Global
The soldiers of the US 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division hollered as they made their way into Kuwait. "We won," they claimed. "It's over."
But what exactly did they win?
And is the war really over?
It seems we are once again walking into the same trap, the same nonsensical assumptions of wars won, missions accomplished, troops withdrawn, and jolly soldiers carrying cardboard signs of heart-warming messages like "Lindsay & Austin ... Dad's coming home."
While much of the media is focused on the logistics of the misleading withdrawal of the "last combat brigade" from Iraq on August 19 - some accentuating the fact that the withdrawal is happening two weeks ahead of the August 31 deadline - most of us are guilty of forgetting Iraq and its people. When the economy began to take center stage, we completely dropped the war off our list of grievances.
But this is not about memory, or a way of honoring the dead and feeling compassion for the living. Forgetting wars leads to a complete polarization of discourses, thus allowing the crafters of war to sell the public whatever suits their interests and stratagems.
But what exactly did they win?
And is the war really over?
It seems we are once again walking into the same trap, the same nonsensical assumptions of wars won, missions accomplished, troops withdrawn, and jolly soldiers carrying cardboard signs of heart-warming messages like "Lindsay & Austin ... Dad's coming home."
While much of the media is focused on the logistics of the misleading withdrawal of the "last combat brigade" from Iraq on August 19 - some accentuating the fact that the withdrawal is happening two weeks ahead of the August 31 deadline - most of us are guilty of forgetting Iraq and its people. When the economy began to take center stage, we completely dropped the war off our list of grievances.
But this is not about memory, or a way of honoring the dead and feeling compassion for the living. Forgetting wars leads to a complete polarization of discourses, thus allowing the crafters of war to sell the public whatever suits their interests and stratagems.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- American officials hoping to extradite Viktor
Bout on Wednesday (August 25) were unable to fly the suspected Russian
weapons smuggler to New York, because the U.S. added fresh allegations
against him which must be heard or dismissed in a Thai court.
A sleek, white, twin-engine jet from the U.S. reportedly waited in vain on the tarmac at Bangkok's Don Muang air force base on Wednesday (August 25), only to be told that he would not be handed over without going through some additional legal hoops.
"We are not sending Viktor Bout back today. There are still several legal steps to go through," Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Wednesday (August 25).
"Before Bout's extradition can take place, the second case needs to be dropped by the court," Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdi said on Wednesday (August 25).
A sleek, white, twin-engine jet from the U.S. reportedly waited in vain on the tarmac at Bangkok's Don Muang air force base on Wednesday (August 25), only to be told that he would not be handed over without going through some additional legal hoops.
"We are not sending Viktor Bout back today. There are still several legal steps to go through," Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Wednesday (August 25).
"Before Bout's extradition can take place, the second case needs to be dropped by the court," Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdi said on Wednesday (August 25).
It felt surreal to be inside the home of Erik Prince, the founder, owner and chairman of Blackwater (or Xe, as it is now called). Prince, a former Navy Seal, provides security for the CIA, the Pentagon and the State Department. His company trains 40,000 people a year in skills that include personal protection. Yet his home in McLean, Virginia, has no security. None. Not even a fence or a guard dog or a No Trespassing sign. And his mother-in-law, who helps care for his young children, invited a total stranger--me--into his home without hesitation.
It's been five years already. In New Orleans, more than half the original residents have not, cannot, return.
"They don't want no poor niggers back in - that's the bottom line."
And that's Malik Rahim, Director of Common Ground, who led the survivors who rebuilt their homes in the teeth of official resistance in "The City That Care Forgot."
You'll meet Malik and the people that everyone forgot in Big Easy to Big Empty: the Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans, chosen this week as Moviefone's top pick of Katrina documentaries.
We are offering our readers a Download of Big Easy FREE of charge during this week of commemoration. Or donate and get the signed DVD with added material, including Palast with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman.
Meet Patricia Thomas who was locked out of her home in the Lafitte housing project near the French Quarter. We go with her as she breaks into her blockaded apartment.
"Katrina didn't do this. Man did this."
"They don't want no poor niggers back in - that's the bottom line."
And that's Malik Rahim, Director of Common Ground, who led the survivors who rebuilt their homes in the teeth of official resistance in "The City That Care Forgot."
You'll meet Malik and the people that everyone forgot in Big Easy to Big Empty: the Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans, chosen this week as Moviefone's top pick of Katrina documentaries.
We are offering our readers a Download of Big Easy FREE of charge during this week of commemoration. Or donate and get the signed DVD with added material, including Palast with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman.
Meet Patricia Thomas who was locked out of her home in the Lafitte housing project near the French Quarter. We go with her as she breaks into her blockaded apartment.
"Katrina didn't do this. Man did this."
BANGKOK, Thailand -- A Thai court agreed on Friday (August 20) to extradite Viktor Bout to New York, after the Russian was arrested in a Bangkok hotel during a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sting for allegedly planning to sell weapons to Colombian rebels which could be used to kill Americans.
Dubbed the "Lord of War" and "Merchant of Death," the stout, mustachioed Mr. Bout arrived at the appeals court grinning and winking with confidence, but after hearing the final guilty verdict in the "United States of America vs. Viktor Bout" case, began crying while led away in mandatory leg chains.
"Well, now we'll just go to a U.S. court and win there instead," Mr. Bout told Russia's RIA Novosti news agency in Russian after the court issued its ruling.
He faces possible life imprisonment if convicted in New York for weapons smuggling, wiring money through New York banks, and other crimes.
Having exhausted his Bangkok court appeals, Mr. Bout's lawyer, Lak Nittiwattanawichan, said they would ask Thailand's Foreign Ministry and monarchy to set him free -- which observers said would probably not be successful.
Dubbed the "Lord of War" and "Merchant of Death," the stout, mustachioed Mr. Bout arrived at the appeals court grinning and winking with confidence, but after hearing the final guilty verdict in the "United States of America vs. Viktor Bout" case, began crying while led away in mandatory leg chains.
"Well, now we'll just go to a U.S. court and win there instead," Mr. Bout told Russia's RIA Novosti news agency in Russian after the court issued its ruling.
He faces possible life imprisonment if convicted in New York for weapons smuggling, wiring money through New York banks, and other crimes.
Having exhausted his Bangkok court appeals, Mr. Bout's lawyer, Lak Nittiwattanawichan, said they would ask Thailand's Foreign Ministry and monarchy to set him free -- which observers said would probably not be successful.
Watching MSNBC’s coverage of ‘the last combat troops leaving Iraq’ for 3 hours reminded of a few brutal realities that still plague this country and this planet. The first being just how far this country remains from any semblance of reality. It’s the kind of delusional denial that truly can only be believed when witnessed from within. As Keith Olbermann was describing the cinematic quality of the “Strykers driving into your living room,” I could really think of only one thing – The aftermath of a 7.5 year all out United States operation to decimate a people and their society.
There’s no way to comprehend the scope and facets of this operation, because you would need a Pentagon for that. From the first day after initial conquest when the money disappeared from the banks and their record of civilization was decimated by the looting of their museums, it was like any other colonial conquest in history, except every excruciating moment of this one was on television. The following 7.5 years of the assimilation of a country went as diagrammed.
There’s no way to comprehend the scope and facets of this operation, because you would need a Pentagon for that. From the first day after initial conquest when the money disappeared from the banks and their record of civilization was decimated by the looting of their museums, it was like any other colonial conquest in history, except every excruciating moment of this one was on television. The following 7.5 years of the assimilation of a country went as diagrammed.
This is it. We have only days to save an innocent man's life. Yesterday, the Ohio Parole Board made a nonbinding, advisory recommendation to Governor Strickland that Kevin Keith should be executed, but the Parole Board's own findings do not erase the doubt about Mr. Keith's guilt. We need you and your friends - especially people living in Ohio - to urge Governor Strickland to spare his life, when so many questions about his case remain unanswered.
Thanks to you, more than 20,000 petition signatures have been delivered to Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, asking him to save Kevin Keith. But that is not enough. Now, with Mr. Keith's scheduled execution less than one month away, it's time to turn up the volume and make our voices heard.
Please send a letter to Governor Strickland today asking him to grant clemency to Mr. Keith, who is scheduled to be executed on September 15, despite new evidence of his innocence.
Thanks to you, more than 20,000 petition signatures have been delivered to Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, asking him to save Kevin Keith. But that is not enough. Now, with Mr. Keith's scheduled execution less than one month away, it's time to turn up the volume and make our voices heard.
Please send a letter to Governor Strickland today asking him to grant clemency to Mr. Keith, who is scheduled to be executed on September 15, despite new evidence of his innocence.
The Department of Homeland Security says this is a motto for patriots, which is what I’ve always tried to be. After a lot of looking, I’m saying something.
I saw a large airplane crash into the South Tower, Building Two, of the World Trade Center—on television, live, at 9:03 a.m. on September 11, 2001. Knowing that a large aircraft had flown into the North Tower a few minutes earlier, it was obvious that both crashes were intentional. I said: “They’d better be on their toes in Washington.”
Later I learned that people in the Pentagon who had TV sets also said something, namely “We’re next.” And they were. In about half an hour, 125 of them were dead at their desks. They trusted their superiors, as patriots tend to do, and they got double-crossed.
Let me tell you the story.
I saw a large airplane crash into the South Tower, Building Two, of the World Trade Center—on television, live, at 9:03 a.m. on September 11, 2001. Knowing that a large aircraft had flown into the North Tower a few minutes earlier, it was obvious that both crashes were intentional. I said: “They’d better be on their toes in Washington.”
Later I learned that people in the Pentagon who had TV sets also said something, namely “We’re next.” And they were. In about half an hour, 125 of them were dead at their desks. They trusted their superiors, as patriots tend to do, and they got double-crossed.
Let me tell you the story.