The United States tends to view itself as the gold standard for democracy and bristles at international criticism of its electoral flaws. But recent corrosion of democratic principles, caused mostly by Republicans, has lowered the quality of U.S. democracy, writes ex-CIA…
Category: Right Wing
How Israel Out-Foxed US Presidents
From the Archive: Just days after President Obama’s reelection, Israel launched a punishing bombing campaign against Palestinians in Gaza much as Israel did shortly after his election in 2008. Obama again is put in a tight spot, but other U.S.…
Israeli Scholar Disputes Founding Myth
From the Archive: As Israel again “mows the grass” in Gaza taking revenge on Palestinians for firing crude missiles into Israeli territory the myth upon which the Jewish government stakes its claim to the land is front and center. But the myth…
Challenging Israel’s Myths
A carefully cultivated mythology sustains Israel’s territorial claims to Palestine and rationalizes Israel’s ethnic cleansing of millions of Palestinians from the land. Challenges to those myths are typically met with fierce counterattacks, as Lawrence Davidson discovered.
Likening Palestinians to Blades of Grass
Exclusive: Israeli hardliners joke about the periodic need to decimate each new generation of Palestinian militants as “mowing the grass,” a process underway again in new bombardments of Gaza. This ugly metaphor has also penetrated the think-tank world of Official Washington, as ex-CIA analyst…
Death Knell for a Failing Paradigm
The death and destruction from Super Storm Sandy this time inflicted near the U.S. power center of New York City are warnings of what’s in store if the global-warming deniers continue to obstruct action. Future devastation will shatter the creaky…
Separating War from the Vets
On Veterans Day, Americans make a point of thanking men and women who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. But this appreciation has the effect of shielding today’s perpetual warfare from the critical examination it deserves, writes former Marine…
The Neocons’ Waterloo
Exclusive: The last week has witnessed what might be called the Neocons’ Waterloo as their bid to reclaim power was beaten back by President Obama’s reelection and their last major government ally, CIA Director David Petraeus, resigned amid a sex…
‘Citizens United’ Still a Threat
The hundreds of millions of dollars from billionaires seeking to control the outcomes of Campaign 2012 largely failed as their preferred Republicans mostly went down to defeat. But these gushers of money remain a threat to American democracy, says Michael…
Protests Mount over Keystone Pipeline
Environmentalists and the oil industry continue to clash over the Keystone pipeline and the plan to pump Canadian tar sands through the U.S. to the Gulf of Mexico, amid new reports on the plan’s environmental harm, reports William Boardman.