Obama’s war in Afghanistan
November 15th, 2009 § 1 Comment
Fault Lines brings together a panel of guests and a studio audience to discuss Obama’s war in Afghanistan. Hosted by Avi Lewis. Excellent interventions from Jeremy Scahill and Matthew Hoh.
Part two …
A Ghazal from Ghalib
November 14th, 2009 § 1 Comment
translated by M. Shahid Alam
نقش فریادی ہے کس کی شوخیِ تحریر کا
کاغذی ہے پیرہن ہر پیکرِ تصویر کا
Where is the Artist whose art they protest? Every
prop, every player, dreads his part in the play.
Hard, it is hard, digging through granite nights.
It takes a thousand sparks to break into day.
The heat is intense when lovers pine for death.
When she lifts her sword, the edge strips away.
Go, weave your snares with logic and design.
The arc of my flight will take your breath away.
The irons on my legs are like braids over fire.
Ghalib, I walk on cinders to pass my prison days.
–first published in Chicago Review, Summer 2003.
George Ciccariello-Maher on Venezuela
November 13th, 2009 § 2 Comments
I actually lived in Caracas for 3 months a couple years ago, and have on my screen in front of me (literally) a 25,000 word (coruscatingly intelligent) essay on rural mobilization in Bolivarian Venezuela. The video above is George Ciccariello-Maher, the English-language social historian of Bolivarian Venezuela. He’s no joke. If you have 19 minutes, watch it, and if you don’t have 19 minutes but have an inkling of an interest in the current goings-on in Venezuela, watch it anyway. The gist is that Chavez is not the messiah nor the Lenin-like lider maximo responsible for the Bolivarian Revolution. Instead, he is the output of a process of cultural radicalization, beginning in 1958, in fact earlier, stemming from the guerrilla struggle, which emerged out of the smashed hopes of the generation that installed nominal political democracy in 1958. Overly inspired by Regis Debray’s focismo, the guerrillas failed to make the links with peasant communities which would have enabled them, perhaps, to succeed in their struggle against the repressive state. By the time they realized their mistake, it was too late. The guerrilla struggle largely peaked by 1965, with maybe 1000-2000 guerrillas in the Venezuelan countryside. But it left an invaluable bequest, a legacy of resistance, that would later combine with Afro-Venezuelan and indigenous movements to begin the Bolivarian Revolutionary process. This radicalization really emerged during the caracazo, the “first shot across the bow of neo-liberalism,” before Seattle, before Chiapas.
Kathy Kelly on the cost of war abroad and at home
November 13th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
The wonderful Kathy Kelly gives an excellent, compelling presentation on the costs, monstrosities and sorrows of war at the First Presbyterian Church in Binghamton, NY. She importantly provides the view on the ground from the perspective of Pakistani, Afghani and Palestinian villagers at the receiving end of hellish drones and shares her experiences in Gaza and Pakistan.
Two highly recommended clips — and if you have any “progressive” friends who breezily defend Obama’s being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, please draw their attention to these videos and to an example of a two-time NPP nominee whose work would actually merit such recognition.
Kathy Kelly co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare, and co-founded Voices in the Wilderness, a group which had openly defied economic sanctions from 1996-2003 by bringing medicines to children and families in Iraq.
In two parts over the jump (courtesy Essential Dissent, h/t Tom Feeley -ICH)
Hope? – Obama, Abbas, Abunimah and Morrisons
November 12th, 2009 § 2 Comments
Steve Bell
The hope invested by many in Barack Obama has dissolved. Dare I sing ‘I told you so’? I do. The audacious hope of Obamamania was always faith-based, founded on the believer’s premise that the handsome candidate didn’t mean what he actually said, that we should read his words esoterically, as code for profound radicalism. Now reality bites, and we discover that his promises to AIPAC and the military were solid and literal.
It’s certainly something that a black man has become president of a country built by African slaves, although we must place this in the context of the fierce racist backlash since his election (would those guardians of the constitution raving about the tree of liberty being watered by the blood of tyrants be quite so eager to wear their guns on their sleeves if the president were white and not a jumped-up negro? I doubt it). But that’s the achievement of Obama’s skin colour, not his policy; in fact it’s the achievement of the people who voted for him. Another achievement is that – in the company of war criminals such as Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin and Henry Kissinger – Obama has already won the Nobel peace prize. Hooray!
LIVE FROM HONDURAS: Hondurans ‘travel like crazy’ in support of coup government
November 12th, 2009 § 1 Comment
Roatán Island, Honduras. (Photo: Condor Journeys and Adventures)
A Time magazine article of 24 October entitled “Honduran Tourism: Selling Against a Coup” explains that the post-coup decrease in foreign visitors to Honduras has led the de facto regime of Roberto Micheletti to promote internal tourism:
Working with resorts and hotels on Roatán Island, a popular Caribbean dive spot off Honduras’ northern coast, the de facto tourism board is promoting special two-for-one vacation deals. Many Hondurans have taken the bait, flocking to the white sands of Roatán and filling hotel rooms that were once occupied by U.S. and European travelers. Hondurans who support the de facto regime, such as tour operator Vilma Sauceda of Rema Tours, says the fact that Hondurans are ‘traveling like crazy’ is a sign of support for the Micheletti government.”
Dahr Jamail: Honoring The Vets Who Go Unnoticed
November 11th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
Crossposted at Air America Radio.
Dahr Jamail is an award-winning independent journalist whose work has appeared on National Public Radio, in The Guardian (UK), The Nation, The Progressive, and more. In his latest book, The Will to Resist: Soliders who refuse to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, Jamail brings us inside the movement of military resistance to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. War is traumatic and many veterans who speak out against their actions (or their government’s policies) want their experiences to be validated, understood and accepted. Yet anti-war veterans organizations are not honored to the same degree as the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion or Disabled American Veterans. Jamail believes all veterans must be honored, even those who speak out against war. The Will to Resist opens the door to the lives of many servicemen and veterans who speak out against war and killing, and their need to regain their humanity. Jamail talked about what war resisters endure on a daily basis, including the recent tragedy at Fort Hood, TX.
Supporting the Academic Boycott from Within
November 11th, 2009 § 2 Comments
The israeli group, BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from within, have circulated a call to action, asking Israeli citizens to contact officials at the University of Trondheim, and express their support for a decision in favor of an institutional boycott against Israeli 
universities. The letter sent by the group itself follows.
8/11/09
Boycott the Israeli Academy Now! – Open Letter from Israeli Citizens to the Board of Governors of Trondheim University
Dear Trondheim University Officials,
We, Israeli citizens, activists and supporters of BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from within, an Israeli group in support of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, applaud faculty members at the University of Trondheim and University College of Sør-Trøndelag in Norway for their principled support for the cause of justice in Palestine by proposing a motion to boycott Israeli universities. We support this historic step in the direction of applying effective pressure on Israel and holding it accountable for its occupation and apartheid policies, which violate international law and fundamental human rights.
Refugees and Zionist propaganda
November 11th, 2009 § 4 Comments
Agence France Press (AFP) reported the following today:
A draft law stipulating that any Middle East peace treaty must mention compensation for Jews forced to leave Arab states has passed a preliminary reading in the Israeli parliament, a spokesman said on Wednesday.The draft bill, presented by a member of the ultra-orthodox Shas party, a member of the government coalition, passed the preliminary vote 49 to 5 last week, said spokesman Giora Pordes.
The draft, which the Maariv daily called “a curious and provocative bill,” still has to pass three more votes before it becomes law.
It calls for the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab states to be raised whenever the question of Palestinian refugees comes up in Middle East negotiations.
“The government should raise the issue about payment of compensation to Jewish refugees for the loss of their property and about granting to Jewish refugees who fled persecution in Arab countries a status similar to that of Arab refugees who lost their property when the state (of Israel) was created,” the proposed law states.
Shas had initially wanted a tougher bill stating compensations for Jewish refugees must be agreed before any further peace negotiations are held. The paragraph, which would have made it virtually impossible to reach a peace accord, was eventually removed so the government could support the text…
‘Israel mulls draft law tying peace, Jewish refugee issue’, AFP, 11 November 2009
The following is an extract from the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section of my book, ‘Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide‘:
People talk about the Palestinian refugees, but weren’t a similar number of Jewish refugees kicked out of Arab countries and welcomed by Israel? Couldn’t this be seen as a ‘fair swap’?
The creation of the state of Israel led to two substantial population movements in the Middle East. Between 700,000 to 800,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes, and forbidden from returning by the new Jewish state, while from 1948 through to the 1970s, around 850,000 Jews left Arab countries, with the majority moving to Israel. But the rough equality in scale is just about the only similarity.
Mothers and Soldiers: Healing the bonds destroyed by war
November 11th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
Crossposted at Huffington Post. Tomorrow is independent journalist Dahr Jamail. – Christian
The bonds established between mothers and children are sacred. Mothers provide unconditional love, caring and support, teaching their children to live in the world with a sense of purpose. But life circumstances oftentimes get in the way of relationships and affect the outcomes for better or for worse. In times of war, the bonds between mothers and children can change in the blink of an eye. Strong relationships that took years to develop can be wiped out when a loved one is killed by enemy fire and other circumstances beyond their control. Many families in America have experienced this. So have many others in the Mideast.
Susan Galleymore is the author of Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak About War & Terror. Galleymore, co-founder of Courage to Resist, made international headlines as she traveled to Iraq to visit her son stationed in the Sunni Triangle. The more Galleymore learned about the military, the more she learned about how war affects mothers at home and mothers in Iraq. Her journey continued as she met with mothers in other war zones such as Israel and the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan and the U.S.. I spoke with Galleymore about her new book and how war affects mothers and children, communities and cultures, veterans, and current service members.
