In this blog I write about world affairs, presenting a view of the world free from NATO propaganda.
Peace Anthropology and Development Anthropology and History are the tools with which I analyze international affairs, as part of a world-wide web of people working for peace through Transcend, UNIDIR and other agencies. Terrorism? This is largely political propaganda: my EPES Mandala Consulting group specialized in “terrorism” and far more people die each year from road accidents or from the flu, than from terror attacks. A lot of news is fear-mongering and most comes from a small number of corporate and government sources. Investigative journalists are a threatened species.
“I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.”
A different leader would have saved the hostages, negotiating without bombs in favor of peace. Instead, Netanyahu has opted for destruction and genocide: and I agree with the governments of South Africa, Brazil, and others that genocide is what Israel is perpetrating in Gaza.
Read MoreThe latest report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva highlights the changing nature of warfare from bilateral and internal armed splits, to regional conflicts. One reason for this, is neglect by the United States and its NATO allies of an historical and geo-strategic truism: we need buffer states to avoid direct confrontation between regional powers.
Read MoreLet it be clear that I am not in favor of chemical weapons, and I am shocked by the death of 1000 people in a suburb of Damascus – whether the sarin gas was used by Assad’s troops or by Al-Qaeda, it is appalling. But I am even more appalled by the deaths of 100,000 Syrians during the civil war of the past two years. How can killing more Syrians using Cruise Missiles, possibly help the situation?
Read MoreDavid Brooks draws (in his Op-Ed in the NYT) from this story a set of political conclusions that are unjustified by anything we know about Syria or the region we vaguely think of as the ‘Middle East’. The journalistic expression ‘Arab Spring’ is unhelpful. Libya’s bloody civil war is ‘Spring’? Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings against 80-year-old military dictators have warped our sense of reality. Syria has nothing in common with Tunisia… but it has a lot in common with Iraq next-door, teetering on the brink of civil war since the American invasion of 2003.
Read MoreTalal was shot by a terrorist armed by Saudis and Qataris. They are fanatics committed to establishing a radical, Salafist, Wahabbist Empire across Asia and Africa. They fund Al Qaeda in Mali, and Boko Haram in Nigeria, and they want to overthrow the Shia regime in Iraq. These ‘rebels’ do not want freedom: they want power. Do Secretary Hillary Clinton and Ambassador Susan Rice not understand this?
Read More20 Oct 2020 – It was satisfying to read Ben Norton’s exposé of the NATO propaganda machine in Syria. How right he is! A recent analysis posted on TMS in 13 Jan 2020 of press reports in Swiss and Austrian media, showed that 80% come from AP, AFP or Reuters: our ‘free’ press is not free of bias.
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