Antiwar.com Blog

William Marina reads Pilger’s article and sees it as a discussion of “Israel and the Neocon Connection.”

Steven Horwitz reads the same article and calls it an “anti-Israel screed.”

Horwitz’s reaction demonstrates why Pilger’s piece, The Unmentionable Source of Terrorism, is aptly titled.

Things are getting better in Iraq, right? Riverbend, an Iraqi blogger in Baghdad, comments on this today, March 19th:

It’s like Iraq is suffering from intellectual hemorrhaging. Professors and scientists are being assassinated right and left- decent intelligent people who are necessary for the future of Iraq. Other scientists are being detained by the Americans and questioned about- of all things- Al-Qaeda. It seems like everyone you talk to is keeping their eyes open for a job opportunity outside of the country. Whatever the reason, the brains are slowly seeping out of Iraq. It’s no longer a place for learning or studying or working… it’s a place for wealthy contractors looking to get wealthier, extremists, thieves (of all ranks and origins) and troops… read more

Bush celebrated the 1 year anniversary of his vendetta invasion of Iraq by giving a speech in which WMD was mentioned once. Here it is:

Our coalition is also confronting the dangerous combination of outlaw states, terrorist groups and weapons of mass destruction.

WMD check:

Afghanistan: 0
Iraq: 0
Pakistan: Not applicable, good buddies
Israel: Unmentionable

WMD: Bush’s Lewinsky

Murray Polner reminds us of the continuing relevance of William Graham Sumner, particularly his 1898 essay “The Conquest of the United States by Spain.” Some choice snippets from Sumner:

It has become almost a doctrine with us that patriotism requires that we should hold our tongues while our interests, our institutions, our most sacred traditions, and our best established maxims have been trampled underfoot. There is no doubt that moral courage is the virtue which is more needed than any other in the modern democratic state, and that truckling to popularity is the worst political vice.
…

Continue reading “Our Last War on Spain”

Keep those filthy big-spending liberals from giving WMDs to the kids and STDs to the Islamofascists. Or something like that. Make checks payable to the Boy Bombardier.

From Serbian daily “Blic,” March 19, 2004 (UNMIK summary)

A woman, representative of UNMIK Police told Blic on condition of anonymity that she could only repeat the statement given by the spokesman of UN Police Derek Chappell about the tragic death of three Albanian boys. Chappell said that three Albanian children drowned in the River of Ibar in an attempt to cross the river and that no Serbs with dogs had made them jump into the river. (emphasis NM)
When we mentioned to her that the world media continued quoting the statement by another UN Police spokesperson, Angela Joseph – who is, by the way, sharing the office with Chappell – and the person that reported about Serbs with dogs forcing the boys into the river, she told us that she could not comment on that.
Just to mention that it was almost impossible to make a telephone contact with UNMIK representatives. Whenever we said that we were journalists from Belgrade, local telephone operators, Albanians, would disconnect the line. For that reason we were forced to present ourselves as foreign journalists.
Blic tried to forward to the world media UNMIK’s official statement. Editor of BBC European news Bill Hayton thanked us for disclosing that fact to him and said that he “does not believe a 13 year-old-boy, but that he has not received any other news while he has to explain to the world public why the clashes occurred.” (emhasis NM)
In spite of the fact that we forwarded official information about the tragic accident in which three boys lost their lives and in spite of the fact that BBC and CNN initially expressed their intention to change their initial reports, they have not done so. Their viewers are still listening to the stories about evil Serbs and their dogs. Continue reading “Lying by Inertia”