Back to the USSR

6 Responses to Back to the USSR

1. Jon says:

   November 5, 2005 at 09:39

   *The Amer­i­can cit­i­zenry lived for 50 years with the Cold War men­tal­ity in which the nat­ural xeno­pho­bic ten­den­cies were cul­tured and nur­tured. What Amer­i­cans per­ceive to be the truth about our gov­ern­ment actions over the past half cen­tury is quite dif­fer­ent from how the rest of the world per­ceived the same actions.

   I rec­om­mend watch­ing the film Amer­i­can Pass­port in which adren­a­line junky film­maker Reed Paget trav­els the globe inter­view­ing peo­ple in for­mer hotspots and com­pares those local views with the accepted Amer­i­can truths.*

   “I began this film with a num­ber of inten­tions: to travel the world; to inves­ti­gate, as best I could, the impact of U.S. for­eign pol­icy around the globe; and to have a once-in-a-lifetime adven­ture. To this extent the film is a suc­cess. But along the way, I encoun­tered many things that were to broaden my focus. In a nut­shell, I began with a fairly one-sided view on whether Amer­ica was doing right or wrong around the world.

   “My trav­els cured me of that, and the film reflects this com­plex­ity. I was also drawn to ancient ruins. What I hadn’t antic­i­pated was dis­cov­er­ing a dark his­tory of human sac­ri­fice under­ly­ing many of these sites of wor­ship. This incon­gruity, in addi­tion to the many war zones I vis­ited, ulti­mately led me to ques­tion man’s pre­dis­po­si­tion toward vio­lence. Finally, I found that rather than being a neu­tral observer, I too was drawn to and pre­oc­cu­pied with war and vio­lence, forc­ing me to reassess my own moti­va­tions in mak­ing this film.“
   –Reed Paget
2. Jon says:

   November 5, 2005 at 13:27

   Covert nuclear activ­i­ties in Iran
   The esca­lat­ing cri­sis over Iran’s sus­pected nuclear ambi­tions has been fur­ther fuelled by highly con­tro­ver­sial state­ments call­ing for the destruc­tion of Israel made by the Islamic Republic’s new hard­line pres­i­dent, Mah­moud Ahmadine­jad. Fears over a drift towards future con­flict with Tehran are set to be exac­er­bated by recent alle­ga­tions that Iran has been engaged in fur­ther covert nuclear activ­ity.
   [Jane’s Intel­li­gence Digest — first posted to http://jid.janes.com – 2 Novem­ber 2005]

   US intel­li­gence wars
   John Negro­ponte, direc­tor of US National Intel­li­gence, unveiled the National Clan­des­tine Ser­vice (NCS) on 13 Octo­ber, describ­ing it as “another pos­i­tive step in build­ing an intel­li­gence com­mu­nity that is more uni­fied, co-ordinated and effec­tive”. How­ever, with the sprawl­ing US intel­li­gence estab­lish­ment still haunted by the cat­a­stro­phe of the 11 Sep­tem­ber 2001 ter­ror­ist attacks, achiev­ing that objec­tive still seems a remote prospect. JID’s US cor­re­spon­dent reports.
   [Jane’s Intel­li­gence Digest — first posted to http://jid.janes.com – 2 Novem­ber 2005]

   US under pres­sure in Cen­tral Asia
   Con­cerns have been grow­ing in Wash­ing­ton over its wan­ing influ­ence in Cen­tral Asia. Amid stalled demo­c­ra­tic reforms and mount­ing Russ­ian influ­ence in the region, US Sec­re­tary of State Con­doleezza Rice’s recent visit has failed to reverse this trend. With the US admin­is­tra­tion plan­ning to regain lost ground, rivalry with Rus­sia is bound to inten­sify.
   [Jane’s Intel­li­gence Digest — first posted to http://jid.janes.com – 2 Novem­ber 2005]

   Saudi blocks Qatar pipeline
   Saudi Ara­bia blocks the con­struc­tion of a major gas pipeline between Qatar and Kuwait. * This is the lat­est in a series of inci­dents reveal­ing Saudi unease about its posi­tion in the Gulf region. * Riyadh must think about its Gulf Co-operation Coun­cil neigh­bours as part­ners, not patrons.
   [Jane’s For­eign Report — first posted to http://frp.janes.com – 2 Novem­ber 2005]

   Arab regional analy­sis on the attack on Aqaba
   The 19 August rocket attacks on US ves­sels in the port of Aqaba, Jor­dan, sparked furi­ous debate in the Arab media about whether jihadist groups were poised to launch a renewed offen­sive in the Lev­ant * One the­ory is that the attacks vin­di­cate the ‘Iraq returnees’ sce­nario, in which vet­er­ans of the Iraqi insur­gency return to their home­lands resolved to con­tinue jihadist activ­i­ties there… * .…how­ever some observers con­tend that Jordan’s bas­ing and sup­port for US mil­i­tary oper­a­tions in the Mid­dle East has long made it a prime can­di­date for attack by Islamist mil­i­tants * Other com­men­ta­tors believe the Aqaba attack rep­re­sents a log­i­cal exten­sion of insur­gent oper­a­tion in Iraq to attack US sup­ply lines and sup­port.
   [Jane’s Ter­ror­ism and Secu­rity Mon­i­tor — first posted to http:/jtsm.janes.com — 7 Octo­ber 2005]
3. Jon says:

   November 5, 2005 at 13:44

   First casu­alty of war
   By Eric Alter­man
   We know now, thanks to one brave and dogged his­to­rian at the National Secu­rity Agency, that after the famed Gulf of Tonkin “inci­dent” on Aug. 4, 1964 — in which North Viet­nam allegedly attacked two Amer­i­can destroy­ers — National Secu­rity Coun­cil offi­cials doc­tored the evi­dence to sup­port Pres­i­dent Johnson’s false charge in a speech to the nation that night of “open aggres­sion on the high seas against the United States of Amer­ica.“
   http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10877.htm
4. Jon says:

   November 5, 2005 at 14:07

   All Prob­lems Bleed from America’s Wound
   By Brian Bog­art
   Mak­ing and sell­ing weapons has been America’s top indus­try since 1950, that we have sus­tained this weapons-based econ­omy by sup­ply­ing more than 200 wars in 55 years, and that some 310,000 com­pa­nies and 400 col­leges are on the Pentagon’s ever expand­ing pay­roll.
   http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10882.htm

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   Should the U.S. With­draw? Let the Iraqi Peo­ple Decide
   Polls, so far, show Iraqis want the US out .
   http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_abigail__051013_should_the_u_s__with.htm

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   Why the US will lose
   Peo­ple around the world who care for jus­tice and hope for a more human and humane world, should sup­port the Iraqis in their strug­gle to recover their sov­er­eignty, and ask for the com­plete and uncon­di­tional with­drawal of all for­eign troops from Iraqi soil along with com­pen­sa­tion paid for all the mate­r­ial and human losses Iraq has expe­ri­enced since the ille­gal inva­sion began.
   http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10876.htm

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   New Poll: Major­ity of Amer­i­cans Sup­port Impeach­ment
   By a mar­gin of 53% to 42%, Amer­i­cans want Con­gress to impeach Pres­i­dent Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq, accord­ing to a new poll
   http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4421

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   Israel and the Neo­cons: The Libby Affair and the Inter­nal War
   http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10884.htm

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   Brian Bog­art : His­tory of the U.S. War Machine
   From NSC 68 to 2005: NSC68 was not a doc­u­ment specif­i­cally writ­ten to take or keep power from America’s com­mon peo­ple; the peo­ple have been iso­lated from power through­out our his­tory. But NSC68 was the blue­print for shift­ing from social con­cerns to military-industrial profit, fur­ther ele­vat­ing cor­po­ra­tions to — and fur­ther dis­tanc­ing the peo­ple from — power.
   http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10883.htm

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   Chavez is a sono­fabitch, but he’s not our sono­fabitch
   Venezuela pos­sesses every­thing that makes it “strate­gi­cally” impor­tant: it has oil; it is left­ist; it is crit­i­cal of the United States.
   http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10881.htm

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   Hunger In Amer­ica Rises By 43 Per­cent Over Last Five Years
   The analy­sis, com­pleted by the Cen­ter on Hunger and Poverty at Bran­deis Uni­ver­sity, shows that more than 7 mil­lion peo­ple have joined the ranks of the hun­gry since 1999.
   http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051029093925.htm

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   America’s Poor are Under Siege
   $9.5 bil­lion in Med­ic­aid — CUT. . $5 Bil­lion in Child Sup­port Enforce­ment — GONE. . $844 Mil­lion in food stamps — ELIMINATED. Do we even need to explain the impli­ca­tions here?
   http://tinyurl.com/d3xaf

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   DeLay Asked Abramoff for Funds Through Foun­da­tion, E-mails Show
   U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tom DeLay asked Jack Abramoff to raise money for him through an Abramoff foun­da­tion, the lat­est evi­dence of the ties between DeLay and the indicted lob­by­ist, e-mails released by a Sen­ate com­mit­tee show.
   http://tinyurl.com/b4k6w

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   GOP mulls end­ing birthright cit­i­zen­ship
   House Repub­li­cans are look­ing closely at end­ing birthright cit­i­zen­ship and build­ing a bar­rier along the entire U.S.-Mexico bor­der as they search for solu­tions to ille­gal immi­gra­tion.
   http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051103–115741-1048r.htm
5. Jon says:

   November 5, 2005 at 14:28

   Italy ‘warned Sad­dam intel­li­gence was bogus’
   Ital­ian intel­li­gence warned the United States about bogus infor­ma­tion on Sad­dam Hussein’s nuclear ambi­tions at about the time Pres­i­dent Bush cited them as a cru­cial rea­son for invad­ing Iraq, an Ital­ian par­lia­men­tar­ian said yesterday.

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   Is there a Draft in here?
   “The Bush admin­is­tra­tion will swear up and down that a draft won’t hap­pen, but the real­ity is that our mil­i­tary is in trou­ble,” said Uni­ver­sity of California-Santa Clara senior Celina Holmes. “There aren’t enough boots on the ground or enough men and women enlisting.”

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   Cheney Seeks CIA Exemp­tion to Tor­ture Ban
   Cheney appeals to Repub­li­can sen­a­tors to allow CIA exemp­tions to pro­posed ban on torture.
6. Jon says:

   November 5, 2005 at 14:30

   The Iraq-o-Meter: Cal­cu­lat­ing the costs of the Petro­leum Wars
   http://www.iraqometer.com/