«2014 Blog Entries»
[Copyright 2014 Patrick Foy]
Alerts & Comments
on the Passing Scene...
Levin releases new information from CIA cable debunking Atta Prague meeting
Senator Carl Levin cites VP Dick Cheney extensively below, blaming Cheney. Fine. But what about the duty of the Senate and the Congress to do due diligence prior to authorizing a war? Or acquiescing in a war? Levin is playing...
The Cheney Torture Record...
Just wanted to say a word about the torture issue which is just now being addressed in Washington. I've just finished reading Angler, the Cheney Vice-Presidency. The book demonstrates clearly that torture was all a Cheney...
US plays the oil card against Iran and Russia | The Guardian
Take a look at the article below in today's Guardian which claims that the current drop in world oil prices is a plot by Washington to bring Iran and Russia to heel. The writer gives little proof, but what he says does...
"Was it the Oil, all along?" Revisited...
I came across an item I wrote about Iraq in 2007. It now seems strangely relevant, at least retrospectively. I do not recall writing "Was it the Oil, all along?" To be honest, I do not think I can write like that today....
Chaos in Iraq | Moyers & Company
I am not a religious follower of Bill Moyers & Company on Public Television, but that may need to change. Moyers has done some tremendous work in the past in bringing common sense to bear on domestic and foreign policy...
Obama’s Novel Lawyering to Bomb Syria
Dear Friends + Interlocutors,
The contradictions, hypocrisies, imbecilities and outright madness of White House policy in the Middle East during the appalling Bush Sr.-Clinton-Bush Jr.-Obama era have always been...
Iraqi President: No Need for Arab Nations to Strike ISIS
I hate to sound negative, but there is just no way Prez Obama’s publicly proclaimed project to destroy ISIS/ISIL or whatever is going to work in theory or in practice. It makes no sense. It is convoluted and an embarrassment....
Update...
I've finally gotten around to updating my 2014 blog entries. The highlights could be an essay by Harvard/University of Chicago historian William Polk, posted yesterday, and the thoughts of the grandson of Sir Mark Sykes...
«The Struggle for Palestine» [The William Polk Memorandum]
![«The Struggle for Palestine»
[The William Polk Memorandum]](images/2014-Blog-Entries/5-Hamas-rocket-fire-is-to-blame - Version 2.jpg)
A few weeks back--August 10th, to be exact--I received an e-mail from Chuck Spinney about the siege in Gaza. Spinney is a former civilian analyst for the Pentagon who started work there in 1977 and retired in 2003. He made...
«Are You Confused?»
An American friend in Europe sent me a forwarded e-mail the other day from parts unknown. It was entitled “Are you confused?” Once in a while she gets a good one. Here it is:
...
Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault
One might wonder why Washington policy-makers would need a lecture in common sense, but they do. They are looking for trouble, and finding it. Dr. John Mearsheimer, the quiet giant of the realist school of U.S. foreign...
William PFAFF End the Israeli-American Alliance
William Pfaff in his most recent column (replicated below) suggests that it is high time to end the Israeli-American alliance. At first blush, it sounds like an excellent idea, and in a sane world, it would be acted upon....
As the Arabs see the Jews
“Creating Israel on land already inhabited by Palestinians would imperil not only American but all Western interests in the Near East.”
--Dean Acheson, 1947
...
“Gaza is a crime made in Washington as well as Jerusalem”
One positive thing coming out of the Gaza horror is the wealth of articles touching upon the true history of Zionism. Herewith an item by Seumas Milne from a few days ago in The Guardian. An English perspective. My emphasis...
Americans Should be Ashamed
My sentiments exactly. The writer, Philip Giraldi, is retired CIA. He worked for the Agency for many years. I mentioned this for the benefit of my flag-waving conservative friends who might wonder about his patriotic credentials....
“Collective Punishment in Gaza”
Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi speaks his mind and sets the record straight in The New Yorker. Quite good.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/collective-punishment-gaza
...
Grandson of Sir Mark Sykes (Sykes-Picot) responds to Nic Kristof of the NY Times..
Mark Sykes, grandson of Sir Mark Sykes who drafted the 1916 secret British Empire document, the Sykes-Picot Agreement, responds to an op-ed in the New York Times entitled “Who’s right and wrong in the Middle East?” by Nicolas...
AIPAC Is the Only Explanation
Herewith a hard-hitting article by Harvard professor Stephen Walt, who co-authored with professor John Mearsheimer, the ground-breaking blockbuster, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy (2007). My emphasis in red below.
...
The Gaza Repeat Performance
I've replicated below a recent article by Robert Fisk on the current carnage in Gaza. Fisk is the most knowledgeable and objective Western reporter on the Middle East. His article is the overview, the big picture. If you...
Climate change could make red hair a thing of the past
As a person who is crazy about redheads, I mean female redheads, I have decided to jump ship and become a climate change believer! If there is any chance that "climate change" or "global warming" or whatever you want to...
Francis Fukuyama to the Box
[Crossposted to CounterPunch]
On Wednesday, June 25th, the Financial Times published an essay by Francis Fukuyama. He is the famed US political scientist, a "neoconservative"...
«Disarm Saddam Hussein»
I've recently come upon an amazing document which was issued by the G.W. Bush White House sometime in early 2003, just before the launching of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was sent to me by a friend in Europe. Actually,...
Germany gives up plan to repatriate gold from US
The question is, why is Washington blackmailing Berlin? What is Washington threatening to do if Berlin insists on getting back Germany's gold? It must be something serious. And what is Washington afraid of, if the gold...
Iraq in the Crucible
Events in Iraq are moving swiftly. What does the current blowup mean and how should it be interpreted? And why now? Offhand, my guess is that the Sunni jihadists ran into a stone wall in Syria, thanks to the Syrian army...
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Dear Friends + Interlocutors,
The contradictions, hypocrisies, imbecilities and outright madness of White House policy in the Middle East during the appalling Bush Sr.-Clinton-Bush Jr.-Obama era have always been...
The Worst Mess since the 1930's...
William Pfaff, the dean of foreign policy commentators, has penned a brief, gloomy assessment of the current situation from his lookout in Paris. It is well worth reading. My emphasis in red. He is understandably exasperated...
Ukraine, Yet Another Manufactured Crisis
[Crossposted to CounterPunch]
An important article, entitled Russia needs to defend its interests with an iron fist, appeared in the Financial Times the other day, to wit,...