A new symbol of America

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Tuesday July 25, 2006 · 8:03 AM PDT

2006/07/25 · 08:03

The United States of America has no problem with Israel burning the skin off children's bodies with incendiary weapons, reducing cities to rubble, targeting UN positions and Red Cross ambulances, forcing 900,000 civilians to flee, and generally bombing a sovereign, democratic state a generation back in time. On the contrary, it provides munitions, diplomatic support, and moral encouragement for these war crimes, financed in no small part with US tax money, to go on. This is not without implications.

Crossposted from Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and my blog. Read More

St. Vitus Day: a brief history of Kosovo

Sirocco

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Wednesday June 28, 2006 · 6:33 PM PDT

2006/06/28 · 18:33

The Balkans region has a penchant for producing more history than it can consume. ~ Winston Churchill

Getting history wrong is an essential part of being a nation. ~ Ernest Renan

Today is the five years-anniversary of the late Slobodan Milošević's historic extradition to the Hague. With final status negotiations for Kosovo moving into the final phase, this is a good occasion to consider the fascinating history of one of the most notorious powder kegs in the world, from which we have surely not heard the last.
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Exactly why Afghanistan is going to Hell

Sirocco

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Tuesday June 20, 2006 · 5:32 PM PDT

2006/06/20 · 17:32

In this informative op-ed (kronikk) from the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, two researchers at the Chr. Michelsen Institute for development and human rights studies explain why the situation in Afghanistan is no better than that in Iraq. They also offer constructive proposals for the Pentagon to blithely ignore.

Crossposted from my blog. Read More

Whale and circus

Sirocco

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Friday June 16, 2006 · 10:36 AM PDT

2006/06/16 · 10:36

Crossposted from European Tribune and my blog.

It's that time again. Today the International Whaling Commission (IWC) opens its annual session on St. Kitts. Among the close to 70 member states whose delegates fill the halls, only 3 -- Norway, Iceland, and Japan -- have whalers in their ranks. Yet the so-called pro-whaling wing will for the first time in decades match the anti-whaling wing this year; the English-language press has for weeks been fretting about the prospect of a narrow pro-whaling majority. The Washington Post recently intoned under the stirring headline 'Save the Whales': Read More

A medieval Islamic theory of Daily Kos

Sirocco

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Saturday June 10, 2006 · 1:13 PM PDT

2006/06/10 · 13:13

Who would have thought that a Tunisian scholar who perished 600 years ago developed a theory of the US Democratic netroots in the early 21st century? Right. And I will grant, off the cuff, that he didn't. Yet his model of political history lends itself strikingly to what is being duly celebrated in Las Vegas.

Sirocco

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Wednesday June 07, 2006 · 6:26 PM PDT

2006/06/07 · 18:26

Crossposted from my blog and Booman Tribune.

Since there is a five-minutes recess in the threat-making against Iran, the fulminating fascist John Bolton gets off by threatening the United Nations, FOX News reports: Read More

Norway dumps Wal-Mart stock over human rights abuse

Sirocco

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Tuesday June 06, 2006 · 8:56 AM PDT

2006/06/06 · 08:56

Citing "serious and systematic" abuse of human and labor rights, Norway's Finance Ministry today banned Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer and employer, from the $250 bn Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global.
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'Fighting them over there'

Sirocco

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Sunday June 04, 2006 · 10:26 PM PDT

2006/06/04 · 22:26

Anyone who hasn't been living under a rock on Mars during the last three years has heard one particular phrase rehashed ad nauseam: that it is better to be "fighting the terrorists over there."

Crossposted from my blog and My Left Wing. Read More

Dulce bellum inexpertis -- America and war

Sirocco

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Thursday June 01, 2006 · 6:18 PM PDT

2006/06/01 · 18:18

If Western humanism has a preeminent advocate of the ages, it is Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1456--1536). His Adagia (1515), a collection of proverbs with commentary, was the first bestseller in history. And its most popular essay is composed on the ancient aphorism dulce bellum inexpertis -- "war is sweet to the inexperienced."

Crossposted from my blog, Booman Tribune, My Left Wing and Bits of News. Read More

It's the geography, stupid

Sirocco

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Thursday May 04, 2006 · 12:08 PM PDT

2006/05/04 · 12:08

Crossposted from my blog and European Tribune.

War is God's way of teaching Americans geography, quipped Ambrose Bierce.

Memo to God: it isn't working.

In 2002 a National Geographic-Roper study found 83 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 unable to locate Afghanistan -- the country whence the 9/11 attack originated and which the US had just invaded -- when presented with four alternatives.

Now a new such test reveals that nearly two-thirds of young adults cannot find Iraq on a map even after three years of war and more than 2,400 US deaths, at an estimated cost of $1-2 trillion. Read More

The Iraq War is a success

Sirocco

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Monday May 01, 2006 · 10:22 PM PDT

2006/05/01 · 22:22

Crossposted from Booman Tribune.

Three years ago, the US President co-piloted a fighter aircraft onto the deck of the USS Lincoln to declare "the end of major hostilities" in Iraq. Above him a banner proclaimed, "Mission Accomplished." Today, a humble 9 percent of Americans believe that the mission has really been such.

Though I respect the majority view, I have to say that it is, in fact, mistaken.
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Richard Perle: 'Europe is lost'

Sirocco

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Sunday April 30, 2006 · 2:46 PM PDT

2006/04/30 · 14:46

Crossposted from European Tribune and my blog.

Jyllands-Posten's Flemming Rose -- yes, the man who commissioned certain caricatures -- has interviewed the influential neo-conman in his Washington home.

Suspected by some of having better-than-average connections at Mossad and widely admired for his ability to wield unofficial power, Perle says he would gladly depose Saddam Hussein again. He also claims that the neocons "lost every political battle in the Bush administration" and that the policies implemented in Iraq had nought to do with them. Above all he has harsh words for Europe. Read More

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