers. Quebecor’s newly-planted henchmen are putting an end to that editorial freedom.
Sun Media’s parliamentary bureau has lost five columnists in the past month: Greg Weston, Elizabeth Thompson, Christina Spencer, Peter Zimonjic and Kathleen Harris, who is still writing but as a national reporter from outside the bureau.
Nearly one third of the Republican Caucus in the House of Representatives has introduced a resolution giving Israel a green light to attack Iran. H.Res.1553 declares unwavering support for Israel to “use all means necessary,†to “eliminate nuclear threats†posed by Iran.
The game plan of these Members of Congress was spelled out by John Bolton in the Wall Street Journal just two weeks ago: “Having visible congressional support in place at the outset [of an attack] will reassure the Israeli government, which is legitimately concerned about Mr. Obama’s likely negative reaction to such an attack.â€
The National Iranian American Council is urging people to contact House Republican leader John Boehner urging him to block this measure.
You can go here to automatically contact Boehner.
I also urge you to contact your individual member of Congress and Senator to oppose H.Res.1553. You can go to Congress.org to get contact info.
Antiwar Radio’s Scott Horton will be interviewing investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill. Mr. Scahill, the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Army, will take a critical look at the Washington Post’s Top Secret America. KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles/98.7 Santa Barbara, Friday, July 16 at 5:00 PM Pacific. Listen live here.
Last week, Mr. Horton interviewed Gareth Porter and Michael Hastings for KPFK. The archive can be heard here.
This week in totally f*cking insane Somalia news, Ugandan officials declare their utter shock at the random, unprovoked attacks on Kampala last week which killed over 70 people. As the very first sentence in a long and entertaining piece in AllAfrica.com says, “Uganda’s East African neighbours have pledged soft support should the country choose to go on the offensive in Somalia.”
Yes, go on the offensive. Because stationing five thousand troops in another country is no provocation whatsoever, at least not one recognized by the Western world. And after all, African regimes got their ideas of proportionality and nationhood from the West, a lovely little gift of colonialism. Before I digress too far, suffice to say that Uganda has been “on the offensive” for a while now in Somalia, what with its penchant for shelling Mogadishu residences full of civilians. Not that their opponents in al-Shabaab aren’t guilty of the same thing, but then, often it’s because they’re fighting the Ugandan occupiers or the pathetic puppet “Transitional Federal Government,” a UN-backed clique of former Barre apparatchiks and US-financed warlords.
This, as I spoke with on Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton recently, is the idea that history begins anew each time the US or any Western-accepted country is hit with some atrocity in retaliation. The US was attacked on 9/11 for no reason except possibly that bin Laden was jealous of and/or hated our capitalisms; the previous 50+ years of Washington’s intervention in the Middle East didn’t happen, if you ask Sarah Palin. Evil, conditionless al-Shabaab attacked peaceable, celebratory Ugandans for no other reason than that the former are anti-soccer and anti-modernity; Somalis being killed by Kampala’s troops on their own soil has nothing to do with it. The logic employed here could make a neocon just die from pride, with any luck.
Uganda’s blustery officials declare this “the beginning of the end of al-Shabaab”; and sure, if US experience in driving out native insurgencies in such success stories as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Vietnam are any indicator, the capable likes of powerhouse Uganda could enjoy similar victory. “Sources” say that Uganda is willing and able to increase its Somalia contingent from 5,000 to 20,000 troops, the magical number somebody for some reason decided is needed to wipe out al-Shabaab. A cited regional precedent is Zimbabwe’s involvement in the “Great African War” in the DR Congo in 1998, in which Robert Mugabe, the great democrat and statesman, sent 12,000 troops to prop up Laurent Kabila, an erstwhile Marxist so corrupt that even legendary scoundrel Che Guevara turned his back on him.
In all seriousness, as I point out in my recent op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor, this is a textbook case of blowback. It’s the clearest example we’ve seen in a while, which is why it’s so puzzling to see such reasonable people as African officials reacting with such surprise.
Ugandans should demand their government retreat from this downward spiral into fruitless and endless intervention and deal with more pressing issues, like the fact that homosexuals eat da poo poo and there are just still so many of them to put to death, and the other civilizational advancements for which sub-Saharan Africa is well known.
This Wednesday a debate between Bruce Fein (former associate deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration and author of American Empire: Before the Fall) and radio host/Washington Times columnist Jeffrey Kuhner. It will be moderated by American Conservative editor Daniel McCarthy.
The smackdown begins at 12:30 pm on the 6th floor of the Americans for Tax Reform offices — 722 12th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005.
With RNC Chairman Michael Steele calling Afghanistan Obama’s war, there’s an opening, however small, for a true foreign policy debate on the Right for the first time in over a decade. The Fein/Kuhner event will give a taste of what’s in store. It’s free, and food and drink will be provided, so drop by if you’re in the area.
