israel

“Braying for war against Syria” by Bill Van Auken:

Van Auken accuses the Washington political establishment of seriously escalating a campaign of propaganda about the alleged use of chemical weapons. This has been prompted, contends Van Auken, from Syrian government forces having military successes in recent weeks. Read below the fold...

One of the deepest (and most chilling) tenth anniversary Iraq War analyses is written by Gary Leupp, entitled: The Victory of the Noble Lie: The Neocons Won. Read below the fold...

Some people still don’t get that Obama is a pragmatist with a heart of stone. Both domestically and internationally speaking.

Internationally speaking, according to Melkulangara Bhadrakumar, Obama got what he wanted from the trip to Israel when at the very end of it he played catalyst to Turkey's and Israel's “making up” after the killing of nine Turkish nationals by Israeli commandos in the 2010 Turkish flotilla on a humanitarian mission to help the Palestinians of Gaza. Read below the fold...

So tell me, as the years have gone by and more and more has become known about the colossal mendacity used to justify and trigger the Iraq War, which some of us knew from the get-go, how come the shock, awe and gratuitous killings, overt and covert, have steamrolled onward within and without Iraq these ten bloody years? Read below the fold...

If you don’t think this is worrisome, you are not thinking!

Ali Gharib in “Senators Press Resolution to Green-Light Israeli Attack on Iran”:

A joint resolution set to be introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham (SC) and Robert Menendez (NJ), a Republican and Democrat, respectively, declares U.S. support for an Israeli military strike against Iran's nuclear program.

Read below the fold...

The U.S., supposedly the world’s only “superpower” with a defense budget over a trillion dollars this year (according to Jim Lobe greater than the combined budgets of the 10 next-most powerful militaries), recently held confirmation hearings conducted by its Senate Armed Services Committee with former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense. Read below the fold...

Retiring Congressman Ron Paul, former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, comes done on the same side as many progressives on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. A recent post on his website, reiterates comments he made when was president about Gaza being nothing but a vast concentration camp.

It has never mattered to Paul which party was in power. His greatest appeal, especially among young supporters, is his ability to tell the unvarnished truth. He puts the blame for Gazan atrocities squarely where it belongs: with the US government, which is the main supplier of planes and bombs Israel uses to attack Palestinians. Read below the fold...

I read an interesting article by Jean Shaoul at wsws entitled “US and Egypt announce ceasefire in Israeli assault on Gaza”.

Shaoul asks within the article why the Israel/Gazan ceasefire co-sponsored by the United States (along with Egypt and Turkey) happened.

Say what?

But she persisted.

Why did it happen, especially since Obama himself had given a rather robust “green-light” to Israel as Obama exclusively focused on Israel’s “anti-rocket” self-defense rationalization, ignoring so many short-run and long-run pre-emptive and sadistic provocations from Israel. Read below the fold...

Obama responding to the latest Israeli/Palestinian crisis at a press conference in Thailand on 11/18/12 at the start of a three-nation tour in Asia:

"Let's understand what the precipitating event here that's causing the current crisis and that was an ever-escalating number of missiles that were landing not just in Israeli territory but in areas that are populated, and there's no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.”

Obama actually said "There's no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.”

What a sense of humor that guy has! ROFLMAO!!!! Read below the fold...

Mohammed Omer, Palestinian journalist based in Gaza who in 2008 won the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, writes:

“Air strikes are bombing everything that moves. Everything that moves in the streets is being bombed and attacked. ... One thing that we ought to talk about here is the humanitarian situation in the Gaza strip. This is a situation of targeting a population of civilians, exactly like Israel is shooting in a fishbowl. And there is no shelter, and there is nowhere to run for the general population. Gaza is living in a very dire situation.”

Bill Van Auken of wsws writes: Read below the fold...

This is from Alan Hart:

I imagine I am not the only one who feels the need to vomit (dictionary definition - “to throw up the contents of the stomach through the mouth”) when Israel’s Goebbels justifies the Zionist state’s ferocious and monstrously disproportionate attacks by air and sea on the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, the prison camp which is home to 1.5 million besieged and mainly impoverished Palestinians. The Israeli to whom I am referring is, of course, Australian-born Mark Regev, the prime minister’s spokesman, for which read spin doctor. The more I see and hear him in action, the more it seems to me that he makes Nazi Germany’s propaganda chief look like an amateur.

snip Read below the fold...

A vote for either Obama or Romney will be an endorsement for a war with Iran.

Both evil Romney and supposedly lesser evil Obama are committed to more war in general and committed to obliging Israel’s strident insistence for a war with Iran.

All American citizens should think of this as they cast their ballots. Think of their own participation -- their enabling -- the greatest crime against humanity -- WAR. Read below the fold...

QUOTE #1 -- US POLICE SHOOT TO KILL

Anne Sewell “Houston Cop Shoots and Kills Double-amputee in Wheelchair”

In an incident outside of a group home in Houston, a police officer shot and killed a wheelchair bound, double-amputee after the man threatened his partner. Unfortunately the object with which the man was threatening the officer's partner turned out to be a pen.

John Garcia is the owner of the home at 4309 Polk where Brian Claunch, a schizophrenic man in his 40's, has been living for the past 18 months with two other men. Garcia has reportedly operated the personal care home for the past eight years.

Read below the fold...

So on Tuesday morning Obama shoveled forth his hollow “we are the mighty righteous ones” rhetoric once again while threatening another war -- a major war -- with Iran.

Granted, this is not big news to anyone, considering the massive deaths and displacements, past and ongoing, from the violence perpetrated by the US/NATO/Israel in the Middle East. Also considering the sustained US corporate media drumbeats and an awesomely bipartisan for Israel codependent Congress having been railing for war with Iran for a good long time now.

This time Obama’s lame, high-flying rhetoric righteously justifying the craven war-mongering -- with jingoistic flourishes for those of us in the cheap seats -- was made while addressing the opening session of the General Assembly of the UN. Read below the fold...

The exact percentage for the United States, 2011 leader in global arms sales, is 77.7%.

The runner-up global arms seller is Russia with a comparatively meager 5.6%.

In 2010 our weapons sales were valued at $21.4 billion.

In 2011 our weapons sales are valued at $66.3.

In one year, the weapons sales by the US have TRIPLED!!!!

WTF?

The above statistics are from an article by Bill Van Auken of wsws. The statistics were released last week having been compiled by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

Van Auken writes: Read below the fold...