War

By David Swanson May 29, 2018 “Memorial Day is a time to remember, appreciate, and honor the selfless patriots who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to freedom. At a time when our country seems so divided, we must not forget that it is because of their service and sacrifice that we live in the most free and prosperous nation on Earth.” Congressman Tom Garrett It would be difficult to count all of the lies in the above statement. It’s about the U.S. Memorial Day on May 28, 2018. Let’s just highlight a few. Originally published at David Swanson’s “Let’s Try Democracy” – May 28, 2018 Let’s start with “most free.” The British-based Legatum Institute, which ranks the United States 18th in overall “prosperity,” ranks it 28th in “personal freedom.”(1) The U.S.-based Cato Institute ranks the United States 24th in “personal freedom” and 11th in “economic freedom.”(2) The Canadian-based World...

  – all about this agreement and its text here). Noteworthy is that the nuclear deal is incorporated into international law by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, even though the U.S. already at that point stated – as an exceptionalist state – that it did not consider the deal binding for it. With the exception of Germany, the deal was negotiated – cynically, of course – by countries which have themselves thousands of nuclear weapons. It never mentioned the only state in the region that possesses them, against international law in the form of UN resolutions and, additionally, has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). That state is Israel whose nuclear weapons Western politicians and their loyal, politically correct media omit mention of – as systematically and uniformly as if orchestrated by an invisible hand from above. Back in 2014-15, many of us stated that the alternative to a negotiated...

  In the U.S., carrying out military interventions abroad has undermined freedom at home   By Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail R. Hall   Originally published by Stanford University Press blog here The Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal continues to be front-page news. According to current reports Cambridge Analytica obtained private Facebook data, which it used to send pro-Trump material to targeted Facebook users. These reports have been met with outrage in Washington, D.C. The Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation and U.S. senators have called for Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, to testify in front of Congress. Calls by Congress for increased oversight to prevent private companies from surveilling people are extremely ironic given that they themselves recently renewed a section of the 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act which allows for the warrantless surveillance of Americans. Issues regarding the appropriate use of government surveillance are also at the center of...

We bring you here three contributions by TFF Associates to commemorate the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam 50 years ago Global Research Editor’s Note This article was first published on March 15, 2008, to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the My Lai Massacre In a bitter irony, Colin Powell, who was responsible for the coverup of the My Lai massacre acceded to a “brilliant” career in the Armed Forces. In 2001 he was appointed Secretary of State in the Bush administration. Although never indicted, Powell was also deeply implicated in the Iran-Contra affair. It is worth noting that Colin Powell was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time of the Gulf War, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of retreating Iraqi soldiers in what British war correspondent Felicity Arbuthnot entitled “Operation Desert Slaughter”. “The forty two day carpet bombing, enjoined by thirty two other countries, against a country of just twenty...

New book by TFF Associate, Richard Falk, on the Vietnam War Revisiting the Vietnam War And International Law: Views and Interpretations of Richard Falk Editor Stefan Andersson Cambridge University Press, 2017 (US $ 157) Paperback UK £ 28 here Why the Legal and Political Debate on the Vietnam War Still Matters Introduction There has been recently a revival of interest in the Vietnam War, perhaps most notably as a result of the quite extraordinary 10-episode Ken Burns & Lynn Novick’s ten-part, eighteen hour documentary film as aired on PBS, which although somewhat ideologically slanted toward an American audience has much illuminating footage, especially bearing on various Vietnamese perceptions of the war experience. I would also call attention to a series of articles by Matthew Stevenson describing his recent visit to Vietnam – “Why Vietnam Still Matters: An American Reckoning” – which combines acute journalistic observation with impressive commentary on the...

  By Jan Oberg Right after the very heavy fighting about East Ghouta and the UN Security Council’s ceasefire resolution, Dr. Marcus Papadopoulos is given what must be perceived as a very rare opportunity by a mainstream media  – skyNews Australia – to present a completely different perspective. You do not have to agree with every word, the important thing is that you listen carefully to an obviously knowledgeable person who makes an interesting analysis totally different from the one you are usually presented with. In a few minutes he basically undermines, in a superbly clear and eloquent manner, the Western manufactured narrative that has been repeated to such an extent that, fortunately, more and more people begin to ask two set of questions: 1. Why is it that Western mainstream media’s coverage is so uniform – same angles, same words, same accusations, same images, same videos, same human stories?...

    Rethinking Russia sat down with University of Kent’s Professor Richard Sakwa to discuss his new book Russia Against The Rest, its relations with the West, its role in a new world order as well as its greatest challenges in 2018. Originally published on February 15,2018 at Rethinking Russia here   University of Kent’s Professor Richard Sakwa believes that there will be the intensification of an anti-Russian policy in the West in the future. He also writes about it in his new book Russia Against The Rest: The Post-Cold War Crisis of World Order that was released in October 2017. Rethinking Russia sat down with him to discuss the book, Russia’s role in a new global order as well as its greatest challenge in 2018.   Rethinking Russia: How could you explain the title of your book “Russia Against The Rest”? Richard Sakwa: The point is to stress the...

  • What is now unfolding in both North America and Western Europe is fake social activism, controlled and funded by the corporate establishment. This manipulated process precludes the formation of a real mass movement against war, racism and social injustice.   The anti-war movement is dead. The war on Syria is tagged as “a civil war”. The war on Yemen is also portrayed as a civil war.  While the bombing is by Saudi Arabia, the insidious role of the US is downplayed or casually ignored. “The US is not directly involved so there is no need for us to wage an anti-war campaign”. (paraphrase) In turn, dissent has become compartmentalized. Separate “issue oriented” protest movements (e.g. environment, anti-globalization, peace, women’s rights, LGBT) are encouraged and generously funded as opposed to a cohesive mass movement against global capitalism. This mosaic was already prevalent in the counter G7 summits and People’s Summits of the 1990s...

    By Vision of Humanity For the second year running, fewer people have been killed by terrorism. The 2017 Global Terrorism Index, which was released globally on November 15, shows 22% fewer terrorism deaths compared to the peak of terror activity in 2014. This means 6,827 fewer people were killed. However, ISIL defied this positive trend killing 50% more people in 2016 as compared to 2015. In fact last year was their deadliest to-date with over 9,000 deaths. Most of these deaths occurred in Iraq and ISIL’s terrorism activity saw Iraq again ranked as the country most impacted by terrorism. ISIL has also been the driver behind an increase in terrorism in developed countries. There has been a 67% increase in attacks and a nearly 600% increase in deaths since 2014. But many of these deaths were caused by a small number of attacks that inflicted very high casualties....

  • The US’ only answer to terrorism is violence against violence, but that’s like trying to eradicate diseases 32-invasion-war-africa-us/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Via rt.com A report released under the Freedom of Information Act shows the US has been simulating an invasion of West Africa in response to an imaginary terror attack on American soil. The latest Pentagon project was designed to train those who will manage future American wars. The terror attack scenario was played last year as part of the simulated exercise by students from the US military’s war colleges. RT:  Do you have any issues with the US simulating a New York terror attack to invade Africa? Jan Oberg: No. First of all, this is a kind of a war game. … People are thinking about what the future will be like. What is really interesting is that it ends with getting stuck in Africa too, like everywhere else...

Af Jan Øberg   I år 2000 blev der på verdensplan dræbt 400 mennesker og såret 700 ved terror angreb. I 2015 var tallet steget til 32 000 mennesker! Dvs sige at antal ofre for politiskle terrorhandinger er steget 80 gange siden man påbegyndte “den globale krig mod terror”. Vi i vesten synes at vi er hårdt ramt, det er ikke sandt. Langt de fleste terrorangreb sker i Mellemøsten. Hvad gør vi forkert? Hvordan får vi det stoppet? Jan giver sit bud på hvorfor det er gået så galt. Enhedslisten i Esbjerg. Fredagscafé, 1. september 2017.

“It’s clear a long-term success in Afghanistan will require significantly more troops and we welcome those additional troops, no matter what the source”. So said Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon when seven people were killed, earlier this year, in a bomb attack on the luxury hotel in Kabul which housed the Australian embassy. Strengthening the Nato-led “International Security Assistance Force” would be an “essential ingredient”, the Minister went on, in defeating terrorism in Afghanistan. What to make of this proposed remedy? Well, it depends on how we diagnose the problem. And Fitzgibbon was pitching his statement into a media narrative for the Afghanistan story which constantly reiterates a simple proposition – ‘these evil men are out to get us’. Go back to the reports in the Australian press from the day of the attack, in mid-January, and search them for the six vital pieces of information that journalists are supposed...