There is an article in the Sunday Times about yet more pressure being brought to bear on Wikileaks as they prepare to release another damning video of American massacre, this time in Afghanistan. But what caught my eye was yet another example of the propaganda doublespeak with which our wars of occupation are justified. American [...]

There are any number of “Big lies” put forward by the USA in Afghanistan and slavishly repeated by our politicians and media. Here are a few of the “Big lies”: – The Karzai government is democratically elected – The Afghan anti-occupation fighters are all Taliban supporters – Most opium is produced in Taliban controlled areas [...]

Plainly our occupation of Afghanistan is so succesful in promoting the country’s economy that there is too much money around. As the Washington Post reports, in a two month period 180 million dollars in cash was declared as it was carried out through Kabul airport, mostly to Dubai. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022404914.html What is strange is the Washington [...]

My MA thesis was entitled “Midlothian and Gladstone”. Here is an extract from one of Gladstone’s Midlothian campaign speeches, in Dalkeith, while the Second Afghan War was raging. Those hill tribes had committed no real offence against us. We, in the pursuit of our political objects, chose to establish military positions in their country. If [...]

Afghan civilians are being killed all the time by Nato; it only gets reported when they kill a lot at once, and even then it doesn’t exactly hit the front pages. In the latest incident 21 people have been wiped out from the air – families fleeing the NATO destruction of their homes http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61L1A920100222 Those [...]

At the Nuremberg trials, it was deliberately decided that those selected for the visible judgement on aggressive war would represent a cross section of the Nazi leadership, including each branch of the Armed services. It was thought very important to include a representative of the journalists who had whipped up the hatred. I think that [...]

The threat of Islamic fundamentalism rising up in and pouring out from Central Asia, is a popular theme of those who design Western security – or hydrocarbon – strategies. It is in order to exagerrate the threat from Central Asia that the US and UK use the Karimov regime to torture “Confessions” out of Central [...]

US and UK soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq are killing Muslims using guns with optical sights marked with Christian Gospel references, manufactured by Trijicon, an avowedly Christian Evangelical company in the US, which in the past also supplied South African special forces in breach of the international anti-apartheid embargo. Trijicon’s website states: We believe that [...]

There is a very great deal that we can learn from the case of Dr Al-Balawi, the suicide bomber who took out seven CIA agents in Afghanistan. The first relates to intelligence. Dr Al Balawi had become a trusted CIA informant, believed by the CIA to be helping them to target al-Qaida elements on the [...]

It is not pleasant to be deliberately offensive to anybody’s religious views. But the radical Christian right in the USA, and the whole history of the abuse of religous authority in all religions, shows why it is essential to maintain freedom of speech on religious subjects. So the cartoons about Mohammed should not be censored; [...]

The extraordinarily incompetent Nigerian underpant bomber somehow seems a fit conclusion to the year. The debate on my last post has garnered 235 comments already. What comes over most strongly is the absolute desperate, psychological need of the right for the “War on Terror” to be real. Given the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and [...]

Happy Christmas Everybody!! I just saw an eyewitness on BBC TV News recount that the Nigerian man who set fire to his leg on a Delta flight was shouting “about Afghanistan”. Which proves yet again that by occupying Afghanistan we are provoking, not preventing, attempted terrorism. Regular readers know that I fly out of Schiphol [...]

Uzbek voters have the fun of going to the polls on December 29 to choose between candidates for parliament from four “political parties”, each one of which loudly supports President Islam Karimov. Even the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), so often ready to excuse authoritarian behaviour by its members, has concluded that [...]

Thank you Mr President. Actually I knew that. In fact I am just watching its most high profile representative making a speech. As Rector of the University of Dundee, I am entitled to put forward nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. With Obama as an example of the kind of person the committee want, I [...]

The Italians have difficulty in tackling guerilla warfare, as it is hard to find anyone to surrender to. If the French contingent bump into the German contingent, the whole damn country will surrender.

Obama loves his rhetoric, and his speech on the Afghan surge was topped by a rhetorical flourish: “Our cause is just, our resolve unshaken”. He is of course wrong on both counts. The occupation of Afghanistan by the US and its allies is there to prop up the government of President Karzai. Karzai’s has always [...]

Rather sums up the whole bloody debacle: Two Czech soldiers were suspended along with their commander Monday after the soldiers were seen wearing Nazi insignia on their helmets while serving with the NATO-led force in Afghanistan. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3802803,00.html

A protest has been called outside the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall on Thursday 12 November at 5pm in reaction to the decision to arrest and charge Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, a serving soldier who had the courage to stand up for what many in the army believe; that this is a futile and un-winnable [...]

Sometimes you feel compelled to write articles that you realise are going to make you wildly unpopular. I fear this is one of those times. I don’t wish to fall back into the blogging trap of commenting on the news headlines, but as someone who has no time for New Labour or for the war [...]

Rory Stewart is getting the hang of being a Conservative politician; he has plainly learned that the first requirement is to lie through your teeth. Form today’s Independent on Sunday: Once tutor to Princes William and Harry, Rory Stewart, in his latest incarnation as Conservative prospective candidate for Penrith, has found himself the unlikely subject [...]