US politicians and pundits speak as though the issues and the players are clear and distinct, which has no bearing on reality. We tend to regard any act of violence as committed by "The Taliban" or "al Qaeda," and certainly prefer to report that the only casualties are from one loathsome group or the other. This has long been part of our sanitized war reporting. There are no civilians in Gaza, for example. Or at least none who get hurt. We need to know the facts in order to ... More »

And Obama and his militant advisers wants to escalate military operations there?

I think the trend now is toward getting interested in the plight of our "enemies" and treating them with respect. I remember with rue, not long ago I would have been ridiculed for saying that.

I agree with Tariq Ali of London and Imran Khan of Pakistan that the US military effort in Afghanistan (and the border area of Pakistan) is only making the region more dangerous and unstable. Zbigniew Brzezinski has told Obama that a large increase in US forces will almost certainly ensure the Americans are seen as occupiers and the enemy. G W Bush is determined to push things in this disastrous direction, as hard as he can, in his remaining days in the White House.

After hundreds of years of war and occupation, corruption, and everybody from the British Occupation chopping off heads and putting them on sticks, to the Soviets killing everybody they could, and the talaban killing everybody they could, to the American's killing everybody they can, what could possibly be in Afghanistan that anybody could want are need. They produce nothing but poppy, that destroys people all over the world, and there's nothing anybody can do about it except the ... More »