France Catches Colonial Fever
February 11, 2008
When you have a dead people, anyone can come and piss on you. Even those who until recently were being described by their (neocon) friends as ‘cheese eating surrender monkeys’. From Link TV (via TruthDig).
The Mosaic Intelligence Report investigates France’s aggressive new push to involve itself in the Middle East. The French have signed a deal to set up a permanent military base in the Persian Gulf region, the first such facility controlled by a Western nation that isn’t led by George W. Bush.
How did a former colonial power that knew better than to back the Iraq invasion become so interested in sending troops to the Middle East? You’ll have to ask Nicholas Sarkozy, or watch the video below.
Commanding Heights
February 4, 2008
The Battle for the World Economy
Here is an excellent three part series from PBS that presents a rather celebratory but interesting account of globalization.
1. The Battle of Ideas
A global economy, energized by technological change and unprecedented flows of people and money, collapses in the wake of a terrorist attack …. The year is 1914.
Worldwide war results, exhausting the resources of the great powers and convincing many that the economic system itself is to blame. From the ashes of the catastrophe, an intellectual and political struggle ignites between the powers of government and the forces of the marketplace, each determined to reinvent the world’s economic order.
Jottings on the Conjuncture
January 31, 2008
Recently when I met Tariq Ali in London, he suggested I read Perry Anderson’s editorial in the current issue of the New Left Review. I had forgotten about the matter until I noticed this attack on the New Left icon by a member of the UK Israel Lobby on the Guardian‘s blog (abiding recent convention the fellow generously concedes Anderson is not an ‘antisemite’, following it immediately with the ubiquitous ‘but’). The piece must have really hit its mark if the Britcons have had to let loose their poodles of war. I was compelled to read, and I must say, I am thoroughly impressed. The analysis here is nuanced and sophisticated and well worth the read.
The contemporary period—datable at one level from the economic and political shifts in the West at the turn of the eighties; at another from the collapse of the Soviet bloc a decade later—continues to see deep structural changes in the world economy and in international affairs. Just what these have been, and what their outcomes are likely to be, remains in dispute. Attempts to read them through the prism of current events are inherently fallible. A more conjunctural tack, confining itself to the political scene since 2000, involves fewer hazards; even so, simplifications and short-cuts are scarcely to be avoided. Certainly, the notations below do not escape them. Jottings more than theses, they stand to be altered or crossed out.
i. the house of harmony
The Last Days of the American Republic
January 28, 2008
Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Chalmers Johnson for a discussion of his new book, Nemesis. In the interview, Johnson, an Emeritus Professor of the University of California, analyzes the impact of the American empire on democracy at home. Comparing the United States to Rome and Great Britain, he argues that a combination of military Keynesianism, the Bush administration’s attempt to implement a unitary presidency, and the failed checks on executive ambition point to political and economic bankruptcy. (Thanks Shahbaaz)
War, Geopolitics and History
January 19, 2008
Noam Chomsky, professor, linguistics, MIT
Robert Fisk, correspondent, The Independent
Journalist Robert Fisk of the UK-based publication, The Independent, recounts his experiences traveling around the world and living in the Middle East, Fisk speaks on history and geopolitics in the Middle East. His focus is on the problems with journalism in the United States, which include an over-reliance on what government authorities say and the common mode of reporting “from Baghdad” but entirely within the confines of a hotel room. Using newspaper articles and speeches from politicians, Fisk illustrates the lack of concern for Iraqis as human beings. Fisk’s talk also looks at the Armenian genocide, which was downplayed in Western media. After the talk, Fisk fields questions ranging from the rumors of civil war in Iraq to the situation in Lebanon.
Video
Audio
Economic Hit Man
January 18, 2008
Interview with John Perkins.
Philip Agee (1935-2008) R.I.P
January 10, 2008
Al Burke of the on CIA whistleblower and rebel Philip Agee.
Let Us Now Praise an (In)famous Man
10 January 2008 (NNN) — Philip Agee, former agent of the CIA, died in Havana, Cuba, on 8 January 2008 at the age of 72. He was the first agent to leave “The Company” and reveal its dirty secrets, having become disillusioned with its appalling practices in Latin America.
I had the pleasure and privilege of meeting Philip on three occasions in Stockholm, and he once confided that he was a distant relation of author James Agee,whose best-known work is probably Let Us Now Praise Famous Men– a book-length reportage on the desperately grim lives of dirt-poor farmers in the U.S. South during the 1930s’ Great Depression. It is an apt reference, as it was Philip’s eye-opening encounter with the desperate conditions of South America’s impoverished masses– and his growing insight into the central role played by U.S. foreign policy in perpetuating their misery– which led to his resignation from the CIA and the disclosure of its criminal activities in the political and literary bombshell, Inside the Company: CIA Diary.
Guns, Germs and Steel
January 10, 2008
Damsels in Distress?
December 19, 2007
‘The west should stop using the liberalisation of Muslim women to justify its strategy of dominance‘, writes Soumaya Ghannoushi.
It seems that Muslim women – particularly those living in western capitals- are destined to remain besieged by two debilitating discourses, which though different in appearance, are one in essence.
The first of these is conservative and exclusionist, sentencing Muslim women to a life of childbearing and rearing, lived out in the narrow confines of their homes at the mercy of fathers, brothers, and husbands. Revolving around notions of sexual purity and family honour, it appeals to religion for justification and legitimisation.
America in the Time of Empire
November 27, 2007
While Chalmers Johnson in his last book, Nemesis, argues that the quest for empire may lead to the demise of American Republic, Chris Hedges here warns that the American empire may itself have run its course.
All great empires and nations decay from within. By the time they hobble off the world stage, overrun by the hordes at the gates or vanishing quietly into the pages of history books, what made them successful and powerful no longer has relevance. This rot takes place over decades, as with the Soviet Union, or, even longer, as with the Roman, Ottoman or Austro-Hungarian empires. It is often imperceptible.Dying empires cling until the very end to the outward trappings of power. They mask their weakness behind a costly and technologically advanced military. They pursue increasingly unrealistic imperial ambitions. They stifle dissent with efficient and often ruthless mechanisms of control. They lose the capacity for empathy, which allows them to see themselves through the eyes of others, to create a world of accommodation rather than strife. The creeds and noble ideals of the nation become empty cliches, used to justify acts of greater plunder, corruption and violence. By the end, there is only a raw lust for power and few willing to confront it.
