Would you like to know how many people have visited this page? Or how reputable the author is? Simply
sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.
I have 13 fans: Become a Fan. You'll get emails whenever I post articles on OpEd News
Eric writes for Al-Ahram Weekly and PressTV. He specializes in Russian and Eurasian affairs. His "Postmodern Imperialism: Geopolitics and the Great Games", "From Postmodernism to Postsecularism: Re-emerging Islamic Civilization" and "Canada Israel Nexus" are available at www.claritypress.com/
SHARE Sunday, December 27, 2009 Timeline 2000-2010: Middle East
A brief summary of the decade just passed, with an emphasis on 9/11 and the middle east.
(8 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 30, 2016 Renouncing Jewishness: Shlomo Sand and Gilad Atzmon
Israel as a Jewish state is an anachronism, an embarrassment in the postmodern age. A reminder of the horrors of Nazism, but not as the Zionist crafters of the "holocaust industry", or "holocaust religion", would have it.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 28, 2019 Tab Hunter: American culture's hat trick
Tab survived the poison of Hollywood long enough to leave his mark and then have a real life afterwards, despite his 'secret'. And that's the way he wanted it.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 7, 2009 Euro crisis: Prison of nations
The financial meltdown is likely to lead to the breakdown of the euro-zone and possibly the EU itself in its present form.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 21, 2018 America 2018: postmodern 'Germany 1933'
Imagine waking up to the shock, the excitement of the new Germany in 1933, when Hitler became chancellor. An earthshaking moment, promising a new Germany, for Germans. Overnight, the new flag is raised everywhere, children don uniforms, fascist supporters face off against the communists and social democrats.
When Trump sailed to victory in November 2017, there was a similar sense of a new US...
(8 comments) SHARE Sunday, July 28, 2019 Review of Max Blumenthal's The Management of Savagery (2019): 'AQ is on our side'
Blumenthal's message is crystal clear: US-Israel policy from 1979 on has been to create and support Muslim terrorism, even as it claims to be fight terrorism. It used them in Afghanistan to undermine the Soviet Union, and has used them ever since to secure control of world politics. Create the problem, and provide the solution.
SHARE Friday, May 31, 2019 From Vietnam to Afghanistan: Myra Breckinridge to the rescue
As Afghanistan enters its last dreadful lap, much like Vietnam circa 1970, I have been looking back to what fiction from those 'golden days' had to say, when students were alive with antiwar politics and sexual revolution, the empire at its peak of power and savagery. The parallels are bleak, and very, very enlightening.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 22, 2012 From OIC to NAM: Iran's peace offensive
Iran defies Western critics with its peaceful policies, both with its neighbours Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in its outreach to Sunni Arabs. It looks like it's paying off.
(16 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 14, 2013 The logic of 9/11: US-Saudi-Pakistani connections
PNAC published a "grand strategy" in 2000 hinting at a "new Pearl Harbor". 9/11 happened as if on cue the next year, suggesting to many not so much a "grand strategy' as a 'grand conspiracy'. So who 'did' 9/11?
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 7, 2019 Timeline 2010-2019: Middle East
2010 *Hamas, elected the governing authority of the Gaza Strip in 2007, remains in power, the Palestinian Authority refusing to hold (and lose) elections. Gaza now an open-air prison, cut off with only Israel allowing legal contact with the outside world. Gazans produce arms from smuggled supplies and build homemade rockets.
*BDS campaign targeting Israel picks up steam as Israel panics...
(7 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 28, 2019 Putin and Russia, the world's 'heartland'
Today's standoff between the Russian bear and the American eagle is yet another epic struggle in Russia's history, at the heart of Eurasia--the world's "heartland". It had a narrow brush with complete collapse in 1985--98 under Gorbachev/ Yeltsin, a weak, indecisive leadership, a metaphorical reenactment of Boris Godunov seizing the throne in the 16th century. 1985--98 was a repetition of the legendary Time of Troubles
SHARE Friday, March 6, 2020 Review: Diana Johnstone, Circle in the Darkness: Memoir of a World Watcher (2020)
Circle in the Darkness is one of the great personal accounts of the anguished decline of our uncivilization, both a riveting eye-witness account of many of the horrors and perfidies, and a primer for students of history and all those struggling to not only dismantle the beast, but to prepare us for what follows it.
Read it and weep. And smile at the follies. And shout 'Yes!' as light bulbs flash in your mind.
(9 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 25, 2015 US-Yemen: Stalingrad begins
The world's bastion of peace is packing up its bombs and tanks in a humiliating retreat from the desert of Yemen. How could this be?
SHARE Monday, August 19, 2019 Orwell: Neocon icon
How do you explain the fact that the John Birch Society used 1984 as its main office telephone number in the 1960s? Or that both 'Animal Farm' and '1984' are force-fed to virtually the entire western world in people's formative years, even as Big Brother jacks up repression and surveillance, and pursues ever more cruel and senseless wars?
A look at Orwell's weaknesses reveals how Big Brother got the last laugh.
(8 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 31, 2015 Saudi elephants
Saudi duplicity is backfiring royally. The architect of Abdullah's worst foreign policies Tuwaijri is gone, but does Abdullah's successor Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud have the guts to face Saudi Arabia's many nightmares?
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 28, 2019 Review Rob Kall's Book, The Bottom-Up Revolution: Mastering the emerging world of connectivity (2019)
Of course, it is the top, the 1%, who shape us and any technological advances which are deemed profitable, and thus incorporated into the economy. And interactions in the economy are in the first place top-down, until, that is, there is some kind of revolution which empowers the bottom.
Bottom-up is democratic and should be our model. Are we living through such a revolution?
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, November 3, 2009 NATO vs CSTO: The Fog of War
‘Regional' defence organisations are very much in transition
(11 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 1, 2017 Book Review: "The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State"
Wood's book is worth reading, giving the reader a window into the people behind ISIS. None of them are monsters, but all of them a challenge to both Muslims and non-Muslims to better understand Islam and Islamic history.
(32 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 26, 2015 Beheading the Dragon
When will the US get it? The Middle East is in revolutionary upheaval, and has been for a century now. Just as the Russian revolution of 1917 was the logical conclusion of upheavals against imperialism in yesteryear, so Islamic revolutions are the logical consequence of imperialism today.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 16, 2012 Russia in the Middle East: Return of a superpower?
The US "withdrawal" from Iraq last year and the planned "withdrawal" from Afghanistan in 2014 cannot help but change the face of Central Asia and the Middle East. But how does Russia fit in?
SHARE Sunday, September 1, 2019 Whittaker Chambers or Alger Hiss: Who's the real traitor?
Though #1 on the New York Times' bestseller list for 13 weeks in 1952, despite being hailed as "one of the dozen or so indispensable books of the century" (George Will), Witness quickly disappeared from our collective consciousness. We remember its most famous victim, Alger Hiss, as a nice guy who was mercilessly hounded, the prelude to the McCarthy purges of the 1950s, a gruesome stain on US history.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 9, 2017 Canada: Metis Civilization or Canada Syndrome?
Justice Thomas Berger wrote in 1966: "They began by taking the Indians' land without any surrender and without their consent. Then they herded the Indian people onto reserves. This was nothing more nor less than Apartheid, and that is what it still is today."
SHARE Friday, January 17, 2020 Review: Tim Anderson, Axis of Resistance: Towards an Independent Middle East
Anderson's Axis of Resistance takes on the leftist position of 'a plague on all your houses'. Yassin Al-Haj Saleh, 'the intellectual voice of the Syrian revolution' (for westerners), presents a bleak portrait of "three monsters treading on Syria's corpse": (1) the Assad regime and its allies, (2) DAESH/ISIS and the other jihadists, and (3) the West. This is the general view from outside the Syrian cauldron, but leads nowhere.
SHARE Thursday, November 2, 2017 Israel as a Russian-Soviet invention
Rabkin delves deep into the Russian Yiddish roots of Israel and brings together many startling facts that suggest there was a much better option for Palestine and the Jews, one that was scuttled by secular Jewish fanatics inspired by their experiences before and after the Russian revolution.
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 12, 2016 Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot: Afghanistan is FUBAR
"The Taleban Shuffle", the name of the book the film is based on, was discarded, along with any critical content, for "Whisky, Tango Foxtrot", a military euphemism for 'what the f*ck'. Frighteningly apt for the "forgotten war".
Another slang term that fits is FUBAR (fucked up beyond all recognition/ repair), which is accurate not only for the film, but, as I realized, squirming through the film, for the whole US effort in Afg
(8 comments) SHARE Sunday, November 13, 2016 Trump: A people's 'new world order' taking shape?
Trump's final ad, a 2-minute masterpiece of populist rhetoric infuriated the ADL for hinting the obvious: the forces of international finance that have their own agenda for the US, behind our backs, and whose agent is/was Hillary Clinton. He depicted a "global power structure" that is "bleeding America dry" with horrible trade deals that enrich elites and open the gates to mass immigration.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 10, 2019 Review: Tamim Ansari, Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes (2009)
Those of us lucky/unlucky enough to live in the West see the rest of the world revolving around us, like Europe's 17th-century sun, which, of course, orbited around the earth.
Galileo tried a counterfactual: what if I were standing on that blazing sun? Well, the rest-is-history. Maybe we aren't the centre of the world. What if I were born and learned history as a Muslim?
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, July 5, 2019 The end of gay liberation
Gay is everywhere. Canada's new loonie celebrates 50 years of official gaydom. All the celebratory marches ignore the stark truth that the height of gaylib was long ago, 1978. The next 40 years has been a slow motion hangover, the homosexualization of America.
Who better to turn to for assessing the state of the union than Edmund White, author of The Joy of Gay Sex (1977).
SHARE Sunday, August 3, 2014 Tunisia: Squaring the 'Islamic democracy' circle
The self-immolation of a 26-year-old Tunisian fruit vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, in December 2010, was the spark that set off the 2011 Arab Spring uprising. Do events there since prove or disprove those who see the Arab Spring as an important turning point in the Middle East?
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, July 30, 2017 Russia in Ukraine: enemy or friend?
Kiev should be careful in its game of trying to starve the rebels into submission. Russians as a people have never backed down when faced with a hostile enemy.
SHARE Wednesday, February 26, 2020 US strategy in Middle East: create martyrs, weaken Taliban & Iran, help IS
Oh, for those peaceful 1990s! Saddam is already a footnote and al-qaeda and the Taliban have been eclipsed in the muslim world by the Islamic State, which miraculously expanded over the Levant, and is still hanging on there by a thread. Kept that way by US-Israel.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 2, 2015 Iraq: A surreal consensus on withdrawal
New words like 'offshore balancing' just hide the same tired imperialist tricks. The only meaningful word that is ignored is "OUT!"
SHARE Friday, January 31, 2020 Israel-Palestine: It's time for Russia to step up to the plate
Russia is playing a mediating, balancing role, as opposed to the US, Israel and Turkey, all pursuing their own warlike agendas. It looks now as if the Assad regime will survive and Syria will be able to rebuild (China is ready and willing), despite Turkey, Israel and the US. The next step is bringing some semblance of peace to Palestine. Why not a Putin- Netanyahu- Abbas 'deal of the century'?
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 17, 2018 Critiquing PCness: Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life
We need a shared belief system as a code for mutually predictable relations, expectations, desires allowing for cooperation, peaceful competition. We need a clear value system because both perception and action require a goal. For this to work, we need to take responsibility to strive for goals consistent with reality. Hey, this is Islam or Christianity!
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 20, 2016 Iran "28 Mordad" and the Great Game 2.0
The 1953 coup in Iran, known as "28 Mordad", was a key move in what I refer to as the "Great Game 2": the imperialist powers united in a Cold War against socialism and third world liberation, which went into high gear following World War Two.
(11 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 30, 2014 Columbus or Native American Day?
The writing is on the wall for Columbus Day. In the latest move to rid the calendar of its day of infamy, in April, the Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to rename Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day.
SHARE Tuesday, February 14, 2012 Greece in flames: Cassandra strikes again
Despite months of cries of "Doom" if it follows a policy of inducing recession to solve its economic problems, the Greek government went ahead, with all too predictable results
SHARE Monday, March 9, 2020 Leaving the EU was the right move for the wrong reasons
Let's be clear: the EU was not set up to promote a friendly big socialist community, a Soviet-lite. The European Coal and Steel Community was set up in 1950 with the intent of promoting European integration, approved by Truman as a Cold War anti-domino measure.
SHARE Thursday, August 1, 2019 Animal Farm, 1984, Darkness at Noon: Death Knells of Communism?
Orwell and Koestler's classics, Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949) vs Darkness at Noon (1940), all of them written in the heat of WWII, couldn't be more different. Orwell's colourful, if gloomy, social parables, were both successfully adapted more than once for the screen. Darkness at Noon never attracted any film offers. However, it is the first notable work equating Hitler and Stalin as totalitarian dictators
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, July 5, 2013 Egypt's revolution betrayed: Fuel for al-Qaeda fires
The coup in Egypt is similar to the experience of both Turkey in the 1960s--1980s and Algeria in the 1990s, and will inevitably lead to further disintegration and violence
SHARE Tuesday, September 10, 2019 Lake Ontario by bike: Waterfront Trail
Okay, a bit of Lake Ontario -- the fabulous Waterfront Trail from Oshawa to Toronto, 60km, almost all in sight of the lake. The panorama, the air. Such a relief from Toronto. And no 'ribbons of death' to contend with. The deadly 401 a safe distance, buried behind lots of trees.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 9, 2012 Russia's White Revolution
All the meticulous plotting to avoid Ukraine's Orange Revolution resulted in -- Russia's very own coloured one. But Russia is not Ukraine, and Putin seems determined to make this comeback a worthy one
(15 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 12, 2019 Trump, Russiagate and the deep state
So what accounts for the US hysteria? Could it have anything to do with the US deep state? Trump's hopes to deal honestly with Russia to solve the world's problems? His vow to bring the troops home from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria? For Americans tired of warmongering, arguably the real reason for Trump's astounding victory in 2016?
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, July 23, 2017 NATO - Balkan paper tiger Part II
NATO is really irrelevant, despite its shiny headquarters in Brussels and its 29 members (and still counting). It is the EU that holds the promise of western materialism and freedom to live and work abroad, and that will continue to shape the Balkans, replacing its rich history and culture with a Euro stamp.
(9 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 19, 2017 NATO - Balkan paper tiger Part I
It was with a sigh of relief that the 28 European member heads of state welcomed the abrasive American leader in May 2017 for the dedication of the new HQ. Trump came, but took the opportunity to lecture his NATO allies for not spending enough for collective defence, and declined to endorse Article 5 of the alliance's founding treaty, which states that an attack on any member is an attack on all. Subtext: Enough of pulling.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 13, 2012 Islamic law: Playing God in the here and now
Review of "Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Sharia Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia to the Streets of the Modern Muslim World" by Sadakat Kadri
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 24, 2011 Nuclear vs Oil: The devil we know
As oil prices soar and countries think twice about expanding nuclear power, we should be careful about where to point the finger
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, January 8, 2016 Trump's Syria plan: 'Let Russia do it'
It is precisely because Trump is not a Nazi (and hence easy game for the mainstream) that the US imperial elite are so incensed by him and his sudden, immense popularity.
SHARE Wednesday, March 20, 2019 US-Canada and Venezuela's Bay of Pigs
The Guri computer system which broke down was bought from ABB Canada, a subsidiary of ABB Switzerland and Sweden, in 2005, to interface with an existing centralized control system that was installed by SNC Lavalin. (yes, the SNC Lavalin)
SHARE Friday, April 3, 2020 Love in time of covid-19
I'm struck by the fact that all our pandemics, in fact all pandemics are courtesy of 'civilization'. Time for a rethink.
Covid-19 inadvertently shows us the way
SHARE Thursday, May 26, 2011 Russian politics: Nostalgia or a new political direction?
As Russia gears up for its election season this winter, Putin's Popular Front and Rogozin's nationalist front are playing an old Soviet melody and even borrowing a tune from revolutionaries in Cairo
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, September 16, 2019 Grossman's A Socialist Defector: Back in the GDR - you don't know how lucky you are
Grossman swam the Danube one night and after wandering for hours, finally found an Austrian guard and asked to see the Soviet commandant. He joked with the Russian guard about Pushkin and Doestoevsky, the only Russian words he knew. He was accepted and sent to Bautzen, a hill-top town in eastern Saxony on the river Spree, complete with castle and magnificent Lutheran-Catholic cathedral.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 9, 2017 Syrian Attack: Trump's Cuban Missile Moment
Historical parallels abound here. Just as Putin was understandably supportive of Trump's campaign for the presidency, Soviet Russia in its time very much wanted to be friends with Hitler, the ultimate 'pact made in hell'. A good idea given the times; the problem was that Hitler had other priorities
SHARE Thursday, December 12, 2019 Timeline 2010-2019: United States&Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa&Asia
2011 *Osama bin Laden killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan by US Navy SEALs, his body supposedly dumped at sea.
*Occupy Wall Street against top 1% electrifies nation, finding common cause with protests and uprisings in Arab world and Europe, a fitting 10th anniversary of 9/11...
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 1, 2014 Canada: Harpers' chickens come home to roost
Thanks to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's extremism--total subservience to the US and Israel Middle East agenda--Canada now has a thriving Muslim-based extremism.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 1, 2020 New Years 2020 fireworks: Iraq US embassy occupation
The US blames the Iraq police and army for not preventing the demonstrators from entering the Green Zone, as if it is US territory. The image of survivors of the bombings bearing coffins of some of the 25 martyrs with them shows a different story. US actions only unite the Iraqis in opposition to them.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 15, 2012 Canada-Syria: White dominions, brown colonies
Canada has offered to help invade Syria on the pretext of chemical weapons. The real worry of the US/Israel now is that whatever chemical weapons there are will fall into the hands of al-Nusrah Front/ al-Qaeda.
As a 'white dominion', Canada is the model for Israel; hence, Canada's affinity for Israeli policies.
SHARE Tuesday, April 15, 2014 The economics of Egypt’s coup
Egypt is forming an economic dependence on funds from Saudi Arabia and the UAE that spells economic disaster for the vast majority of ordinary Egyptians who will be left paying the price.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 17, 2019 Review: Belen Fernandez, Exile: Rejecting America and Finding the World
Fernandez's second book could be called The imperial messenger: Thomas Friedman at work Part II, or This is Not a Travel Book. The subject of her first book delightfully keeps popping up at conferences, interviewing American puppets, his spirit haunting her from the New York Times opeds exhorting Africans to tend their gardens, saluting Colombian ex-president Uribe.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 30, 2018 Banker hegemony: Pax Lemmus
So are the banksters all right after all?
Nope. All there is to show after 400 years is a kind of Pax Hamstera, or better, Pax Lemmus. The horrors of the 19th-20th centuries, now going off the horror chart in the 21st century. We run faster and faster, inventing and marketing ever new gadgets...
SHARE Tuesday, March 9, 2010 Russia, Azerbaijan/Armenia: All Roads Lead to the Caucasus
Georgia is eager for another war, but there are other fires there which refuse to die -- Russia's battles with terrorism and separatists and Azerbaijan's bleeding wound in ethnic Armenian Nagorno Karabakh
SHARE Thursday, August 2, 2018 Trump's Grand Strategy from Quebec to Singapore
How to explain the welter of contradictions in US politics these days?
*Trump's enthusiasm for peace with Russia vs his acceptance of Cold War II with Russia, launched even as Trump declared victory in 2016.
*Trump's virtually declaration of war against the mouse, Canada, next door, with his cutting insult to Justin Trudeau as weak and dishonest, as he left the summit early and refused to endorse its free trade plea...
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, May 21, 2016 Why did US seize Iran's $2 Billion?
A US decree was issued to seize $2 billion in assets belonging to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), holding Iran financially responsible for the 1983 bombing that killed 241 Marines at their barracks in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. It clearly is part of a tactic of goading Iran, pushing it in an attempt to bring Iran to heel. Either that or to undermine the deal.
(5 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 9, 2012 Canada's Muslim problem: Who's demonizing who?
The return of Omar Khadr from Guantanamo, Canadian Islamophobia, and a trip by a native leader to Iran make Harper's human rights award an embarrassment
(31 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 18, 2015 Review: Kevin Barrett (ed.), We Are Not Charlie Hebdo: Free Thinkers Question the French 9/11 (2015)
Kevin Barrett has become a legend in the US as a fearless journalist who cuts to the quick, his political and analytic skills leading to provocative, truthful explanations of our mostly inexplicable reality. He has written several books dealing with 9/11, and is currently an editor at Veterans Today, and pundit at Press TV, Russia Today, al-Etejah and other international channels. His website is TruthJihad.com. He builds on a
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 7, 2016 War & Peace Part I: Armenia & Israel
What keeps pesky Armenia, flouting international law, wedged between hostile Turkey, tiny Georgia and Iran, going? The parallels between Armenia and Israel, Armenians and Jews, are remarkable, and provide answers.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, December 24, 2018 Trump's gift to Syria: Peace on Earth, good will toward men
Finally Trump is doing something he promised on the campaign trail: "Russia wants to get rid of ISIS. We want to get rid of ISIS. Maybe let Russia do it. Let them get rid of ISIS. What the hell do we care?" The 'deep state' was listening in 2016, and prepared their cold-war arsenal, Russiagate ...
SHARE Tuesday, February 4, 2020 Review: Weingarten, One Day: The extraordinary story of an ordinary 24 hours in America
You can't help but love all his characters (okay, a couple murderers excepted). And be overwhelmed by the feeling of a huge (too huge) nation wildly careering into a dystopic future, full of half-digested bits of flotsam washed up on the shores of what was once the world's last pristine continent, and is now " Read it and laugh and cry.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 17, 2012 Human rights: the people vs the UN
Even as the US government is re-elected to the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Committee Against Torture hears a complaint against Bush.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 16, 2018 Review Aftershock: A Journey into Eastern Europe's Broken Dreams
Feffer is one of the new breed of journalist-historians, postmodern in his goal of seeing history through the eyes of those living it. His inspiration is surely the Belarusian Svetlana Alexievich, awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time". Her equally epic Second-hand Time follows Russians and other (ex)soviets from the 1980s to the 2010s.
(14 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 18, 2016 Interview: Trump - 'the wise fool'
As long as there is empire, there will be insurgencies and terrorist acts--including in the West. That was Donald Trump's point when he told Americans Obama and Clinton "founded ISIS." Sadly, he was dismissed as a buffoon. But Trump is a classic example of the "wise fool".
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, February 10, 2017 The Rise of Islamo-Christian Civilization
We are told we live in a Judeo-Christian civilization, that the West has a Judeo-Christian heritage, a concept useful to a largely Christian empire where Jews play a powerful role, but one that is rejected by serious scholars, both Christian and Jewish. Talmudic scholar Jacob Neusner says "there is no such thing as the Judeo-Christian tradition. It's a secular myth."
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 19, 2018 ISIS, Hamas and Zionism: Enemies or allies?
Just as the US washed its hands of al-qaeda when they stopped following the US script, when Hamas showed itself as an effective resistance movement and a competent governing party, Israel switched to persecuting it, tacitly defending the Palestinian Authority. Things were catching up to Israel. It had its wayward Hamas and now a terrifying, if not particularly competent, more extremist Islamist group on its doorstep.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 23, 2011 Egypt's revolution and the US: Mubarak's fatal error
The fall of Egypt 's leader and his political party is because he learned the wrong lessons from his patrons. Will Americans learn something from Egyptians?
(7 comments) SHARE Friday, January 22, 2016 Turkey vs ISIS: Where's the New Caliphate Now? Part II
Israel has been noncommittal about Syria since the uprising in 2011, not joining the western chorus for Assad's head. Israeli indifference to the outcome can be explained easily enough.
SHARE Saturday, December 31, 2016 Glasnost 1988: Historic Moment for Iran and Russia
Iran played no part in the US-backed 'jihad' in Afghanistan in the 1980s that brought the collapse of the Soviet Union. Iranian leaders knew that nothing good would come from working in alliance with America.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, October 29, 2018 Review: McKinney, 'How the US Creates "Sh*thole" Countries'
Bravo to Cynthia McKinney, former US Congresswoman and Green Party nominee for president, for taking this offhand remark by Trump and running with it.
The Forward is by Senator Mike Gravel, an unsung hero of American democracy,
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, September 1, 2008 Wag the Dog
Was an independent Ossetia inevitable after Kosovo or is it an US election ruse gone wrong?
Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a gritty, straight-talking 30-minute interview with CNN this week in Russian. It was not translated or reported on widely in the US media, which is a shame. He charged that US military personnel were in South Ossetia during the attack...
(5 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 2, 2015 Iran's legacy: 'Ayatollah Khomeini is alive'
Ayatollah Khomein died 26 years ago, but his legacy continues to grow, much to the distaste of the JDL and others
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 19, 2016 Turkey vs ISIS: Where Is the New Caliphate Now?
One of the latest suspected Islamic State (ISIS) attacks was in the heart of Istanbul against foreign tourists. If true, ISIS broke its devil's pact with the Turkish government as a sort-of ally, undermining Erdogan's rationale to let the Islamic State carry out attacks as long as they target Kurds. Pacts with the devil usually go wrong and this appears to be one that did.
SHARE Tuesday, December 13, 2011 BDS update: BDS unites East and West
Unlike many celebrities and humanitarians who are critical of Israel and support the BDS movement, Barbra Streisand remains a steadfast supporter of Israel and even performs for the IDF.
SHARE Saturday, May 3, 2014 The 'Hook' and Awlaki: a tale of two imams
A comparison of the fates of two imams -- one killed by a drone, the other the subject of a show trial now in New York. Their fates are a chilling indictment of US 'justice'.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, February 17, 2014 Diplomacy Canadian Style
Canadian Prime Minister Harper has presided over a litany of humiliating and criminal diplomatic moves, culminating in the protection of an accused Israeli assassin.
SHARE Thursday, January 11, 2018 My Yakoubian Cairo
I stumbled into Cairo after Tashkent, where I had stumbled across Islam, courtesy of dictator Islam Karimov, who -- despite his name -- persecuted brave Muslims mercilessly ...
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, September 30, 2011 Turkey redraws Sykes-Picot
A new Bermuda Triangle has been spotted, but this one is in the eastern Mediterranean -- between Turkey, Cyprus and Israel, observes Eric Walberg
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, March 16, 2015 Harper's Robin Hood fantasy
Much as I mourn the unnecessary deaths of Canadian soldiers Richelieu and Doiron last week, I am angered not by Iraqis, who are doing whatever they do to drive the unwelcome guests out of their country. It is Harper, seeing a political fillip in the making that is the cause of their deaths.
SHARE Monday, June 24, 2019 Egyptian president - casualty of social media
The Muslim Brotherhood benefited from a revolution largely facilitated by social media, which was able to catalyze widespread anger with Hosni Mubarak in January 2011, and gave the Egyptian army the chance to dismiss a dictator who was despised by all. Once the logjam was broken, transparent elections catapulted the MB to power.
(10 comments) SHARE Sunday, May 29, 2016 Basic Income: Helicopter money
GAI (guaranteed annual income, also BIG -- basic income guarantee) has been quietly mooted by both left and right since the 1960s. Economist Milton Friedman called it (approvingly) "helicopter money". What could be easier to administer, to end the most obvious source of social injustice?
SHARE Thursday, March 10, 2011 Egypt: Peering into the revolution's crystal ball
Comparisons between Egypt's revolution and others during the past abound and are instructive. They suggest two scenarios for the post-revolutionary period
SHARE Wednesday, May 3, 2017 Picking up the Cold War pieces: Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan
Dual US-Somali citizen Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo became Somalia's president in February 2017, approved by the US, refugees are returning from the US, Canada and Europe, and remittances from them buttress the economy.
Just to make sure Farmajo knows who's really in charge, Trump ordered an air strike on suspected militant bases in April 2017, near the Bab el-Mandeb strait chokepoint separating Yemen from Eritrea.
SHARE Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Afghanistan: NATO, SCO or PATO?
Conferences and suggestions about what to do in Afghanistan are chock-a-block, but the reality speaks for itself.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 10, 2018 History lesson: From Dunkirk to Berlin
In the 1930s the perceived threat was the "specter of communism" haunting Europe. Today the perceived threat is the "specter of Islam," now reduced to Iran, as the only anti-imperialist Muslim state. Terrorism then was seen to be communism, though the Soviet Union was peaceful.
(8 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 13, 2015 Kayhan interview: 9/11 Whodunnit?
In a 2008 World Public Opinion poll, about half the world believe the official version of al-Qaeda carrying out the 9/11 attacks, a quarter don't know, and a quarter believe it was a conspiracy by some combination of the US, Israel and other Arabs.
What is the evidence to date?
SHARE Wednesday, February 23, 2011 Song/videos of the Egyptian Revolution
Two song/videos have captured the hearts of Egyptians and are a way for us to join in the bitter-sweet euphoria of their magical moment in history. Here are the video links and translations.
SHARE Friday, November 7, 2014 Book Review: Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda and the CIA
As IS continues to confound the West with its Salafist-inspired 'caliphate', the Danish mole responsible for leading the CIA to Anwar Awlaki has caused a scandal by publishing his memoirs of life "inside al Qaeda and the CIA".
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, November 25, 2012 Egypt's Morsi: Biting the bullet
At last Egyptian politics is moving. President Mohamed Morsi is slowly building on his summer 'coup', when he stared down Egypt's generals and put his men in the top army and defence positions, following terrorist attacks in Sinai which the army, so old and bumbling, so involved in Egyptian internal politics, failed to prevent.
(6 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 31, 2016 Mind control and Cyberwarfare: 'The Russians Are Coming!'
The media campaign attacking Russia is in high gear these days. Russia is accused of cyberwarfare, leaking poor Hillary's emails, and now, of a slick disinformation campaign to undermine poor NATO, our bastion of peace.
But is it possible the Russians are actually the 'good guys' here?
SHARE Friday, January 25, 2019 The Donald's bedtime storybook: First stop, Venezuela, next stop Iran
The attempted coup in Venezuela looks like it might be the brainchild of Zalmay Khalilzad, now back in the American jihad driver's seat. ZKh's counterinsurgency thoughts in The Envoy about Iran fit the bill.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 20, 2016 War and Peace Part II: Azerbaijan and Palestine
Both Armenia and Israel insist history bequeathed them the lands they seized, and their tragic 'holocausts' justify their violation of international law to ensure their safety.
Both countries have lived this occupier lifestyle on a war footing ever since, and yet prosper even as their nemeses wallow in poverty and suffering. How do they do it?
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, July 1, 2011 Afghanistan: Victory in defeat
There are many parallels between Vietnam and Afghanistan. The recent American mayors' resolution to "bring our war $$ home" and Obama's announcement that troops are now being withdrawn are fresh reminders, but the story they tell is grim
(9 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 20, 2016 White Tears from Israel
In a Brandeis survey of Jewish students: One-quarter of undergraduate respondents describe hostility toward Israel on campus by their peers as a "fairly" or "very" big problem and nearly 15% perceive this same level of hostility toward Jews.
The study reaches the no-brainer conclusion: Connection to Israel is the strongest predictor of perceiving a hostile environment toward Israel and Jews on campus.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, July 28, 2013 Natives and Israel: Manipulating genocide
Why is Canada's most powerful Zionist organization CIJA inviting Natives to Israel and acting as their mouthpiece to expose their past abuse by the government?
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, August 23, 2013 Egypt's 'color coup'
A new tactic has been added to the US democracy promotion arsenal, where "color revolutions' are too difficult, and "postmodern coups' fail.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, October 19, 2012 Canada-Iran: Looking for real democracy
One Canadian leader looks for allies to develop our resources responsibly, while another looks for enemies where there are none. A trip to Iran has Canadian media and politicians up in arms.
SHARE Saturday, June 22, 2019 Morsi's legacy: unlikely democrat, reluctant martyr
The MB, like Iran's Islamic order, doesn't fit into western secular thinking. The Muslim Brotherhood supported the mujahideen in Afghanistan. But they are not the Taliban, they never supported al-Qaeda. They are more in line with Turkey's Islamists. Or Iran's Islamists.
SHARE Tuesday, October 7, 2014 New Horizon Conference: Meeting of minds in Tehran
The 2nd conference "New Horizon: the International Conference of Independent Thinkers" was held in Tehran, September 29--October 1 2014, including over 30 journalists, writers and academics from around the world presenting papers and arguing issues of world geopolitics, with a focus on the Middle East.
SHARE Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: Reviews of Mihesua, Sheehi, Boyle
Book reviews: Devon Mihesua, American Indians: Stereotypes and Realities; Stephen Sheehi, Islamophobia: The Ideological Campaign Against Muslims; Francis Boyle, The Palestinian Right of Return Under International Law
SHARE Wednesday, May 9, 2018 Fighting imperialism from Damascus to Tehran
Now Israel faces increasing world condemnation for its crimes against Palestinians in their peaceful Great March of Return, a revived Assad in Syria, a strong Hezbollah, fresh from its election victory in Lebanon, and a battle-ready Iran.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 27, 2015 Saudi Arabia, Israel and Palestine
Saudi Arabia and Israel are partners of convenience, even as Palestinians are slaughtered and their lands turned into settlements for Israelis
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 4, 2009 WEF Forum: Requiem for an Overweight
The World Economic Forum's programme was startling different this year: whether to nationalize banks and whether to introduce a global banking regulator were the burning issues. How times change.
SHARE Friday, March 22, 2019 The Bible: Recipe for genocide or junk sculpture?
Plotz starts out believing vaguely in the existence of God, but not observing the rituals. During his 365 days of plodding through the book, he comes to admire the rituals, and starts observing shabat.
But he's not at all happy with the God the OT reveals. "I leave the bible as a hopeless and angry agnostic. God made me rational so i must use the tools to think about him. Submit him to rational and moral inquiry. And he fails
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 24, 2017 Trump faces gnawing problems in the Great White North
The current situation recalls the relations that Justin's father Pierre and his successor Jean Chretien had with thorny American presidents of yesteryear, Johnson, Nixon and George Bush. Relations reached ever new low points over Vietnam and Iraq.
SHARE Friday, March 25, 2011 Turkey and the Middle East: Carpe diem
Recent initiatives by its government attest to Turkey's determination to bring a new realism to world politics, and events in the Arab world provide an opportunity to reshape regional relations, notes Eric Walberg in Istanbul
SHARE Saturday, August 13, 2016 Reality games but not reality shows
These days we hear a lot of "Pokeman Go". What do you think about the effect of reality games within US and around the globe? What will be the future of these games, which attract ten of millions? Do they reinforce or neglect which aspects of human life?
SHARE Tuesday, September 11, 2018 9/11 consequences - intervention trap
The new, brash, young (31) de facto Saudi leader Muhammad Bin Salman tours the world, insisting in meetings with western leaders that they must work closely with the Saudis to fight terrorism, even predicting publicly that more terror attacks will happen if Saudi Arabia is not treated with respect and given the leading role in fighting terrorism.
SHARE Wednesday, June 22, 2016 Killer Drugs: Sleep through your Waking Life
Ricci's latest novel, Sleep, inspired by his own sleep disorder, is really more a fun text book on the latest brain research and the blind use of powerful drugs to alter--and possibly restructure (who knows?)--the brain. It's like a 'don't smoke' ad that's actually informative and hilarious, with a classic 'death of a salesman' plot moving it along.
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 22, 2019 Elections Canada 2019: Justin's battered beanstalk
We left off our saga of Justin and the Beanstalk with the young wunderkind's triumph over the giant ogre (Prime Minister Harper), as he swept away the broken democratic shards littering his kingdom in the sky, to the cries of joy from the Canadian peasants.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, January 27, 2017 Europe in the Trump era
The surprise victory of the Brexit campaign in Britain, despite the overwhelming propaganda against it, finally forced the European status quo to face reality.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 10, 2013 Re-assessing Political Islam: Part I
An analysis of the major 20th c Islamist thinker-activists in light of the Islamist government and secularist coup in Egypt
SHARE Sunday, June 17, 2018 Kayhan interview: Shia arc or Zionist arc?
Iran threatens no country nor does it try to direct political activity of others. The same specious claims were used against the earlier bete-noire of imperialism, the Soviet Union, which, in contrast to the US, did not engage in coups and election interference in dozens of countries since the end of WWII. Such claims are a mere distraction from the aggressive agenda of imperialism to control the world.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 15, 2020 Coronavirus: squabbling in our WWI trenches
This could be WWI, if we all remain competing capitalist rivals. The covid-19 virus is an avatar, Nature's version of the capitalist virus destroying us.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, September 7, 2018 Back to the future: From Jackson to 'the Donald'
Who in US presidential history even comes close to Trump? While corporations run America for all intents and purposes, it has been unusual for a hardcore businessman to take the helm. And one who bragged of making and losing and making a fortune? Andrew Jackson (1767-1845, president 1829-1837) cries out as Trump's prototype.
SHARE Thursday, December 15, 2011 Russia united -- for the time being (Part II)
Russia's parliamentary elections have sparked a political crisis, surprising everyone, from President Putin (excuse me, Medvedev) down, including the demonstrators themselves.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, May 2, 2016 The new troika in the Middle East?
Egypt's hand-over of Tiran Island to the Saudis, Saudi flirting with Israel, Turkish disarray -- all conspire towards an unholy alliance.
SHARE Wednesday, July 20, 2016 Turkey's 'Arab Spring' moment: No Sisi and no more Gulen
Fortunately for Erdogan, unlike in Egypt, the army was no longer the monolith it was in Kemalist days, headed by a ruthless general eager to crush the fledgling democracy.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 13, 2018 Review: Red Hangover: Legacies of 20th century Communism
Ghodsee uses her travels, studies, lectures to audiences east and west to test the waters of eastern Europe today. This fresh approach to documenting history through the eyes of both participants and sympathetic observers is more like reading a page-turner spy novel, full of often misunderstood heroes and villains, crafty confidence tricksters and lots and lots of victims. Who needs fiction? You enter the theatre of life,
(8 comments) SHARE Monday, November 24, 2014 Coming to terms with IS's 'new world order'
Just as communism arose out of the contradictions of imperialism a century ago, Islamic revolution is the inevitable result of today's version of imperialism. IS may be harsh and uncompromising, but it should be treated with respect, not vilified. The caliphate project, implementing sharia, the determination to overthrow the Saudi monarchy, the rejection of fiat money--these are legitimate goals and deserve serious an
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, December 4, 2015 Ayatollah Khameini: 'Westerners mourning French tragedy should pause for a moment'
The leader of the Islamic Revolution has once again addressed western youth, who either for the most part are misinformed about Islam because of the bias in media and society in favour of Israel and Zionism, or are Muslim but living in a climate of Islamophobia and in desperation have drifted to the militant jihadist movement which began in Afghanistan in 1979 with US blessing
SHARE Friday, February 22, 2019 Working class heroes: Review of Kovalik's 'The Plot to Control the World'
Kovalik doesn't pretend to document all the US crimes (read William Blum for that). Rather, in 'The Plot' he takes you on a world tour to Eurasia, Africa and the Americas for key election rigging moments, moments that he connects with viscerally, and brings to life.
SHARE Saturday, February 27, 2010 Marjah: "This is not Fallujah'
So says McChrystal as the US surge goes full steam ahead in Marjah -- a new and "gentler" war
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 2, 2016 Battles of Kunduz: US/Afghan 'Friendly Fire'
Doctors without Borders doesn't know who's worse -- the occupiers or the Afghan government. The Taliban are beginning to look like the good guys.
SHARE Friday, July 8, 2016 Blush off Trudeau rose
Already worrying signs are surfacing - Syrian refugee funny business, anti-Palestinian and anti-Russian silliness, marijuana busts...
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, June 24, 2011 BDS update: Fighting apartheid on land and sea
As the second Freedom Flotilla packs its humanitarian aid and prepares to brave the wrath of the Israeli navy , boycott divestment and sanctions (BDS) activities continue on the homefront
SHARE Sunday, December 27, 2015 The Real Downton Abbey
A comparison with the historical Downton Abbey and its rulers (we will never know what the servant class was really up to) reveals a bit more grit, lots more grime and a big helping of sensation.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 27, 2013 Natives, Nature and Islam
Ramadan is a good time to reflect on what Islam has to say about two of Canada's burning problems--our penchant for environmental destruction and Prime Minister Harper's attempt to return to a blatant assimilation policy for Natives.
SHARE Thursday, June 16, 2016 Thank Reagan for Orlando
The Orlando shooting on June 12 has nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with US policies, both domestic and foreign.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 17, 2015 Canada's Syrian refugees: Outing our immigrants?
Canada decided to limit Syrians to families, single women and children. This sounds like a human rights violation: discrimination against single men, on the pretext that they could be terrorists. Not fair, but understandable, given the Paris bombings and the need to be seen to act carefully. There are lots of women and children and married men still alive there to fill the quota.
(13 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 4, 2016 Cutting through transgender debate
While Obama daily launches drones, killing dozens of innocent foreigners (or militants, it doesn't matter - both drone deaths are crimes against humanity), we are fed self-righteous nostrums, showing what a great liberal he is (soon to be joined, no doubt, by the supreme court).
SHARE Friday, October 16, 2009 AfPak: War on two fronts
The only thing Obama's has gotten right so far about his warzone-of-choice is the name.
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, March 4, 2011 Egypt/Serbia/Georgia: Learning from others' mistakes
There is a Russian proverb: only a fool learns from his own mistakes. As Georgia's foreign minister visits his Egyptian counterpart, there are lessons for Egypt in similar revolutions in eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union
(5 comments) SHARE Sunday, November 1, 2015 Justin Trudeau: Start of a Canadian legend
The Prime Minister-elect Justin Trudeau was underestimated when the Canadian election campaign began. He surprised many and in the process energized a whole generation of young voters.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 31, 2016 Basic Income - International experience (Brazil, Namibia, Canada, India)
The idea is simmering below the surface of conventional political thinking and policy-making across Europe, South America and most of the world. It has actually broken the surface in Switzerland where there is to be a referendum on whether to introduce it.
SHARE Tuesday, February 15, 2011 US-Egypt: Cookie-cutter cuisine
The US has baked itself into a corner. It should learn to enjoy the fruits of its labour
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 7, 2015 International al-Quds Day -- a global cause?
The unprecedented events in the past year in Syria and Iraq, where the militant ISIS have declared a self-styled caliphate, have distracted people from the Palestinian struggle, though ISIS claims it wants to expel the Zionists and restore Muslim sovereignty to al-Quds. How credible is ISIS, can its claims of leadership of the Sunni world be taken seriously? It is openly calling for the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy as un-Is
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 21, 2009 Israel in Canada: Promised lands
On the occasion of filmmakers withdrawing last month from the Toronto Film Festival in protest of Israeli involvement in the event prompts us to take a closer look at Israel's cultural and political connections in Canada
(5 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 15, 2013 Re-assessing Political Islam: Part II
The Pinochet-style coup in Egypt in July 2013, 40 years after the Chilean coup, gives pause to reconsider Islamic political strategy. It took 27 years before Chilean socialists retook power, but their party was a pale ghost of Allende's revolutionary one. Is this the fate of the Arab Spring?
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 2, 2014 "The Square": Documenting Egypt's revolution
The Square, a documentary about Egypt's January 2011 uprising, provides glimpses of most of the players but gives short shrift to the Muslim Brotherhood, the main player that was then targeted by the deep state headed by the military.
SHARE Monday, October 13, 2014 IS and the IDF: Canada's double standard
Why can westerners join the IDF while westerners joining IS are despised and killed? In what sense is the IDF scenario any less reprehensible than the IS one?
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, October 25, 2015 Canadians assess aftermath of Harper holocaust
The devastation of the Harper decade is going to be very hard to reverse. It will be essential for the Liberals and NDPers (and let's not forget the plucky Green Party leader Elizabeth May) to work together in a 'Battle of Britain' spirit to salvage something from the Harper legacy.
(6 comments) SHARE Monday, January 12, 2015 Hebdo vs Al Jazeera: A tale of two journalisms
Press freedom has been under attack with the deaths in Paris of nine Charlie Hebdo employees, including editor Stephane Charbonnier, and the continued incarceration in Cairo of three Al Jazeera journalists. The circumstances of the victimization of the journalists are starkly different.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 22, 2011 SCO vs Bilderberg: Where are real decisions being made?
As the Western elite gathered in picturesque St Moritz to grapple with pressing world crises, the outsiders met in the bleak steppes of Central Asia
SHARE Tuesday, January 31, 2012 BDS update: Peaceful blitzkreig and Israeli counterattacks
BDS activities are moving into a new critical stage, with apostasy, Internet hacking, regattas, and an ever more aggressive Israel and its acolytes upping the perilous ante
SHARE Thursday, August 27, 2015 Is there such a ideology as Bushism?
Does the US have its own "deep state"? Yes, but only a few families can be called both deep staters and political leaders. Logically, Bushism would mean a family dynasty from the deep state, in harmony with the elites, able to convince the voters that they are providing the best political leadership, given the economic system in place.
SHARE Friday, February 25, 2011 Egypt/Turkey-Israel: "A clean break'
It is not Israel backed by the distant US that inherits the Ottoman mantle of hegemony in the Middle East, but some combination of Turkey and Egypt
SHARE Wednesday, January 18, 2012 The Afghan dust is settling
Yes, Afghanistan really is another Vietnam, and just as in 1972, the presidential elections will make no difference
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, August 30, 2013 Canadian Israeli Lobby's "good cop, bad cop'
Two recent events, while not of any great significance in themselves, reveal much about the state of Canadian foreign policy.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, November 18, 2011 Euro-US cold winter/ seething anger
The eviction of demonstrators last week is an ominous metaphor for ruling elites, whose own days are surely numbered
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 21, 2015 From Zundel to Topham: Zionist theatre
Instead of quietly muzzling the gadfly critic, the result of victimizing Topham has been the highlighting of past Jewish hate crimes, and the increasing control by Zionist groups of Canadian politics to promote Israel and censor anti-Zionist criticism.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 3, 2011 Bds Update: Erdogan "why No Un Sanctions For Israel?'
With the new campaign by Palestine to gain the world's official recognition 63 years after the fact, BDS activities in Europe and North America -- the main holdouts -- have gained new momentum. News about Natacha Atlas, Idan Raichel, Finland, Alstom, SJP
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 28, 2011 2011: The year that shook the world
2011 is already history and will remain a historical turning point in international affairs. From 1917 to 2011, it's been a long bumpy ride.
SHARE Tuesday, October 18, 2016 A Tale of 2 British Muslim politicians: Interview with al-Quds
work to improve relations between Muslim communities and wider British society has meant that he received security threats from both Islamist and far-right activists. As a boy, he encountered racism, which led to him and his brothers taking up boxing.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 26, 2012 From post-modernism to post-secularism
After more than a century of secuarlisation, Egypt's cultural life is set to revolve again around the Quran. "The Quran is our Constitution" exhorted President Mohamed Morsi during the cliff-hanger presidential election, Egypt's first ever bona fide presidential election, in which he trounced the old guard's representative. But what does this arresting image really mean?
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 31, 2012 Iran vs the Empire: Fighting dollarization
The West's attempts to destroy the Iranian economy through heightened sanctions--including most imports, oil exports and use of banks for trade operations--is having its affect. Iran is now on the verge of hyperinflation. What's behind it and what's the way out?
SHARE Saturday, December 18, 2010 BDS Update: "Besiege your Siege!'
The movement to isolate Israel through boycott, divestment and sanctions resonates from Canada to the Indo-Pakistani border
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, May 2, 2009 The torture trail: Lincoln or Ford?
The question now swirling around political corridors is whether Obama will fight the monsters or let them off the hook.
SHARE Friday, November 13, 2009 Russia-India-China: The Bush curse
Moscow is trying to draw India and China closer to put out the flames now flaring across the continent, from the Caucasus and Central Asia, to Iran and Pakistan
SHARE Saturday, December 26, 2015 Al-Quds interview: Israeli media tricks backfire
Just two days ago, a Canadian artist of Palestinian origins, Rehab Nazzal, was shot in Bethlehem unprovoked, merely taking pictures which the Israeli conscripts resented.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 31, 2011 Turkey-Libya: Defusing another UN timebomb
Turkey's decision to take the lead in the NATO mission against Libya is a bold example of its determination to play the leading role in the region -- and within NATO itself
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 28, 2013 Human Rights: Canada in the dock
Canada is being investigated by the UN Human Rights Council, even as the government rams through an unjust security law and pursues a trumped-up terrorism case
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 3, 2012 BDS update: Israel's Ides of March
Palestinian Land Day and Israel Apartheid Week activities around the world gave Israel and its Western backers something to think about in recent weeks
SHARE Friday, April 29, 2011 BDS update: Breaking new barriers
The upcoming flotilla to break the Gaza siege is gathering steam from a flood of innovative Boycott, Divest and Sanctions activities around the world
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 19, 2009 Kissinger's recovery plan: WTO or 'chaos'
Obama's stimulus package plus the ongoing bank bailout must be looked at in the context of Kissinger's renewed call for a 'political new world order'.
SHARE Tuesday, April 10, 2018 2018 marks three Afghan anniversaries
1978, 1988 and 1998 were fateful turning points which resounded around the world. All centred around Afghanistan. Hollywood, always a useful barometer, was in sync in a curious way.
SHARE Friday, October 7, 2011 US Envoys from Hell
The choice of US ambassadors to Central Asia and the Middle East gives one pause for thought
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 7, 2015 Hajj tragedies to be dealt with bravely, openly
The Hajj was never intended to be an ordeal where hundreds die a nightmarish death, crushed to pulp or burned in their cots. No one dares criticize Saudi Arabia--out of deference and, for many destitute countries, to keep the oil dollars flowing. However, there is a growing consensus among the world's Muslims that something must be done.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, February 25, 2013 Democracy Canadian-style Part I: Abroad
Canada's role in the postmodern imperial world is as a poster child for promoting formal electoral democracy -- at home and abroad. Ironically, the modus operandi is, as with our neighbor to the south, to 'send in the troops'.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 20, 2009 Russian-Ukrainian gas war
The recent stand-off between Russia and Ukraine on gas supplies to Europe has a "Made in the USA" sticker on it, much like the Georgian-Russian war last summer.
SHARE Saturday, August 16, 2014 Revolutionary purity from Trotsky to Baghdadi
Revolutionaries such as the Islamic State will languish if they refuse to accept the platforms of other liberation movements, primarily, Hamas's struggle for Palestinian freedom
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 8, 2011 Russia's Middle East dilemma
As the Arab Spring grinds on into autumn, the Russians are asking once again whether they should follow the policy "If you can't beat "em, join "em"
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 22, 2011 BDS update: Buttressing an independent Palestine
Palestine's move to become an independent state has benefitted from the growing BDS movement, as the world wakes up the enormous and unjust suffering of the Palestinian people
SHARE Friday, February 12, 2016 Aziz Ansari: Romance with a punch
Azizi Ansari's runaway bestseller Modern Romance is the perfect self-help book. Lots of data, thoughtful interviews with psychologists and 'victims', funny. The celebrated stand-up comic confirms the truth in the oxymoron, "the wise fool". And surprisingly, finds that humans pretty well figured things romantic out long before computers.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, October 28, 2011 American Crisis Politics
Is a constitutional amendment or a real third-party candidate the silver bullet that Americans need next year?
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 1, 2011 When will Pakistan's spring arrive?
US friendly fire knows no bounds. The deaths of Pakistan soldiers and civilians is just the tip of the iceberg, which will only disappear in the heat of a national uprising, putting an end to Pakistan's neocolonial dependency
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, June 11, 2010 Afghanistan: Funding Both Sides
Delegates in Shangra-La pledge eternal war in Afghanistan, as the US creates new and very dangerous allies there
SHARE Wednesday, January 11, 2012 Reinventing the Middle East lexicon
"Invented people", "unpeople", "settlers", even "peace" take on strange meanings in the Middle East
SHARE Saturday, February 27, 2016 Canadian legend Chapter V: Caught in Middle East quicksands
Just a few months into his reign, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finds himself embroiled in Middle East politics. Protests have arisen over two government policies -- the $15 billion sale of military equipment to Saudi Arabia, and government attempts to quash BDS.
SHARE Thursday, November 26, 2009 Canada 's Guantanamo
It seems the world's favourite peaceniks are complicit in torture
SHARE Thursday, November 17, 2011 A Whiff of Egyptian Freedom for Gaza
Israel got a taste of the new people's Egypt with the arrest of an Egyptian journalist on the flotilla to Gaza and plans for the biggest aid convoy yet
SHARE Monday, March 18, 2013 Feminist monkey wrenches in Egypt's revolution
Though we hear complaints that Egyptian women are having a tough time these days, fearing restrictions by Islamists on their public lives, at least two prominent women have already left their mark, defying Egypt's move towards a more religious-focused society.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 10, 2009 Militarising space: The Fallujah fallacy
The Pentagon has made remarkable strides in militarization of space this year, but its techno-schemes are built on the same sandy foundations as the rest of its defense policy.
SHARE Thursday, April 14, 2011 Russia, Egypt, Libya: A kind-of-silver Lining
Russia has always looked on at events in the Middle East from afar, shut out of the action, and remains an onlooker today, absorbed by its own problems. Eric Walberg looks at the implications for Russia of the revolutions and no-so-revolutions sweeping the Middle East
SHARE Thursday, July 7, 2011 Egypt vs IMF: Time to default?
The financial flip-flop of Egypt's revolutionary government, first requesting and then declining a $3 billion dollar IMF loan, highlights Egypt's hard choices at this point in the revolution, but is a good sign
SHARE Wednesday, September 12, 2012 TIFF: Cultural Starwars
This year's Toronto International Film Festival highlights the new direction in filmmaking: Iran is the enemy du jour, but at the same time it is not longer kosher to praise everything Israel does.
SHARE Friday, March 19, 2010 Euro crisis: Latvia and the PIIGS
The current chaos in Greece shows that down on the Euro Animal Farm, some animals are more equal than others
SHARE Friday, February 18, 2011 US-Egypt: "Why?'
Reflections on why there have been such mixed reactions in the West to the overthrow of the Egyptian autocrat
SHARE Friday, December 11, 2009 Obama's Nobel & START: Peacemaker arrives empty-handed
There was many a smirk as US President Barack Obama flew to Oslo to be crowned Peacenik of 2009, but it is the Russians who get the prize for taking the shine off Obama's trophy.
SHARE Thursday, March 17, 2016 Palestinians and Their Allies Resilient
Q: What are the achievements and gains of the Resistance Movements in Palestine in the past year in the face of the Israeli occupation?
...In sports, there are small but rewarding achievements. The Palestinian national team rarely practice together and yet they still managed to play in the Asia Cup Games last year.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, April 5, 2019 Review: Bergdahl: Reluctant soldier - confused peacenik
Bergdahl's desertion (he eventually ignored his defence lawyer and pleaded guilty) set in motion a domino effect on a massive scale, but not the one the prosecution tried to pin on him: that B's desertion led to soldiers' deaths. The early angry accusations soon melted under examination, leaving B's actions as a butterfly effect in a chaotic world.
SHARE Thursday, May 12, 2011 Russia-US: Terrorism's vicious circle
There are no hostages in the game of geopolitics. Russia 's reaction to the Bin Laden assassination reveals its own dilemma about how best to accommodate the West
SHARE Tuesday, December 28, 2010 BDS 2010: More powerful than the sword
Boycott Divestment and Sanctions is a two-edged sword, bringing relief to starving Gazans, and starvation to the occupier.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 2, 2009 G20 shows EU in tatters
The only voices expressing the will of Europeans and showing a way out of the current crises are in the madding crowds outside the G20
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 10, 2010 Karzai and Obama: Biting the hand that feeds
Lieutenant colonel Brian Christmas (I'm not making this up) recently threatened the village elders in Sistani, a village near Marja, with "the choice between American guns and American resources". Read: turn stoolie. The Afghan president begs to differ
SHARE Thursday, July 14, 2011 Israel and the Flotillas: Clever madman
There is much angst among people of conscience over the fate of Freedom Flotilla II, but by effectively scuttling it, Israel is really just hammering more nails in its own coffin
SHARE Monday, May 17, 2010 The American art of war: book reviews
Carl Boggs, The Crimes of Empire: Rogue Superpower and World Domination
Paul Rogers, Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st century
Paul Atwood, War and Empire: The American Way of Life (Pluto Press 2010)
(6 comments) SHARE Monday, January 7, 2013 Canada's First Nations: Expect resistance
"Respect Existence or Expect Resistance", chant native Canadians as a showdown 11 January loams with Prime Minister Harper.
SHARE Wednesday, April 18, 2012 AfPak: Mutiny on the Bounty
The Taliban began their spring campaign as a British lord put a price on Bush's scalp
SHARE Friday, November 13, 2015 Time to rekindle UN spark
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently held a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the squashing of UN resolution 3379, equating Zionism with racism, passed in 1975. The festive event this year was attended by US Secretary of State John Kerry and head of the Israeli Labour Party and Zionist Union Isaac Herzog, son of Chaim Herzog, president of Israel from 1983 to 1993,
SHARE Saturday, December 11, 2010 Wikileaks arrest: Julian Quixote
An epic drama is unfolding after the Wikileaks founder gave himself up to Scotland Yard. Is he to suffer the fate of Ellsberg or Pollard?
SHARE Monday, March 21, 2016 Trudeaumania charms Washington
Trudeau's budding "bromance" with US President Barak Obama in March marks the first official visit by a Canadian leader since 1997, when Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien visited the last charismatic Democratic president, Bill Clinton. Chretien was not invited by Clinton's successor, George Bush, who was
SHARE Thursday, April 14, 2011 Egypt's Islamists: The Big Bad Wolf
The revolution and the turmoil in the Arab world have their origins in the tortuous history of British and American domination of the Middle East. A look at the implications for Egypt of its colonial past
SHARE Wednesday, October 5, 2011 "Mowing the grass' in Yemen
Radical Muslim cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, the victim of assassination by US forces 30 September, was born in New Mexico in 1971, educated at Colorado State University in engineering, and radicalised while preaching in US mosques and visiting Afghanistan in the 1990s. His sermons attracted a large following, first in Denver and then San Diego, where he completed a Masters in education.
SHARE Wednesday, December 7, 2011 Russia united -- for the time being
The Duma elections held no surprises, but the election turmoil can't obscure the kind of politics that will continue to characterise Russia over the coming decade thanks to United Russia and its eminence grise
SHARE Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Kyrgyzstan: Eurasian geopolitics 101
The war in Afghanistan is officially spreading to the Central Asian republics. First stop, Kyrgyzstan
SHARE Friday, July 22, 2011 Pakistan vs the US: Moving on
The latest Mumbai bombings were not obviously the work of Pakistani extremists, but reflect the unrest thanks to America's continued reckless policies of escalation in the region
SHARE Wednesday, February 27, 2013 Democracy Canadian-style Part II: At home
In our postmodern world (where good and bad are merely a matter of opinion), Canada has abandoned pretenses to promote justice both at home and abroad. 'Democratic' practice domestically is as shocking as it is internationally.
SHARE Thursday, May 19, 2011 BDS update: 'I went because I needed to go'
So said a Holocaust survivor and anti-apartheid activist about his trip to Jackson, Mississippi in 1961. The same impulse inspires BDS activists from all walks of life today
SHARE Tuesday, March 8, 2016 Iranian elections: repercussions in Middle East
The Islamic revolution has had bad press in the West from the start, but the results show a level of freedom that contrasts favorably with the West, and puts paid to the mantra that the 2009 elections were stolen by the bad guys.
SHARE Friday, March 5, 2010 Georgia vs Russia: Fanning the flames
Will there be another war in the Caucasus? This is a smoldering issue on more than one front, finds Eric Walberg, in the first of a two-part analysis of the spectre of conflict in this crucial crossroads
SHARE Thursday, April 29, 2010 NATO summit: "Not rational enough'
So NATO's head berates its foes at its recent summit in Estonia, where missile "defence" and Afghanistan topped the agenda
SHARE Thursday, December 1, 2011 Morocco gets Muslim Brotherhood PM
Morocco beats the other Arab Spring nations to a constitution and elections, with mixed results
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, July 17, 2009 Uighur vs Afghan: A study in contrasts
The US slaughter in Afghanistan makes the Chinese creeping colonization of Urumqi look like a picnic.
SHARE Friday, October 21, 2011 Britain, France, Us: "and The Winner Is ..."
Austerity is politics masquerading as economic policy, intent on lowering wages while maintaining the profit and interest income of the rich in hard times. It rests on the myth that all government spending is wasteful and eats into potential private investment, and is unnecessary for recovery.
SHARE Saturday, November 27, 2010 BDS update: Anti-apartheid Hagues
Despite the stranglehold Israel lobbies have on Euro-parliaments and politicians, there have been some surprisingly plucky official moves to protest illegal Israeli settlements recently
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 22, 2010 BDS: Boycotting Apartheid
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign moves ahead in Washington, California, British Columbia, Harvard and Brown Universities, and the Netherlands
SHARE Friday, July 10, 2009 Russia-US summit: Quiet diplomacy
Confronted by multiple irritants from Washington, the Kremlin seems to have caved, wonders Eric Walberg
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 25, 2010 Russia and NATO: "Not a piece of furniture"
Medvedev's presence in Lisbon was more a show of Russia's importance than of subservience to the Euro-Atlantic alliance.
SHARE Saturday, May 29, 2010 Afghanistan: Reading between the lines
The new coalition in Westminster is parsing all the words about Afghanistan and coming up with a very different interpretation
SHARE Wednesday, January 27, 2010 Russia, Turkey and the Great Game: Changing teams
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's visit to Turkish last month shows that Turkey and Russia are rapidly developing close economic and political ties, confounding NATOphiles
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 13, 2010 British election: Everyone lost
Britain is poised for a long period of political instability as it enters its first coalition government since WWII, when the wartime unity government was led by Winston Churchill with Labour in tow.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib: Action, Cut!
Pornography, feminization of the enemy? Confused over what Obama's view on Guantanamo and the backlog of torture images from Abu Ghraib? Join the club
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 17, 2012 Israel's real Easter pilgrims
Easter celebrates suffering and compassion. These human traits were on display on Easter Sunday at European airports and in the Holy Land, with the flytillers as unlikely pilgrims
SHARE Sunday, June 27, 2010 Kyrgyzstan: Picking up the pieces
Kill the victim and go to his funeral. Is NATO poised to move into the heart of Central Asia, even as its war in Afghanistan implodes?
SHARE Friday, May 21, 2010 Russia-America: Rediscovering realpolitik
As Russia returns to its logical, regional, strategic roots, the US under Obama is slowly waking up after its neocon nightmare
SHARE Monday, September 21, 2009 Euro peace: The sounds of silence
Eurospeak: “peace†via US missile bases, a mobile missile “blanketâ€, a “convention†on cybercrime, “Long live NATO!†Eric Walberg strains to hear a Euro voice of reason.
SHARE Saturday, February 28, 2009 US-Canadian relations: A first 'first' for Obama
On his inaugural trip as president, Obama basked in adulation, though behind the media circus lie serious problems -- NAFTA, trade disputes, and ecology and baby seals.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 4, 2009 Venezuela & Iran: Whither the Revolutions?
June was a busy month for two of Washington's real 'Axis of Evil'. Venezuela's Chavez completed his nationalisation of oil and Iran's Ahmedinejad stemmed a Western-backed colour revolution, leaving both bad boys in place.
SHARE Wednesday, February 3, 2010 Afghanistan and NATO: Figleaf summit
The plan voiced at the London Afghanistan conference to pay off the Taliban is belied by the plan at the Brussels NATO conference two days earlier to bomb them into submission
SHARE Friday, July 9, 2010 US-Russian relations: Wooing the West
The Russian leader has re-enacted the famous American goodwill tour of his predecessor a half century ago, but faces the same Cold War scheming. Will his attempts to befriend Europe have more success?
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 25, 2010 The Afghan Ant Hole
NATO plans for Afghanistan this year are shaping up nicely: negotiate with the Taliban, but at the same time kill them in Kandahar and Kunduz
SHARE Sunday, June 6, 2010 Russia-US-Iran: Nuclear juggling
Brazil accused the US of double standards over the last minute nuclear deal with Iran. Now it is the turn of Iran to accuse Russia, ever so politely, of double standards.
SHARE Thursday, September 29, 2011 Putin-Medvedev: Premier musical chairs
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's nomination of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as Russia's pretender to the throne and Putin's promise to keep his friend as premier was hardly a surprise. All along, except to a few starry-eyed liberals, it was clear, that the buck stopped not with Medvedev but Putin. The liberals were given their chance by Russia's ex-KGB autocrat and failed spectacularly.
SHARE Thursday, June 4, 2009 'Almost a perfect mix'
Obama's choice for the Supreme Court is another American dream story
SHARE Thursday, March 20, 2014 G Hancock "Supernatural: Meetings with Ancient Teachers of Mankind"
This work summarizes the breakthroughs since the 1980s in deciphering Paleolithic cave paintings and showing the common origins of all culture in religion. Religion began with shamanism and the mastering of 'altered states of consciousness' (asc) either through specially gifted individuals' ability to achieve asc directly or the use of hallucinogens.