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Nir Rosen reports on ‘How we lost the War We Won’ in Afghanistan: ‘ Until recently, Ghazni, like much of central Afghanistan, was considered reasonably safe. But now the province, located 100 miles south of the capital, has fallen to the Taliban. Foreigners who venture to Ghazni often wind up kidnapped or killed. In defiance […]

The third and final debate again went to Obama in the instant polls done by organizations such as CNN. Independents told CNN they generally thought Obama won. CNN’s real-time tracking of opinion among viewers in its studio showed that independents especially disliked the smear tactic of attempting to link Obama to prominent Chicago educator Bill […]

The Republican Party that Nixon invented melded the moneyed classes of the Northeast with the white evangelicals of the South. This odd couple went on to simultaneously steal from and oppress the rest of us. The moneyed classes were happy to let the New Puritans impose their stringent morality, since they could always just buy […]

The new National Intelligence Estimate on Pakistan will apparently depict that country as ‘on the edge,’ with ‘no money, no energy, no government.’ The fear is expressed that an unstable Pakistan will become a center for al-Qaeda plotting against the US. The situation in Pakistan for ordinary people is indeed tough. Fuel and wheat prices […]

Omer Goldman, daughter of a former head of the Israeli intelligence organization, Mossad, has gone to jail as a conscientious objector. She visited the West Bank and came to know too much about what the colonists were doing to the Palestinians to be able to serve in a military that is an adjunct to colonization. […]

Lt. Col. Darrel J. Vandeveld resigned from the military commissions tribunals at Guantanamo convinced that the system denies defense attorneys exculpatory evidence that the government knows about, which might prove the innocence of the defendant. The Guantanamo issue tells us a lot about the candidates and their commitment to the Constitution and the rule of […]

Ali Fathollah-Nejad interviews veteran Middle East Expert William R.Polk on United States foreign policy toward Iran: Iran falling into the “net” of a “worldwide policy”: On the U.S. Foreign Policy Doctrine and Its Dangers William R. Polk* interviewed by Ali Fathollah-Nejad** A former high-ranking member in the foreign and security policy staff of U.S. President […]

James Zogby: :John McCain: I Am an Arab and a Decent Man”: ‘ We are disturbed by the degree to which ‘Arab’ has become the metaphorical mud to sling against your opponent. This week, for example the Republican Jewish Coalition released a document in which they use the term Pro-Arab as a pejorative accusation. For […]

Anand Gopal at Tomdispatch.com on ‘Who rules Afghanistan’? NATO is planning a crackdown on narcotics traffickers in Afghanistan. Pushtun guerrillas in Helmand Province attacked police positions near the capital, Lashkargah, provoking a land attack from the AFghan military with close air support from NATO, which left about 100 Afghans dead, who are being labled ‘Taliban.’ […]