Writing on Sunday, April 8 in What’s Left, Stephen Gowans offers eight reasons for extreme scepticism about yet another allegation of Damascus having used, for reasons inexplicable, chemical weapons on its own citizens late on April 7. See his full … Read More »
Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz is the only Arab to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Even in translation his was a wonderful voice, as distinctive as that of all great writers from Chaucer to Twain and Wodehouse. It was … Read More »
I’ve been saying for a long time that the USA (its rulers, not its people) is the most reckless and aggressive nation on earth. And I’ve been saying for a long time we’ve been lied to on an epic scale … Read More »
I’ve had a couple of exchanges of late with a supporter of what the mainstream calls the far left – the vanguard or Leninist model. Having read pieces from Socialist Workers Party (US), cited to straighten out my wayward thinking, … Read More »
Readers of my posts on Syria know that my views on its seven year ordeal could not be further from those of mainstream media. They aren’t much closer to those of their audiences, though of late I’ve noted a growing … Read More »
Catte, writing in OffGuardian yesterday … Does anyone in the West understand what the real point of Putin’s comments about Russia’s new weaponry? The Guardian’s coverage (“Putin threatens US arms race with new missiles declaration”) shows us their masters see this … Read More »
The propaganda war on Syria now centres on Eastern Ghouta. In a rational world BBC coverage would be scorned by an intelligentsia priding itself on critical thinking. And in this one? It will be swallowed in its entirety, I fear, … Read More »
Two excellent offerings from OffGuardian this week. Yesterday was a video featuring Peter Ford, ambassador to Syria 2003-6, telling the “Imperialism on Trial” symposium in Derry that humanitarian invasion and sanctions are simply updated versions of the “White Man’s Burden” … Read More »
Two years ago, in a post on privatisation as a global phenomenon, I wrote: … whether or not the demonising of distant regimes has substance, and whether or not it is hypocritical, are secondary questions. In no case – cold war … Read More »