Nicolas J S Davies [Editor’s Note: In his send-out for his article, Nicolas Davies asks and answers vital questions on the U.S. air war that so many Americans know so little about. What follows is his “teaser” Q&A and his article, which appeared originally at ConsortiumNews.com.] Is the aerial bombardment of Iraq and Syria by…
b. traven, W.J. Astore, and Stuart Lyle We at The Contrary Perspective believe in freewheeling debate. We recently had such a debate, largely behind the scenes, on the causes and larger meaning of America’s invasion of Iraq in 2003. We offer this debate to our readers, unedited except for the addition of links and clarifications,…
By Graciela Huth. Introduction by Michael Murry. Graciela (Grace) Huth calls herself “an old woman.” She says that she writes as a form of therapy, “to unload my anger and avoid having a stroke due to what is going on today in the USA.” Yet her long life of good citizenship and community activism testify…
Daniel N. White I recently came across a most worthwhile book at the library: The Road to the Killing Fields: The Cambodian War of 1970-1975, by Wilfred P. Deac, published in 1997. There’s no shortage of books out there about the Vietnam War, but our satellite wars in Cambodia and Laos have gotten almost no…
Nile Stanton Back in the age when slavery was deemed acceptable by many people, it was no doubt more widely and readily accepted by slave owners and those in the numerous businesses that financially profited from it. I imagine that shipping businesses that profited from transporting slaves were deemed vital and in the national interest,…
b. traven After 9/11, Bush/Cheney and an authoritarian national security state ran amok. Vengeance was the byword, and few in the government were careful about who the enemy was. Fear of another humiliating attack on the scale of 9/11, combined with a sociopathic disregard for human rights, drove a torture regime that was authorized from…
Greg Laxer I first saw Costa-Gavras’s movie “State Of Siege” in the company of some fellow leftists when it premiered in New York City movie houses in 1972 or ’73. The film is based on the true story of the 1970 kidnapping in Uruguay, by the urban guerilla group los Tupamaros, of American CIA Agent…
b. traven In this brave new world filled with a plethora of digital information there is little use for the real meat of knowledge. There has been a slow dismantling of that love of learning, of examining ourselves and our world and seeking truth, the Socratic tradition of always questioning that fosters humility. Fortunately, when…
Peter Van Buren [This article originally appeared at Reuters and is used with the author’s permission.] Is there hope for Iraq? It depends on what you are hoping for. It is becoming clearer that there is little hope of destroying the Islamic State in Iraq. Islamic State has no shortage of new recruits. Its fighters capture heavy weapons with…
Tom Engelhardt [Editor’s Note: Tom Engelhardt wrote the following as an introduction to Michael Klare’s new article at TomDispatch.com.] Think of this as a little imperial folly update — and here’s the backstory. In the years after invading Iraq and disbanding Saddam Hussein’s military, the U.S. sunk about $25 billion into “standing up” a new Iraqi army. …
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