Progresso Weekly July 26 – August 1, 2007

Washington DC made its reputation around the world as the city where nothing succeeds like failure — take Bush and Wolfowitz as examples. Few “realists” tell the truth, especially in matters of public policy. But President Bush has discovered a new way around truth: faith. He has faith that the U.S. military will win in Iraq despite the impressive array of facts that would cause less fervent believers to waver. His style of operating — classify everything and don’t talk to anyone but absolutely loyal reporters and God – contrasts sharply with the Nixon-Kissinger era. (Keep reading…)

Special to Canadian Dimension July 30, 2007

Hillary Clinton blamed the Iraqi government for failure to make progress. “The American military has succeeded,” she declared to a stunned public. “They got rid of Saddam Hussein, they gave the Iraqis a chance for free and fair elections. It is the Iraqi government which has failed to make the tough decisions that are important for their own people,” she said, unable to finish her sentence because of a chorus of boos. (”Take Back America” conference, June 13, Washington, DC) The other leading candidates (Obama and Edwards) blamed Bush and stood strongly for rapid withdrawal of US troops. (Keep reading…)

Special to Canadian Dimension July 19, 2007

On Sunday, July 8, the New York Times editorial page featured a long piece, “The Road Home,” that seemed to turn the Times former role as chief cheerleader for the Bush Administration’s “Global War on Terror,” into a call to “cut and run.” (Keep reading…)

The New York Times Editorial Sunday 08 July 2007

It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit. <a href="http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2007/07/14/1216/#more-1216" class="more-link">(Keep reading...)</a>

Monthly Review June 2007

Regrettably, there are all too many candidates that qualify as imminent and very serious crises. Several should be high on everyone’s agenda of concern, because they pose literal threats to human survival: the increasing likelihood of a terminal nuclear war, and environmental disaster, which may not be too far removed. However, I would like to focus on narrower issues, those that are of greatest concern in the West right now. I will be speaking primarily of the United States, which I know best, and it is the most important case because of its enormous power. But as far as I can ascertain, Europe is not very different. (Keep reading…)

The New Yorker, June 25, 2007

How Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties. (Keep reading…)

Special to Canadian Dimension June 17, 2007

“We shall have no peace as long as the whole territory of the Land of Israel will not return under Jewish control…. A stable peace will come only then, when Israel will return to itself all its historical lands, and will thus control both the Suez and the Ormudz channel…. We must remember that Iraqi oil fields too are located on the Jewish land.” Avrom Shmulevic, rabbi and historian (Keep reading…)

t r u t h o u t, 09 June 2007

The Bush administration has no love for unions anywhere, but in Iraq it has a special reason for hating them. They are the main opposition to the occupation’s economic agenda, and the biggest obstacle to that agenda’s centerpiece - the privatization of Iraq’s oil. At the same time, unions have become the only force in Iraq trying to maintain at least a survival living standard for the millions of Iraqis who still have to go to work every day, in the middle of the war. (Keep reading…)

CounterPunch April 24, 2007

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and his staff of neo con hard liners, and assorted handwringers could not have predicted the horror show that erupted in Iraq. The war makers were ignorant. Most remain that way–and proudly. Did Bush shake his head when he saw a typical April 8 US newspaper photo (AP), showing an Iraqi man in Mahmoudiyah, some 20 miles south of Baghdad, trying to rescue his belongings after a pickup truck exploded? The fortunate man — 15 others died in the attack; more were wounded–found a suitcase with only some shrapnel in it. (Keep reading…)

Anti-War.com April 13, 2007

The Israeli journalist Amira Hass describes the moment her mother, Hannah, was marched from a cattle train to the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. “They were sick and some were dying,” she says. “Then my mother saw these German women looking at the prisoners, just looking. This image became very formative in my upbringing, this despicable ‘looking from the side’.” (Keep reading…)