Our Treasonous Foreign Policy

 

Al-Qaeda has a makeover – and now they're the good guys

If you want to know why our “war on terrorism” has failed so miserably – if you want to understand how and why the harder we fight the more enemies we have to face – then read this recent piece in the Wall Street Journal on the evolution of the Syrian civil war, which opens with this startling query:

“In the three-way war ravaging Syria, should the local al Qaeda branch be seen as the lesser evil to be wooed rather than bombed?”

Just Politics: Iran, Like the Rest, Is Not Blameless

When the United States government declared its war on Afghanistan in October 2001, thus taking the first step in its so-called ‘war on terror’, following the devastating attacks of September 11 earlier that year, Iran jumped on board.

 

Then Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, dubbed a reformist, provided substantial assistance in the US effort aimed at defeating the Taliban, an ardent enemy of Iran and Afghan Shia. Indeed, the Taliban’s aggressive policies included an anti-Shia drive, which resulted in a massive refugee problem. Tens of thousands of Afghan Shia sought refuge in Iran.

 

Khatami’s ‘friendly’ gesture towards the anti-terror crusade lead by George W. Bush was not by any means an Iranian departure from a supposed policy of non-intervention in the region. Iran is a country with porous borders, political and strategic interests, serious and legitimate fears, but also unquestionable ambitions.

 

Ukraine and the Apocalyptic Risk of Propagandized Ignorance

I’m not sure if there’s been a better written book published yet this year than Ukraine: Zbig’s Grand Chessboard and How the West Was Checkmated, but I’m confident there’s not been a more important one. With some 17,000 nuclear bombs in the world, the United States and Russia have about 16,000 of them. The United States is aggressively flirting with World War III, the people of the United States have not the foggiest notion of how or why, and authors Natylie Baldwin and Kermit Heartsong explain it all quite clearly. Go ahead and tell me there’s nothing you’re now spending your time on that’s less important than this.

This book may very well be the best written one I’ve read this year. It puts all the relevant facts — those I knew and many I didn’t — together concisely and with perfect organization. It does it with an informed worldview. It leaves me nothing to complain about at all, which is almost unheard of in my book reviews. I find it refreshing to encounter writers so well-informed who also grasp the significance of their information.

Human Experimentation: a CIA Habit


The Guardian on Monday made public a CIA document allowing the agency's director to "approve, modify, or disapprove all proposals pertaining to human subject research."

Human what?

At Guantanamo, the CIA gave huge doses of the terror-inducing drug mefloquine to prisoners without their consent, as well as the supposed truth serum scopolamine. Former Guantanamo guard Joseph Hickman has documented the CIA's torturing people, sometimes to death, and can find no explanation other than research:

Protest against Carbon-Nuke Bailouts at PUCO

Protest sign

More than a hundred people gathered outside the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) headquarters today, June 15, trying to stop the bailouts of dirty coal plants and the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ohio. The rally was tightly controlled by the Ohio Sierra Club, who sent five members inside to deliver letters to the PUCO meeting. The outcome of the decision is not yet known. For more information on the issue, please see: No bailouts for First Energy’s Davis-Besse nuclear reactor by Pat Marida, chair, Ohio Sierra Club Nuclear Issues Committee.

Photos by Tekla Lewin

Swimming While Black

“He came into the call out of control, and as the video shows, was out of control during the incident.”

And cellphone videos continue to unravel America’s “law and order” paradigm. You might almost call it the cellphone revolution, as random video clips keep exposing a dark side of our social order that used to be so easy to deny. YouTube has become the gateway to our collective conscience, such as it is.

Dangerous Military Buildup in Asia and Pacific

The international community is extraordinarily concerned about the Chinese construction on small islands and atolls in disputed waters off China, Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan.  Over the past 18 months, the Chinese government has created islands out of atolls and larger islands out of small ones.

With the Obama administration’s “pivot” of the United States military and economic strategy to Asia and the Pacific, the Chinese have seen military construction in their front yard. 

I’ve just returned from my third trip to Jeju Island, South Korea. Jeju is called the Island of Peace.  However, its where the South Korean military has almost finished construction of a new naval base, the first military base on this strategically located island south of the mainland of Korea that is littered with U.S. and South Korean military bases, leftover from the Korean war and that are a part of the U.S. “defense” of South Korea from  “aggression” from North Korea. 

Nude Tourists in Exotic Destinations & an International Spoof


BANGKOK, Thailand -- Naked foreign tourists publicly cavorting at
Southeast Asia's UNESCO World Heritage sites and elsewhere are
angering local governments, resulting in at least 10 arrests this year
amid concern that exhibitionism at exotic destinations may be a new
fad.

The nudity also purportedly sparked an international spoof tricking
much of the world's media.

Several days ago, Canadian Emil Kaminski created a satirical,
expletive-filled video -- that he now claims tricked the Washington
Post, Canadian and British media -- in which he mocked death threats
he received for convincing nine foreign tourists to strip off their
clothes on Malaysia's Mount Kinabalu.

Imitating the successful format of Comedy Central's Daily Show hosts
John Stewart and John Oliver, 33-year-old Mr. Kaminski created the
caustic YouTube video falsely describing himself as joining nine
people who actually did strip and frolic on Mount Kinabalu, a UNESCO
World Heritage site.

In that first video, Mr. Kaminski also attacked Malaysia's Tourism

A look toward the future from Origins Game Fair

Origins logo

Origins Game Fair hit an attendance record this year, with over 15,000 attendees gathering at the Greater Columbus Convention Center to see the latest in role-playing games, card games, and every other game of the non-video variety. Over 200 game creators, publishers, and shops — some big, many small — had their games on display in the Exhibitor’s Hall.

   So what did Origins 2015 show us about the coming year? What trends and changes are coming to a tabletop near you?

The “Second Assault”: Why do Americans re-victimize?

   What does it say about America when women or men who are sexually abused or raped are then re-victimized by the public and media? Well, and I know this personally, it says to the victim, “Welcome to the second worst nightmare of your life.”  

   As a female combat veteran of Iraq suffering from Military Sexual Trauma or MST, I have first-hand experience with the culture of “victim blaming” or the “second assault.” When a soldier reports rape they are forced to navigate Hell in their (often futile) attempt to win justice. This “Hell” makes it so tempting to trade the search for justice so to save your reputation and protect your personal safety. And as we know, bailing on legal justice is not just a temptation for soldiers, but for all sexual assault victims.

   It is a strange paradox indeed: During a time when law enforcement shoot and kill unarmed, and unprosecuted men, in the name of justice, why does law enforcement or other figures of authority continue to attack rape victims who are seeking…justice?

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