Worldview: Politics of War: 2008

RIGHT-WING ATTACKS WITHDRAWAL OP-ED IN WP
Think Progress, 27 Feb 08

The National Review claimed that Podesta, Takeyh, and Korb 'demonstrate the bankruptcy of the antiwar cause' because '[t]hey don't mention al Qaeda in their piece, as if it is of no consequence that al Qaeda once controlled big chunks of Iraq'. But what the National Review leaves out is that according to a recent CRS report, al-Qaeda represents only a small percentage of the violence in Iraq:
Increasingly in 2007, U.S. commanders have seemed to equate AQ-I with the insurgency, even though most of the daily attacks are carried out by Iraqi Sunni insurgents.

Podesta, Takeyh, and Korb said that it is 'possible that in the absence of a cumbersome and clumsy American occupation, Iraqis will make their own bargains and compacts' to avoid increased violence after U.S. troops leave. National Review called that assertion a 'smear' on U.S. troops because they are 'welcomed by the locals in many areas.'
But Iraqis have actually said the 'surge' has 'worsened' their lives. According to a September 2007 ABC/BBC/NHK poll:

79 percent oppose the presence of coalition forces, unchanged since winter.
63 percent say it was wrong for the U.S. to have invaded Iraq, up from 52 percent in March and 39 percent in Feb. 2004.
47 percent now favor 'immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces', a 12-point rise since March.

Stephen Zunes: AFT supports Iraq war

Justin Raimondo: Iraq and the Kosovo connection

Paul Craig Roberts: Paying insurgents not to fight

Chris Hedges: The calm before the conflagration

Scott Ritter: Iraq's tragic future

Nir Rosen: The myth of the surge

Tom Englehardt: Making Iraq disappear (so it never ends)

Immanuel Wallerstein: Walking away: The least bad option

Neil Munro: Data bomb: Iraqi deaths

Other

Neil Clark: Europe: Divorce the US military

Paul Craig Roberts: Bush calls on France for help

Tony Judt: The 'Problem of Evil' in postwar Europe

Philip Giraldi: The Clinton years revisited

Julie Hollar: The humanitarian temptation (in Dafur)

Chris Hedges: Christian Right: Kill Muslims to purify the earth

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March 2008

Worldview Blog

Worldview Blog: Obama should shout: Hillary = War + NAFTA

Worldview Blog: More Presidential Campaign Follies

Worldview Blog: McCain, Neocons float new Al-Qaeda Lies

Big Picture

Noam Chomsky: Why Isn't Iraq in the 2008 Election?

Glenn Greenwald: Bipartisan consensus on U.S. military spending

Paul Craig Roberts: The Collapse of American Power

Robert Parry: How could so many people buy into Bush's war?

Ed Herman: On reactionaries, missile shields, and military nuts

FAIR: No antiwar voices in NYT 'debate'

Presidential Campaign

Ira Chernus: Many Americans against war prefer McCain

Rasmussen Poll: McCain now leads by double digits

Patrick Cockburn: Why Iraq could blow up in John McCain's face

Think Progress: McCain confuses Shia with Sunni

Joe Conason: Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran?

Stephen Zunes: Hillary Clinton's Iraq Lies

Jon Wiener: Clinton's Iraq Vote — Five Years Later

Ira Chernus: Hillary Flirting With Fear

Kathleen Christison: Nader the best antidote to American imperialism

Iraq

Nir Rosen: The myth of the surge

Newshour: Fred Kagan and Nir Rosen debate the surge

Noam Chomsky: Why don't we ask what's best for the Iraqis?

Justin Raimondo: Why are we propping up pro-Iranian Maliki?

Ivan Eland: More doublespeak on the situation in Iraq

Scott Ritter: Reflections on Iraq (recounted by Gordon Prather)

Scott Ritter: Dinner with Ahmed

Scott Ritter: The loser's game

McClatchy News: Pentagon review finds no Osama-Saddam link

Think Progress: 5 years ago, many newspapers opposed war

Ray McGovern: Frontline's timid Iraq retrospective

Greg Mitchell: Pundits who were wrong on Iraq are silent

Fred Kaplan: How Did I Get Iraq Wrong?

Kanan Makiya: How Did I Get Iraq Wrong?

Christopher Hitchens: I Didn't Get Iraq Wrong

Iran

Justin Raimondo: Admiral 'Fox' Fallon fired

Alan Bock: Fallon Leaves: Will Iran War Follow?

Robert Parry: Suddenly, a Dangerous Turn (Fallon and Hillary)

Antiwar Radio: Chris Floyd: Fallon not a hero

Israel

Scott McConnell: Obama's Israel Test

Charley Reese: Cut 'Sovereign' Israel Loose

Hugh Fitzgerald: Israel and moral idiocy

Gershom Gorenberg: A liberal Israel lobby?

Other

Werther: Gold-plated weapons

Justin Raimondo: We're not preparing for another 9/11

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April 2008

Worldview Blog

Worldview Blog: On Tibet and China

Worldview Blog: Review of the Iraq War

Worldview Blog: On US-Israeli Relations

Big Picture

Naomi Klein: Antiwar campaigners have to change tactics

Pat Buchanan: Should we fight for South Ossetia?

Charley Reese: It's occupation, not war

David Green: How to curb America's addiction to war

Justin Raimondo: Turning the page on US Foreign Policy (1)

Fareed Zakaria: The future of American power

THE AGENDA BEHIND THE HOAX
Paul Craig Roberts, CounterPunch, 23 April 08

Why does the Bush Regime want to rule Iraq? Some speculate that it is a matter of 'peak oil'. Oil supplies are said to be declining even as demand for oil multiplies from developing countries such as China. According to this argument, the US decided to seize Iraq to insure its own oil supply.
This explanation is problematic. Most US oil comes from Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela. The best way for the US to insure its oil supplies would be to protect the dollar's role as world reserve currency. Moreover, $3-5 trillion would have purchased a tremendous amount of oil. Prior to the US invasions, the US oil import bill was running less than $100 billion per year. Even in 2006 total US imports from OPEC countries was $145 billion, and the US trade deficit with OPEC totaled $106 billion. Three trillion dollars could have paid for US oil imports for 30 years; five trillion dollars could pay the US oil bill for a half century had the Bush Regime preserved a sound dollar.
The more likely explanation for the US invasion of Iraq is the neoconservative Bush Regime's commitment to the defense of Israeli territorial expansion. There is no such thing as a neoconservative who is not allied with Israel. Israel hopes to steal all of the West Bank and southern Lebanon for its territorial expansion. An American colonial regime in Iraq not only buttresses Israel from attack, but also can pressure Syria and Iran from giving support to the Palestinians and Lebanese. The Iraqi war is a war for Israeli territorial expansion. Americans are dying and bleeding to death financially for Israel. Bush's 'war on terror' is a hoax that serves to cover US intervention in the Middle East in behalf of 'greater Israel'.

Presidential Campaign

Eric Margolis: Will McCain wield the big stick?

Charley Reese: McCain's strategic manure

Justin Raimondo: Obama meets the Lobby

WP: Newspaper editors love McCain, not Obama

Gordon Prather: Obama channeling Cheney

Leon Hadar: More on that nuclear umbrella

Alexander Cockburn: Is McCain a phony war hero?

Doug Bandow: Inconvenient truths about John McCain

Fareed Zakaria: McCain vs. McCain/a>

Iraq

Mark Benjamin: Sizing up Petraeus on Iraq