Google: A Sino-US marker By Benjamin A Shobert Across the United States, conversations about politics have not been this charged since the final days of the last presidential campaign. In the space of a week the passage of landmark healthcare reform and Google’s exit from China have made for anxious and animated discussion. While these two issues are disconnected from one another, they do appear to represent for many Americans significant inflection points relative to historical expectations. On one hand, medical care was formally incorporated into the contract between citizens and the government and no longer was a privilege primarily … Continue reading Google China!

Allawi poised for a comeback By Sami Moubayed DAMASCUS – The streets of Baghdad were empty on Friday evening as the final results of the March 7 parliamentary elections were being announced. Elsewhere in Iraq, a terrorist attack in the suburbs of Diali province led to the killing of 45 people and the injuring of 65 – news that went by almost unnoticed when it was announced that Iyad Allawi’s Iraqi List (Iraqiya) had won the elections with 91 out of 325 seats in parliament. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has headed Iraq since 2006, has effectively lost his job, … Continue reading PM Allawi of Iraq?

Karzai’s China-Iran dalliance riles Obama By M K Bhadrakumar Great moments in diplomatic timing are hard to distinguish when the practitioners are inscrutable entities. Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s visits to China and Iran within the week rang alarm bells in Washington which were heard in the Oval Office of the White House. Karzai’s two days of talks in Beijing last week were scheduled exactly at the same time as the high-profile strategic dialogue taking place between the United States and Pakistan in Washington. Karzai has coolly defied the President Barack Obama’s do-or-die diplomatic campaign to “isolate” Iran in the region … Continue reading Karzai games!

Blame-game over war ship’s sinking By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON – The explosion and sinking of a South Korean war ship in the West or Yellow Sea near the North Korean coast set off alarm bells in Washington and Seoul. The question was whether North Korea was again making good on threats to challenge South Korean control beneath the “northern limit line” (NLL) set by the United Nations Command three years after the Korean War ended in 1953. Now both South Korea and the US want to tamp down tensions, to find the evidence that explains away the explosion, which claimed … Continue reading South and North Korean War?

In four years, standby to greet Prime Minister Narendra Modi By Jawed Naqvi dawn.com Narendra Modi attends a First Convocation ceremony of Gujarat National Law University in Gandhinagar, near Ahmedabad, on March 28, 2010. – Photo by AFP. A big race, probably the biggest that India is mandated to hold, was kicked off last week. It could usher Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi as prime minister in 2014 when elections are due, if not before. And since Modi has the unqualified support of major industrialists who know the art, shall we say, of financing parties, lobbying for MPs, and influencing … Continue reading Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India?

Taking on the Religious Right By GREGORY ELICH Michael Parenti has written a compelling work, whose themes are so relevant for our time: the essentiality of rational thought, the struggle to maintain a secular and tolerant society, and the abuse of religion for reactionary political and obscurant objectives. As Parenti points out, “That ‘old-time religion’ is still very much with us and having a considerable impact on U.S. political life.” And that impact has only grown in recent years. Parenti launches his account with that bedrock of old-time religion, the Bible, examining it for what moral lessons it has to … Continue reading American Baptist Taliban!

A minefield of contradictions —Sikander Amani The IEDs have become an important element in the mythologisation of the insurgency and the counter-insurgency, as in the creation of prototypical images of the enemy and of the hero on which all conflicts rely Among the unsavoury new words popularised by the recent wars, we may count the now ubiquitous acronym IED, standing for Improvised Explosive Device — basically, a roadside bomb, which explodes either by contact or through remote control. The IEDs have become the nightmare of the US and allied troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan: in Iraq, because although the … Continue reading IEDs – mythologisation of the insurgency

The Taliban are coming? —Dr Syed Mansoor Hussain Once the Taliban are in power, women will cease to exist by decree. No women, no women’s problems. Another major advantage of ignoring the existence of women is that it will sharply drive up maternal and infant mortality In Pakistan every day is Earth Day and every other hour is Earth Hour. I always knew deep inside that there was a method behind all this load shedding. It was obviously always about saving the environment and also about preparing the people for the eventual takeover by the Taliban; the two of course … Continue reading What Mullahs Paradise will for Pakistanis!

Soldier of Conscience Granted Clemency, Released by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Report Sgt. Travis Bishop. (Photo: via Travis Bishop) Last August, Travis Bishop refused to serve in Afghanistan. Having filed for Conscientious Objector (CO) status, Bishop, based at Fort Hood, Texas, in the US Army’s 57th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, was court-martialed and sentenced to 12 months in a military brig. He was released from the brig today. Bishop served his time in Northwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Lewis, Washington. This military brig is notorious for being a particularly difficult jail to … Continue reading Sgt. Travis Bishop – Soldier of Conscience Granted Clemency, Released

Reform school attempts to offer child fighters chance at new life * All students come to school after being captured by army, brought by families * Taliban fighter says young boys ‘come to us willingly to present their lives’ Daily Times Monitor LAHORE: In mountains surrounding Swat, Pakistani authorities say terrorists are preparing their newest generation of spies, shooters and suicide bombers, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. In the same village, under razor wire and the watch of soldiers, Islamabad is trying to give some of the recruits back their childhoods. At a new school tucked near the fragile … Continue reading Reform school attempts to offer child fighters chance at new life