August
6, the anniversary of Hiroshima, should be a day of somber reflection,
not only on the terrible events of that day in 1945, but also on what
they revealed: that humans, in their dedicated quest to extend their
capacities for destruction, had finally found a way to approach the
ultimate limit. . .
. . .There is much to think about on August 6. . .
The war against Iran is already
well underway, including assassination of scientists and economic
pressures that have reached the level of, "undeclared war," in the
judgment of the Iran specialist Gary Sick.
Great pride is taken in the sophisticated cyberwar directed against Iran. The Pentagon regards cyberwar as, "an act of war," that authorizes the target, "to respond using traditional military force," The Wall Street Journal reports. With the usual exception: not when the U.S. or an ally is the perpetrator. . .
Great pride is taken in the sophisticated cyberwar directed against Iran. The Pentagon regards cyberwar as, "an act of war," that authorizes the target, "to respond using traditional military force," The Wall Street Journal reports. With the usual exception: not when the U.S. or an ally is the perpetrator. . .
The current escalation of the,
"undeclared war," against Iran increases the threat of accidental
large-scale war. Some of the dangers were illustrated last month when a
U.S. naval vessel, part of the huge deployment in the Gulf, fired on a
small fishing boat, killing one Indian crew member and wounding at least
three others. It would not take much to set off a major war.
One sensible way to avoid such dread consequences is to pursue, "the goal of establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery and the objective of a global ban on chemical weapons," the wording of Security Council resolution 687 of April 1991, which the U.S. and U.K. invoked in their effort to provide a thin legal cover for their invasion of Iraq 12 years later.
The goal has been an Arab-Iranian objective since 1974, regularly re-endorsed, and by now it has near-unanimous global support, at least formally. An international conference to consider ways to implement such a treaty may take place in December.
Progress is unlikely unless there is mass public support in the West. Failure to grasp the opportunity will, once again, lengthen the grim shadow that has darkened the world since that fateful Aug. 6.
Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate,
One sensible way to avoid such dread consequences is to pursue, "the goal of establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery and the objective of a global ban on chemical weapons," the wording of Security Council resolution 687 of April 1991, which the U.S. and U.K. invoked in their effort to provide a thin legal cover for their invasion of Iraq 12 years later.
The goal has been an Arab-Iranian objective since 1974, regularly re-endorsed, and by now it has near-unanimous global support, at least formally. An international conference to consider ways to implement such a treaty may take place in December.
Progress is unlikely unless there is mass public support in the West. Failure to grasp the opportunity will, once again, lengthen the grim shadow that has darkened the world since that fateful Aug. 6.
Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate,
© 2011 Noam Chomsky
*
We
Americans are taught it in school. The propaganda put out by Voice of
America repeats the idea ad nauseum around the globe. Politicians refer
to it in every campaign speech with the same fervor that they claim to
be running for office in response to God’s call: America is a model of
democracy for the whole world.
But what kind of democracy is it really that we have here?
Forget that only
half of eligible voters typically vote in quadrennial presidential
elections... Forget that the government is increasingly
trampling on the Constitution and its Bill of Rights, with a burgeoning
surveillance program and a growing militarization of the police.
The
US government doesn’t even do what the majority of the citizens want. In fact, these days it flat out ignores what we the people want.
Consider
the polls, and what they show public sentiment to be on key issues, and
then look at what the government, composed of supposedly elected
representatives and an elected president, actually does: . . .
Certainly
Americans have the right and the ability to vote for candidates, but
that alone appears not to produce what President Abraham Lincoln, back
in 1865, called a government “of the people, by the people and for the
people.”
Dave
Lindorff is an award-winning American investigative journalist. He
graduated from Wesleyan University in 1972 with a BA in Chinese
language. He then received an MS in Journalism from the Columbia
University Graduate School of Journalism in 1975. He served for five
years as a correspondent for Hong Kong and China. He is a founder of the
online newspaper www.ThisCantBeHappening.net .
This article was originally published at PressTV
*
Twilight of the
Elites: America After Meritocracy.
By Glenn Greenwald
Why don't American oligarchs fear the consequences of their corruption, and how can that be changed?
By Glenn Greenwald
Why don't American oligarchs fear the consequences of their corruption, and how can that be changed?
August 05, 2012 "Salon" --
The Nation‘s
Editor-at-Large and MSNBC’s weekend host, Chris Hayes, recently
published a book documenting the fundamental failure of America’s elite
institutions and exploring the causes and solutions: Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy.
What makes this book genuinely outstanding, and so rare, is that it is actually difficult to decide whether one agrees with many of its arguments. That’s because, as is typical of Hayes, he is more interested in grappling with complex questions in novel, non-obvious ways than he is in eliciting pat answers and easy agreement.
The
highest compliment one can give a writer is not to say that one
wholeheartedly agrees with his observations, but that he provoked —
really, forced — difficult thinking about consequential matters and
internal questioning of one’s own assumptions, often without quick or
clear resolution.
That achievement, at its core, is what defines Twilight of the Elites,
and it’s what makes it so genuinely worth your time to read and think
about.
Provoking that type of questioning in people is a much more difficult task, and a much more valuable one, than inducing clear-cut, unequivocal agreement (which is often, though not always, accomplished by simply validating someone’s already held convictions).
For that reason, Hayes’ book stays with you long after you are done reading it. . . .
Provoking that type of questioning in people is a much more difficult task, and a much more valuable one, than inducing clear-cut, unequivocal agreement (which is often, though not always, accomplished by simply validating someone’s already held convictions).
For that reason, Hayes’ book stays with you long after you are done reading it. . . .
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