Isabel Kershner: US Announces Sanctions Against Israeli Company.

Even as Prime Minister was praising the United States in a speech on Tuesday for imposing tougher sanctions on Iran for its nuclear activities, the State Department announced that it was imposing sanctions on a leading Israeli company, "Ofer Brothers Group", for activities supporting Iran's energy sector. While the State Department's decision caused Israel considerable embarrassment, it was the timing that created created the greatest stir. It came soon after Mr. Netanyahu's 'friction' with Obama over using the 1967 borders as a basis for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: "Nobody wants to over-interpret the choice of timing," said an Israeli official who was speaking on the condition of anonymity for diplomatic reasons, "but there was no objective reason for the State Department to come out with the announcement on that precise day." "Does this carry meaning? I am unable to tell you, but you cannot blame anyone for being suspicious," he said. The Obama administration dismissed any connection between the sanctions and Mr. Netanyahu's visit. "These sanctions take months" to work through the Department of Treasury's vetting process, a senior administration official said. "There is a process." Still, the awkward fact remains that a corporation owned by one of Israel's most prominent business families has been blacklisted for dealings, however indirect, with Iran.

Laurence M. Vance: An Alternative View of Memorial Day!

As a veteran of the Vietnam War, I have always found Memorial Day sickening: Churches encourage their veterans to wear their uniforms, as though God himself sanctioned the slaughter of our fellow man! Churches sing hymns of worship to the state instead of hymns about the person of Christ and HIS work. Some churches go even further, and sing "God Bless the USA", or "God Bless America". Too many churches sing the blasphemous "Battle Hymn of the Republic". I know that these practices are widespread, because of the scores of people who have e-mailed me in disgust about what occurred in their churches on the Sunday before Memorial Day. In most cases, it is not even necessary to visit a church on the Sunday preceding Memorial Day to know what goes on inside: Just look at the sign outside the church. Instead of a verse of scripture, or an announcement of an upcoming event, you are more likely to see some patriotic slogan, often with a Christian theme! Yes, we should pray for the troops. The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 2:1 that "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men", but the act of destroying them as soon as we see the whites of their eyes, was not meant by the author of these words. In Vietnam, in our base near Trung Lap, I ordered my "counterpart", Captain Quoc, to direct fire against a nearby village, from where enemy fire came to my advisory compound. In a few hours, a very old man, hobbling on a crude crutch fashioned from the branch of a tree, and an equally old woman, carrying a tiny baby with our mortar shrapnel in her stomach, and lifeless eyes, virtually on the edge of death, asked to see a doctor. Since our team only had a trained medic, I had to summon a helicopter from the nearby 25th Infantry Division. The child died in transit.

John Schmitt: Vatt's viss Ze Tchermin Tchob Kryssis?

Please forgive the deliberate misspelling on John Schmitt's title - I guess down deep I am still a Tscherrmann, even sou I fought for the US in Vietnam! The great Recession hit harder in the United States than in most of the rest of our world. Among the world's rich economies, we experienced the largest increase in unemployment, trailing only Spain and Ireland. Most advanced economies saw substantially smaller increases in unemployment, trailing only Spain and Ireland, but Germany actually saw its unemployment rate decline. Can we learn anything from countries - Denmark and Germany are currently particularly informative. Denmark had a model labor market before the downturn, but ironically offers a cautionary tale, while Germany's economy has been up and down since unification in the early 1990's, but points one way out of OUR mess: Germany has done well because its labor-market institutions encourage employers to cut hours, NOT workers. Instead of laying off 20 percent of workers, a firm can lower the average hours of its employees by 20 percent. Both accomplish the same goal, but from a social point of view, cutting hours is much better, because it shares the pain more equally, and keeps workers tied to their jobs: The German system gives employers many incentives to cut hours instead of workers. The most obvious is their "short-time work" system, which pays partial unemployment benefits to workers who have their hours reduced. German workers who lose one day of work per week are entitled to receive unemployment benefits equal to one-fifth of the usual weekly unemployment check. Other aspects of the German system also help: Legal protections against dismissal make it cheaper for employers to reduce hours than to fire workers, and many Germans are covered by union contracts that allow flexibility around the length of the work week, and the spread of hours throughout the year. Together, these systems helped to reduce the total number of hours worked in Germany by about 4 percent between 2008 and 2009. Over the same period, total unemployment remained unchanged!

Andrew Gavin Marshall: Pakistan is now in Pieces! Part 1

What is the changing role of Pakistan in broad geo-strategic terms, especially the changing American strategy toward Pakistan? The "so-called" recently reported assassination of Osama bin Laden was merely a propaganda ploy aimed at the weak of mind among our American citizens! To understand this, it is necessary to understand how America has, in recent years, altered its "strategy" in Pakistan in the direction of destabilization. In short, Pakistan is an American target! The reason is Pakistan's growing military and strategic ties to China, America's primary global strategic rival: In the 'Great Game' for global hegemony, any country that impedes America's world primacy - even one as historically significant to America as Pakistan - may be sacrificed upon the altar of war. Part 1 of 'Pakistan in Pieces' examines the changing views of the American strategic community - particularly the military and intelligence circles - toward Pakistan. In particular, there is a general acknowledgement that Pakistan will very likely continue to be stabilized, and ultimately collapse: What is not mentioned in these assessments, however, is the role of the intelligence communities in making this a reality - a veritable self-fulfilling prophecy. This part also examines the active on the ground changes in American strategy in Pakistan, with military incursions into the country!

David Swanson: Our New Iraq-Afghanistan War Holiday!

Wow! The "President" will be designating a national day of "honor" to celebrate members of the Armed Forces, who are returning from deployment in support of Iraq, Afghanistan, and "other" combat areas. Though Obama's rhetoric is catchy, it really does nothing to ease the pain of loved ones killed and wounded in combat areas: When I served in Vietnam, first as S-5 of the 1/10 Cav Squadron in the Central Highlands, then as Advisory Team Leader in a tiny backwater north of Kontum, and finally with the same "MOS" in Trung Lap, in the heart of the Iron Triangle, I had to witness a few situations that I would just as soon forget! North of Kontum, we listened attentively on our team radio, while Dak To was being overrun by North Vietnamese soldiers, and the torment of that team's agony still lingers in my mind. Since Dak To was in desperate straits, and their medics had to perform miracles to keep at least a few men alive, I volunteered to provide security next to my compound for the medic helicopter who needed a small respite, so that they could survive until they could practice their magic for the dead and dying, only a few kilometers north of us. Before my assignment to Tri Dau, just north of Kontum, I had a few words with the Chaplain of our 1/10 Cav Squadron, asking him to carry a rifle while he gave "last rites" to the dead and dying in our unit: His answer stunned me: Though I appreciate your concern, there is no need for that precaution. In the past, I have always grabbed the weapons of the dead and dying, and protected these men while I gave them "last rites". Mr. President, there is no honor among thieves, and the best you can do for this country is to stop our wars before more Americans, and our Allies are killed needlessly!

David Swanson: US House Backs Forever War!

On Thursday, the US House of Representatives backed eternal worldwide war and imprisonment powers for all future presidents, but blocked any ground troops in Libya, except for the ones already there, since the measure included no consequences for its violation. The House also unanimously created a new national holiday to celebrate the Iraq, where we stole that nation's oil, and Afghanistan, where we still use drones, in order to kill the little children, which our drone jockeys can clearly see from their safe haven in our western desert! For that, the House de-funded the US Institute for Peace, and required that all suspected "foreign terrorists" be tried by the military, and not in court, so that justice will finally be done! Amendment #50 was debated last night, and the vote postponed: This is an amendment to strip language out of that bill, which would allow presidents virtually unlimited power to launch and continue wars and to imprison people, all without any involvement of the legislative or judicial branches of our government: This is the current procedure, as exemplified by the Libya War, and by many small and secretive military operations, but its language would make it part of our laws, effectively eliminating the War Powers Act, though in sharp conflict with our Constitution!

John Pilger: Welcome to the Violent World of Mr. Hopey Changey!

When Britain lost control of Egypt in 1956, Prime Minister Anthony Eden said he wanted the nationalist president Gamal Abdel Nasser "destroyed or murdered" At the time, he didn't give a damn if there might be anarchy and chaos in Egypt. Another mealymouthed politician, Winston Churchill, whose work I saw first hand, when I watched the destruction of Dresden from a nearby hill, spoke of "insolent Arabs, which should be driven into the gutter, from which they should never have emerged". The language of colonialism may have been modified, but its spirit and hypocrisy are unchanged! A new imperial phase is unfolding in direct response to the Arab uprising that began in January and has shocked Washington and Europe, causing an Eden-style panic. The loss of Egypt's Mubarak was grievous, though not irretrievable - an American-backed counter-revolution is under way, as the military regime in Cairo is seduced with new bribes and power-shifting from the street to political groups that did not initiate the revolution. The western aim, as ever, is to stop authentic democracy and reclaim control: Libya is the immediate opportunity. The NATO attack on Libya, with the UN Security Council assigned to mandate a bogus "no fly zone" to "protect civilians", is strikingly similar to the final destruction of Yugoslavia in 1999. There was no UN cover for the bombing of Serbia and the rescue of Kosovo, yet that propaganda still echoes today! Like Slobodan Milosevic, Muammar Gaddafi is the "new Hitler", plotting genocide against his people, but wait: NATO is doing that for him!