Peace and Justice Post

A torrent of war propaganda against Iran is flooding the American political scene as U.S. neocons and Israeli hardliners see an opening for another war in the Middle East, a momentum that ex-CIA analysts Ray McGovern and Elizabeth Murray urge President Obama to stop.

Middle East Online, January 2, 2011

President Obama needs to put an abrupt halt to the game of Persian Roulette about to spin out of control in the Persian Gulf. If we were still on active duty at the CIA, this is what we would tell him:

This informal memorandum addresses the escalating game of chicken playing out in the waters off Iran and the more general issue of what can be done to put the exaggerated threat from Iran in some kind of perspective.

In keeping with the informality of this memo and our ethos of speaking truth to power, we may at times be rather blunt. If we bring you up short, consider it a measure of the seriousness with which we view the unfolding of yet another tragic mistake.

Continues >>

Anti-Empire Report

by William Blum, Dissident Voice,  January 4th, 2012

“Most people don’t understand what they have been part of here,” said Command Sgt. Major Ron Kelley as he and other American troops prepared to leave Iraq in mid-December. “We have done a great thing as a nation. We freed a people and gave their country back to them.”

“It is pretty exciting,” said another young American soldier in Iraq. “We are going down in the history books, you might say.”¹

Continues >>

The formal withdrawal of US troops from Iraq this month has led to a whole series of retrospectives on the invasion and the eight and a half years of occupation that followed as well as a host of unanswered questions, including – given the tens of thousands of Americans and others on the US government payroll, many of whom are armed, who are remaining in Iraq – just how total the withdrawal might actually be.  

In any case, of critical importance at this juncture is that we not allow the narratives on the war to understate its tragic consequences or those responsible for the war – both Republicans and Democrats -to escape their responsibility.

The US invasion and occupation of Iraq has resulted in the deaths of up to half a million Iraqis, the vast majority of whom are civilians, leaving over 600,000 orphans. More than 1.3 million Iraqis have been internally displaced and nearly twice that many have fled into exile. Almost 4,500 Americans were killed and thousands more have received lifelong serious physical and emotional injuries. . .

Continues >>

I wish
all our readers, writers, human rights activists,
anti-fascist,anti-imperialist and anti-war
friends and comrades:
A Happy New Year

• Editorial
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 December 2011

Muammar Qaddafi was three times as rich as Carlos Slim and ten times richer than King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia — easily the richest man in the world.

Qaddafi was supposedly worth over $200 billion with assets in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world.

This staggering new estimate comes from senior Libyan officials and seems to be legitimate, according to the LA Times.How did he get so rich?”King of Kings” Qaddafi had uncontested personal control over the largest oil reserves in Africa for the past 41 years.Unlike Abdullah and other oil-rich leaders, Qaddafi invested little money in national infrastructure like schools and hospitals or any kind of economic diversification. What money Qaddafi did spend went largely to buy support from African leaders.While much of this money was held by government institutions like the Central Bank of Libya and the Libyan Investment Authority, Qaddafi was able to withdraw money at will. Read more details at the LA Times >