The Mirage of Mideast Peace by Pat Buchanan

Sharon is prime minister because he campaigned against Barak’s policy of trading “land for peace.” And if he is going through hell to get Israelis to yield Gaza, does anyone think he could, or would, try to convince Israelis to abandon West Bank settlements he himself implanted and pledged to retain forever?

Get America to sign on to Israel’s annexation of wide swatches of the West Bank, to rejection of Palestinians’ right of return, to a Greater Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital, and to a security wall incorporating Palestinian land. Then embalm the “peace process” indefinitely.

Why Israel Really Fears Iranian Nukes by Roger Howard

It seems likely, then, that there are other, more convincing, reasons why Israel is concerned about an Iranian bomb. One possibility, for example, is that Tel Aviv is deeply concerned that such a development could potentially create deep splits in the U.S.-Israel alliance.

More important, perhaps, is the possibility that it would pose awkward questions, or even a far-reaching debate, in Washington and amongst the American public in general about the cost to America of an unquestioning loyalty to Israel.

Credibility Can Only Be Lost Once by Charley Reese

If Israel attacks Iran, the Iranians, who have missiles capable of reaching Israel, will fire back. Then we will probably get into it, and if the Syrians have any sense, they will attack Israel, and, to use a quote from an old movie, "This situation is out of control."

America's Diên Biên Phu Has Started in Iraq by Joe Vialls

The bottom line is that the Wall Street bankers who so desperately want to control the world have never really believed that 'Gooks' and 'Chinks' and 'Ayrabs' know how to fight and win, which means that for the present at least, Senior General Vo Giap will have to remain a shadowy figure who just got 'lucky enough' to defeat two of the world's most powerful armies. It is this very arrogance and fake superiority that will finally destroy the fledgling New World Order from within. If leading Zionist 'strategists' like Perle and Wolfowitz had paid attention to real history rather than their own insane ideologies, both "Operation Shekhinah" and "Operation Iraqi Freedom" would never have reached the initial planning stages; thousands of American families would not have lost loved ones in Iraq, and gas for automobiles would still be a relatively cheap commodity across the U.S.A.

25,000 US Casualties in Iraq; 9% of Troops Put in Hospital or Killed by Juan Cole

CBS has elicited from the Pentagon the real figure of US casualties in Iraq, which is more like 25,000. That number includes the 1230 or so killed and the 9300 classified as "wounded in battle," but also 17,000 classified as non-combat sick or injured, of whom 80 percent do not return to their units in Iraq. Although some of the 17,000 are victims of disease, some unspecified number have actually been injured as a result of being in a theater of war. If you have an "accident" while guns and bombs are going off all around you, is it really an "accident"

New Labour's police state by Nicky Samengo-Turner

Last week Parliament passed the new Civil Contingencies Act, which gives the government astonishing powers to declare and prolong a state of emergency sine die. This week Her Majesty announced in the Gracious Address that there is to be a new Counter-Terrorism Bill, and among its provisions are rumoured to be judge-only Diplock courts for terrorist suspects.

Tell Israel the Truth Michael B. Oren by Ariel Natan Pasko

But Oren revealed his true intensions in his Jerusalem Post op-ed piece, when he said, "Yet the far Right need not worry. It seems highly unlikely [clearly moaning] that any Palestinian figure will be capable in the foreseeable future of marshaling the legitimacy needed to make peace with Israel, or the military power to impose that peace on the Palestinian terrorist groups that will certainly oppose it."

Truthfully, it is Oren (and others on the Left) that mourn Arafat's passing. They are saddened that he didn't live long enough to "make peace with Israel," or impose " peace on the Palestinian terrorist groups that will certainly oppose it." They still believe in their messianic pipe dreams.

North Korean Journalism: In the Service of Kim Jong-Il

A special feature of North Korean totalitarianism is its unique ideology, Kimilsungism and "juche." It is the task of the regimented press to explain this ideology to the population. The media also have a key role in the deification of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. There are the songs, the thousands of billboards with slogans glorifying father and son, the 30,000 statues around the country, the badges on every jacket and the hundreds of books extolling the greatness of the Kims. But there are also North Korea's journalists who, under a permanent threat of terrible sanctions, are disciplined propagandists.

Demoting Kim Jong-Il: A Brand-protection Strategy? by Bradley K. Martin

There are suggestions that the personality cult is being downsized. Assuming that’s happening, was Kim Jong-il pressured to permit it or did he decide on his own?

China had been complaining since the death of Mao and the fall of the Gang of Four about North Korea’s continuing adherence to an extravagant personality cult. Deng Xiaoping himself is said to have criticized a gold-plated statue of Kim Il-sung. Softening the personality cult now could be seen as perhaps partially intended to play to Chinese concerns.

What Palestinians should do now by Ali Abunimah

The first priority for Palestinian leaders now must be to defend their people against Israel's relentless colonization and violence and not to negotiate with Israeli guns to Palestinian heads. They must formulate a national strategy to regain Palestinian rights enshrined in UN Resolutions, clearly explain this strategy, and organize Palestinians and allies everywhere to struggle for it, starting with full implementation of the ICJ decision on the West Bank wall.

Hawks push regime change in N Korea by Jim Lobe

The article, "Tear Down This Tyranny", called for the implementation of a six-point strategy aimed at ousting North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-il, in part by "working around the pro-appeasement crowd in the South Korean government", which apparently includes President Roh himself.

The second article, published on Sunday in The New York Times, detailed a number of recent indications cited by right-wing officials and the press in Japan - including high-level defections and the reported circulation of anti-government pamphlets - that Kim's hold on power may be slipping.

'Democracy' and Mendacity by Justin Raimondo

The U.S. government is for "democracy" overseas as long as the results are decided in advance. But when an election threatens to get out of hand by expressing the real sentiments of the people – watch out!

Let these self-proclaimed champions of the "global democratic revolution" hold a plebiscite in Iraq – not on which puppet of the Americans to install, but on the question of the Anglo-American occupation.

Why pre-emptive invasions encourage soldiers to commit war crimes by Trevor Royle

The US has not signed up to the International Criminal Court, precisely because it wants to protect its troops from prosecution in peace enforcement operations, but the assault on Fallujah was part of a series of military operations in an internal war and should therefore be subject to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Under their terms, wounded or incapacitated combatants must be treated humanely and protected from the summary justice of the casual head-shot. The conventions are quite clear on this point. Murder of stricken opponents is not allowed: it is a war crime.

Ring of Fire by Chris Floyd

Bush and Zarqawi are mirror-image enemies: foreign terrorists breaking into Iraq to spread indiscriminate death and ruin in pursuit of their brutal visions. Everywhere they go, everything they touch, everyone they draw to their cause becomes inferno.

The Carlyle Group Profits from Government and Conflict

The Carlyle Group acquired controlling interests in several underperforming defense contractors, installed its own management teams and revitalized the companies, in part by landing big Pentagon contracts. Then, they sold the contractors to other investors for a large profit.

50,000 PROTEST IN SANTIAGO AS CHILE SAYS NO TO APEC

Peruvian economist and development expert Hernando de Soto told a meeting of businessmen that 65 percent of the 21 APEC economies’ populations are excluded from the benefits of globalization, giving the lie to the “trickle down” theory of free trade economics.

“Of the 2,600 million people in the APEC countries, 1,700 million have not managed to join the international market and are not globalized. It doesn’t matter how much talk there is about the World Trade Organization and the Doha Round Table …

Muslim anguish and Western hypocrisy by Spengler

The tragedy will continue to unfold, and at a faster pace. Jews and Christians have learned to accept humiliation. God's love for the individual soul remains valid despite worldly reverses, and failure in the temporal realm provides cause for self-evaluation. Humiliation is intolerable to Islam; Allah sets the spin of every electron around every nucleus by a discrete act of will, and reverses in the temporal world challenge Islam's promise of success.

The Human Cost of Hegemony by Andrew Young

Some argue that this war is about spreading freedom, not American hegemony. If that is the case, why does the administration plan to maintain military bases in Iraq for decades to come? Jay Garner, who helped lead Iraq's reconstruction in 2003, said in an interview that Iraq is "our coaling station that gives us great presence in the Middle East."

Unilateralism threatens US role in Asia by Jim Lobe

"The US must be extremely careful of not letting its penchant for unilateralism undermine or damage its alliance with its traditional allies Japan and South Korea," according to the report of the Asian working group, which was headed by Singaporean diplomat Tommy Koh and the former permanent secretary of Bangladesh's Foreign Affairs Ministry, Farooq Sobhan.

Counterinsurgency run amok by Pepe Escobar

The Americans in Iraq are now confronting a network enemy. Negri and Hardt say that "confronting a network enemy can certainly throw an old form of power into a state of universal paranoia". Thus the fiction of "invisible" civilians in Fallujah. Thus the "capture" of Fallujah general hospital. Thus destroying Fallujah in order to "save it". Thus the marine executing a wounded man, on camera, inside a mosque. Thus the Vietnam nightmare all over again.

To the conspiracy theory born by Arnaud de Borchgrave

The Middle East Media Research Institute reminds us the price of America's benign neglect of the peace process is a grotesque caricature of the U.S. and its Israeli protege. Israel bombed Sinai, said Egypt's Al Ahram Research Center expert Dhia Rashwan, "to convince the world Egypt is not a stable country, thus opening the door for external involvement, specifically Israel and America, for the so-called preservation of security and eradication of terrorism in the region [which gives] Sharon a green light to strike Palestinians in the occupied territories under the pretext of fighting terrorism."

The Enlightenment of Resistance by Manuel Valenzuela

When the day finally arrives when we grasp the reality of who we are and discard the fiction of what we portend to be humanity will cease to ride the rollercoaster of our history, so full of violence, exploitation and suffering, instead launching itself to the highest zenith of civilization. It will be when we deviate away from the ceaseless damage we have done onto ourselves and the planet that we can claim resistance and renaissance.

A champion for their cause by ERIC MARGOLIS

Israel long followed a policy of assassinating or jailing promising Palestinian leaders. Indeed, this writer believes Arafat may have been murdered by an untraceable toxin.

Submit or Die: The Conquest of Falluja by Jacob G. Hornberger

Question 1: Does the conquest of Falluja mean that that the U.S. occupation of Iraq is now over?

Question 2: Will the ranks of the insurgents now be reduced by 600, the number of “insurgents” killed in Falluja?

Question 3: Isn’t Allawi’s attack on Falluja somewhat similar to what the Allawi regime is accusing Saddam Hussein of having done — killing his own people for resisting his regime?

Question 4: Why did U.S. forces obey Allawi’s orders to flatten and “pacify” Falluja?

Neoliberalism and Class Politics in Latin America by JAMES PETRAS

"Globalization" or imperialist expansion, is not merely the "spread" of an ideology and its imposition by force or persuasion. There is a prior condition ­ the existence of political and bureaucratic elites and important sectors of the ruling class who have a common political and economic interest and capacity to articulate the ideology and implement pro-imperial policies.

Israel and their Victory of Killing Arafat

The Israeli Political Arabic Newspaper “Al-Ittihad”, wrote an article titled “Unlimited Impudence”. The Israeli rightists rushed to the streets demonstrating their happiness, holding hate filled and Anti-Semitic posters, handing out sweets and burning Arafat pictures, insulting their Palestinian neighbours, the Israeli Arab citizens, and the Arab world. The American Jewish squatters from the Kach terror movement, Baruch Marzel and Itamar ben Gaber, took part in the Jewish celebration of Arafat's death in Jerusalem.

ASSASSINATION COVERUP PROCEEDS QUICKLY

Target: Tehran? by Leon Hadar

But put on realpolitik lenses and things look quite different. It was Iran and not the U.S. that before the 9/11 attacks had been pursuing a policy to bring down the Taliban regime—at a time when U.S. allies Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were backing them. The Iranians were also one of the main supporters of the Northern Alliance guerrillas who helped the Americans take control of Kabul. Iran backed the selection of Karzai as Afghanistan’s new president, played a role in the economic reconstruction, and has blocked the flow of heroin out of Afghanistan through Iran.

Flurry of regional consultations

If things continue in this direction, all efforts to establish peace and stability in Iraq and to form a democratic government in the country will most probably fail. During a meeting with the Syrian foreign minister on Tuesday, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said, “What is going on in Iraq not only threatens the future of Iraq, but endangers the whole region as well.”

Coroner: Arafat Died of Tilex Poisoning

The coroner for the Palestinian Authority today announced that former Chairman Yassir Arafat died from "acute Tilex poisoning," and blamed the CIA and Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.

Iraq: The unthinkable becomes normal by John Pilger

On the afternoon of 11 September, Donald Rumsfeld, having failed to act against those who had just attacked the United States, told his aides to set in motion an attack on Iraq - when the evidence was non-existent. Eighteen months later, the invasion of Iraq, unprovoked and based on lies now documented, took place. This epic crime is the greatest political scandal of our time, the latest chapter in the long 20th-century history of the west's conquests of other lands and their resources. If we allow it to be normalised, if we refuse to question and probe the hidden agendas and unaccountable secret power structures at the heart of "democratic" governments and if we allow the people of Fallujah to be crushed in our name, we surrender both democracy and humanity.

Falluja's defiance of a new empire by Sami Ramadani

Blair once again misled parliament this week by branding the resistance in Falluja as Zarqawi-style terrorists out to destroy the prospects for democracy. It was he and Bush who last year rejected the calls for early free and fair elections from those who rejected the occupation, including Ayatollah Sistani, Moqtada al-Sadr, the resistance and the widely supported Iraqi National Foundation Congress. Bush and Blair are terrified of the Iraqi people voting for anti-occupation leaders. They will accept nothing short of the legitimisation, through sham elections supervised by the occupation authorities, of an Allawi-style puppet regime.

Bloodless anti-Arafat coup

Assam Makhul, an Arab member of the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, recently announced that Arafat had probably been poisoned by agents of the Israeli intelligence agency.

Some political analysts believe that certain Palestinian leaders, including Qurie, Abbas, former national security minister Mohammad Dahlan, and Jebril Rajoub, the former head of security in the West Bank, have launched a bloodless coup against Arafat with the cooperation of the Mossad, so they can seize power during his absence.

Arafat Died Years Ago by ROBERT FISK

Like all dictators, he made sure that there was no succession. It might have been Abu Jihad, but he was murdered by the Israelis in Tunis. It might have been one of the militant leaders whom the Israelis have been executing by air attack over the past two years. It could still be, just, the imprisoned Marwan Barghouti. And, if the Israelis decide that he should be the leader -- be sure the Palestinians won't get any choice in the matter -- then the prison doors may open for Barghouti.

American Options In Iraq by William R. Polk

Official inquiries have verified what independent observers have long said: the invasion of Iraq was not justified; a small, remote and poor country, Iraq posed no threat to the United States. As in the Tonkin Gulf issue during the Vietnam War, the Congress and public were misled. Those of us who said so from the beginning are tempted now to say "I told you so" but that indulgence doesn't lead anywhere.

Nato is a threat to Europe and must be disbanded by Jonathan Steele

Ending Nato would not mean that Europe rejects good relations with the US. Nor does it rule out police and intelligence collaboration on issues of concern, such as the way to protect our countries against terrorism. Europe could still join the US in war, if there was an international consensus and the electorates of individual countries supported it.

But Europeans must reach their decisions from a position of genuine independence. The US has always based its approach to Europe on a calculation of interest rather than from sentimental motives. Europe should do no less. We can and, for the most part, should be America's friends. Allies, no longer.

"Fixing the Problem" in Fallujah by William Bowles

The BBC report goes on to tell us

“They [the US] swept into Iraq in a short, victorious campaign, and quickly settled down to nation-building and peacekeeping.”

This is bizarre, Alice-in-Wonderland ‘reportage’ that has nothing to do with the reality of at least 100,000 Iraqi deaths since the invasion and occupation. Nation-building? Peacekeeping? Any reporter worth his salt would know that Bush and his capos long ago told us that the last thing on their minds was ‘nation-building’ and indeed are on record as saying that the objective of occupying Iraq is anything but nation-building.