(Tomdispatch.com) – For a decade and a half, the U.S. Army waged war on fierce tribal Muslims in a remote land. Sound familiar? As it happens, that war unfolded half a world away from the Greater Middle East and more than a century ago in the southernmost islands of the Philippines. Back then, American soldiers […]
Archives for December 2019
Founders: Removal from Office is not the only Purpose of Impeachment
By Clark D. Cunningham< | - As Congress considers formal charges of impeachment against President Donald Trump, they should consider words spoken at the Constitutional Convention, when the Founders explained that impeachment was intended to have many important purposes, not just removing a president from office. A critical debate took place on July 20, 1787, […]
Trump as Jim Jones? How America drank the Kool-Aid
By James A. Haught Cults usually are one-man religions. A magnetic, dictatorial, dogmatic, demagogue draws throngs of followers and leads them into lala-land, sometimes dangerously. Jim Jones took 900 gullible adherents to cyanide suicide. David Koresh brought seventy Branch Davidians to fiery death. Shoko Asahara sent his Supreme Truth believers to plant nerve gas in […]
Israeli Blockade of Gaza Causing Contaminated Water, 25% of Illnesses and 12% of Infant Deaths
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Abeer Butmeh writes at Al Jazeera English that because of the Israeli blockade on Gaza, equipment for water purification has not been imported and 97% of the Strip’s water is now polluted. Gaza has a population of about 2 million, equivalent to that of the entire state of Nebraska. Only […]
Climate Crisis after Disappointing COP 25: “The Science is Screaming!”
(Special to Informed Comment) – In the wake of the disappointing UN COP 25 climate conference in Madrid, thousands of climate scientists are exhorting governments publicly, with an existential sense of urgency based upon the most up-to-date science, that we are doomed within decades if we do not act immediately to slow the climate crisis. […]
Outlaw State: Israel Accelerates Colonization of Palestinian West Bank 3 Years after UN Security Council Condemnation
(Middle East Monitor ) – Three years ago, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2334. With fourteen members voting in favour and one abstention, the Resolution was the equivalent of a political earthquake. Indeed, it was the first time in many years that the international body roundly condemned Israel for its illegal settlement policies […]
Did Plato’s Republic warn Democracies about Trump 2,394 Years Ago?
By Matthew Sharpe | – Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato, the old saying goes. And The Republic (c. 375 BCE), featuring Plato’s teacher Socrates in dialogue with several friends, is unquestionably central to Plato’s thought. There are few subjects that Plato’s masterpiece does not touch or play on: political theory, education, […]
In Wake of “Afghanistan Papers” Scandal, Trump to Yank Out 4,000 Troops
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – VOA reports that Trump will pull 4,000 US troops from Afghanistan, leaving less than 9,000 in country. Of the 13,000 US troops now in Afghanistan, 8,000 are training the Afghanistan National Army, while 5,000 are actively engaged in counter-terrorism operations. Last week Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said that any […]
The Military-Industrial State Just Keeps Getting More Expensive for the Rest of US
By William D. Hartung | – (Tomdispatch.com) – I’ve been writing critiques of the Pentagon, the national security state, and America’s never-ending military overreach since at least 1979 — in other words, virtually my entire working life. In those decades, there were moments when positive changes did occur. They ranged from ending the apartheid regime […]
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