Patrick Cockburn: Lies, Damn Lies, and Reports of Battlefield Atrocities

Published on Sunday, June 19, 2011 by the Independent/UK

 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-lies-damn-lies-and-reports-of-battlefield-atrocities-2299701.html

Gaddafi is feeding his troops Viagra and ordering them to rape the womenfolk of the rebels ... well, maybe. Or is truth, as usual, the first casualty in this war?

by Patrick Cockburn

In war, accounts of atrocities need to be treated with scepticism. Surveying a battlefield where he had once fought, the great Confederate general Stonewall Jackson turned to an aide and asked: "Did you ever think, sir, what an opportunity a battlefield affords liars?"

He meant that in war people, motivated by fear, self-interest or a simple desire to make sense of a confusing and terrifying situation, make things up. And in the midst of a fast-moving conflict it is more than usually difficult to prove them wrong.

In the first Gulf conflict of 1990-91 two notorious pieces of propaganda and misinformation greatly helped to rally support for the war by seeming to demonstrate the savagery and duplicity of the Iraqi government. The first was the appearance of a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl before a US congressional committee to testify how, as a volunteer hospital nurse, she had seen Iraqi soldiers tip babies out of incubators and leave them to die on the floor. Her account was greeted with outrage until, some time later, it was revealed that the girl was the well-coached daughter of Kuwait's ambassador in Washington who had never left the US during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

The second story took place a few months later, during the bombing and missile strikes on Baghdad. CNN's Peter Arnett reported that the US had destroyed a baby milk factory on the western outskirts of Baghdad, while the Pentagon furiously maintained the facility was making biological weapons. I visited the ruins of the plant on the same day as Arnett and I remember reading through letters about the baby milk business I found in smashed up desks in the factory office. Many were about abortive efforts to save the factory from bankruptcy, convincing evidence that the Iraqi authorities could scarcely have concocted overnight.

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Conn Hallinan: Turmoil at the Top - Will Iran Explode?

By CONN HALLINAN

http://counterpunch.org/hallinan06172011.html

On the surface, the recent turmoil in Teheran looks like a case of the clerical elite, led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, slapping down an independent minded President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, though the battle is couched in vocabulary that does more to obscure than to reveal: accusations of "sorcery" and "witchcraft" get equal billing with charges of corruption and violations of the constitution. But if the language can at times seem odd, the players and the stakes are hardy abstruse.

There is, indeed, a struggle between Ahmadinejad and the clerics around Khamenei, and while it may play out in arguments over obscure religious issues—one critic of the President accused him of recruiting an army of genies—at its heart the fight is over political and economic power: who wields it and to what purpose? Some of the players, like the President and the Supreme Leader, perform in the spotlight. Others, like the powerful Revolutionary Guard and an increasingly restive population hammered by economic difficulties, maneuver in the wings.

The current crisis was sparked off when Ahmadinejad dismissed his Minister of Intelligence, apparently because the latter was tapping his chief-of-staff's phones and gathering intelligence on the President's plans for the upcoming round of parliamentary elections in 2012 and the presidential election in 2013. Khamenei forced Ahmadinejad to rehire the Minister, which caused the President to boycott cabinet meetings for 11 days, what Iranians are calling the "long sulk."

What followed were a series of maneuvers by both sides. The President reorganized his cabinet, dropping several ministries, fired the Oil Minister, and put himself in charge. The Majilis, or parliament, claims the act was illegal and, by an overwhelming vote, sent the matter to the Iranian judiciary. No one is talking about impeachment yet, but that straw is in the wind.

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Pablo Ouziel: Should Wealth Be Held by the Few or Everyone? -- That's the Central Focus of Protests from Spain to Greece

By Pablo Ouziel, Consortium News
Posted on June 16, 2011, Printed on June 19, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151323/should_wealth_be_held_by_the_few_or_everyone_--_that%27s_the_central_focus_of_protests_from_spain_to_greece

 While “Europe’s slow-motion financial collapse” – as Mother Jones magazine described it in a June 6 article – continues apace, Spain, like other European states continues to implement anti-social/neo-liberal policies in the face of strong opposition from the citizenry.

It has been one month since Spain’s “Indignados” (Indignant Ones) movement non-violently claimed 60 city-squares across the country, calling for economic democracy, political justice and peace.

Since then, much has happened within Spanish borders, and what is happening there is clearly spreading across Europe, where we have witnessed social movements making similar demands.

We have observed the rise of a parallel movement in Portugal where most city squares have also been camped on by “Indignados” and where only hours before the country’s general elections protesters in Lisbon were attacked and beaten by police.

We have witnessed how on that same night, in Athens, Greece, 80,000 protesters congregated in the city’s main square in opposition to the country’s “austerity measures,” waving banners in solidarity with the “Indignados” of Spain and of other European countries.

In Paris, we have seen the Bastille taken non-violently by French “Indignados” only to be quickly reclaimed by the country’s police force.

Wherever you look in Europe, you hear the same cries of indignation. In some countries with more intensity than others, but the cry is becoming louder everywhere, and what may seem like a slow-motion financial collapse is rapidly becoming an accelerated social catastrophe.

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Mark Weisbrot: Greek Protesters Are Better Economists Than the European Authorities

Published on Saturday, June 18, 2011 by the Guardian/UK

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/18-6

 

by Mark Weisbrot

Imagine that in its worst year of our recent recession, the United States government had decided to reduce its federal budget deficit by more than $800bn – cutting spending and raising taxes to meet this goal. Imagine that, as a result of these measures, the economy had worsened and unemployment soared to more than 16%; and then the president pledged another $400bn in spending cuts and tax increases this year. What do you think would be the public reaction?

It would probably be similar to what we are seeing in Greece today, including mass demonstrations and riots – because that is what the Greek government has done. The above numbers are simply adjusted for the relative size of the two economies. Of course, the US government would never dare to do what the Greek government has done: recall that the budget battle in April,which had House Republicans threatening to shut down the government, resulted in spending cuts of just $38bn.

What makes the Greek public even angrier is that their collective punishment is being meted out by foreign powers – the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF. This highlights perhaps the biggest problem of unaccountable, rightwing, supranational institutions. Greece would not be going through this if it were not a member of a currency union. If it had leaders of its own who were stupid enough to massively cut spending and raise taxes during a recession, those government officials would be replaced. And then a new government would do what the vast majority of governments in the world did during the world recession of 2009 – the opposite: that is, deploy an economic stimulus, or what economists call counter-cyclical policies.

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"Jon Boone" - Afghanistan Facing Insolvency Within a Month, say Officials

Published on Friday, June 17, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/17/afghanistan-insolvency-within-month

by Jon Boone

The Afghan government will struggle to pay its bills "within a month" after the International Monetary Fund rejected proposals for resolving the Kabul Bank scandal, western officials have warned.

Although the war-torn country's biggest bank nearly collapsed last September, the government of Hamid Karzai and the international community are still at loggerheads over plans to fund an $820m (£507m) bailout as well as how the disgraced former managers and shareholders who helped themselves to hundreds of millions of dollars should be prosecuted.

As long as the IMF declares the plans to be inadequate, many countries, including Britain, are legally barred from pumping money into a government that is almost completely reliant on foreign cash to pay civil servants' salaries.

It was reported by Reuters that the IMF has now formally rejected the Afghan government's proposals, meaning aid disbursements will remain on hold. The failure to reach a deal by a deadline of last Saturday also meant a $70m payment from the World Bank's Afghan reconstruction trust fund was automatically withheld.

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"Russell Targ"- Disasters, Arrogance and Greed: From The Titanic to Fukushima (and the one person who could have made a difference)

http://www.realitysandwich.com/disasters_arrogance_and_greed

The wounds suffered by the survivors and shown by the bodies of the dead are of a shocking description. In some cases the flesh is torn in shreds, exposing the bones beneath; in others the eyes are forced from their sockets; in others the victim looks as though he has been plunged into boiling water and almost every body shows purple spots as if it had been forcibly pelted with fragments of stone and iron.

--An unsigned description of the 1896 tsunami that hit north-Eastern Japan with a 110-foot wall of water, killing more than 28,000.

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"Les Leopold"- Obama's Favorite Banker Jamie Dimon Bitches About Regulations, Has Short Memory

By Les Leopold, AlterNet
Posted on June 13, 2011, Printed on June 17, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151285/obama%27s_favorite_banker_jamie_dimon_bitches_about_regulations%2C_has_short_memory

“I have a great fear someone’s going to write a book in 20 years and the book is going to talk about all the things that we did in the middle of a crisis to actually slow down recovery.”  - Jamie Dimon, CEO JP Morgan Chase 

In hot pursuit of the “Bankster of the Year Award,” Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, is gaining quickly on Lloyd “Doing God's Work” Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs. You’ve got to admire Dimon’s nerve to complain, as he recently did to Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, that the heavy hand of financial regulations is slowing down our pathetic economic recovery. It takes even more chutzpah to argue that the financial markets can actually police themselves instead.  

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"Joshua Holland'- Texas Is a Shining Example of Right-Wing Governance in Action and That's Why It's a Complete Basket-Case

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on June 16, 2011, Printed on June 17, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151325/texas_is_a_shining_example_of_right-wing_governance_in_action_and_that%27s_why_it%27s_a_complete_basket-case

Conservative mythology now holds up Texas as a shining example of right-wing governance in action. Republicans would have us believe that gutting the state's social safety net, denying workers the right to bargain collectively and relentlessly cutting taxes unleashed a torrent of “job creation” and, ultimately, prosperity.

Under governor Rick “Goodhair” Perry's term in office, Texas has indeed been a model of conservative governance, but the truth is that it has resulted in anything but prosperity for the people of the Lone Star State. In fact, Texas is not only a complete basket-case, it would be faring far worse today without the help of policies enacted by Democrats at the federal level – policies Perry lambasted as “irresponsible spending that threatens our future.”

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"John Michael Greer"- In the World After Abundance

John Michael Greer

http://www.realitysandwich.com/world_after_abundance_0

Over the past month or so the essays on my blog, The Archdruid Report, have veered away from the details of appropriate tech into a discussion of some of the reasons why this kind of tech is, in fact, appropriate as a response to the predicament of industrial society. That was a necessary diversion, since a great many of the narratives that cluster around that crisis just now tend to evade the necessity of change on the level of individual lifestyles. The roots of that evasion had to be explored in order to show that change on that level is exactly what can't be avoided by any serious response to the crisis of our time.

Still, if it's going to do any good, that awareness has to be paired with something more than a vague sense that action is necessary. Talk, as Zen masters are fond of saying, does not boil the rice; in the rather more formal language of the traditions of Western esotericism where I received a good deal of my training, the planes of being are discrete and not continuous, which means in practice that even the clearest sense of how we collectively backed ourselves into the present mess isn't going to bring in food from the garden, keep warmth from leaking out of the house on a cold winter night, or provide a modest amount of electricity for those bits of modern or not-quite-modern technology that will still make sense, and still yield benefits, in the world after abundance.

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"Elon Green"- 10 Of The Craziest Things Michele Bachmann Has Ever Said

By Elon Green, Think Progress
Posted on June 16, 2011, Printed on June 16, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/617141/10_of_the_craziest_things_michele_bachmann_has_ever_said

This week, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) announced she had filed the papers to run for President. It’s not a frivolous pursuit: She is extremely well liked by the Republican base and is an unusually effective fundraiser, taking in more dollars in the last election cycle she than any of her Congressional colleagues.

Still, Bachmann’s candidacy is not without potential landmines. Over the last decade, she has taken positions that are dangerous, stemming from her radical ideology. To Bachmann’s credit, she is aware of this, lamenting to Glenn Beck, “I have experienced that throughout my political career, being labeled a kook.”

ThinkProgress has assembled 10 of the nuttiest things Bachmann has ever said:

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