David Swanson: Leaving Afghanistan by Staying!

Is staying in Afghanistan OK with you, as long as we call it leaving? President Obama has signed an agreement with President Karzai to keep major US military presence in Afghanistan, currently about three times the size Obama began with, through the end of 2014, and to allow a significant unspecified presence beyond that date, with no end date stipulated. Obama stresses that no permanent US bases will be involved, but his agreement requires Afghanistan to let US troops use "Afghan" bases. Obama forgot to provide any reason not to withdraw from Afghanistan now, given majority US desire to end the war. Like Newt Gingrich promising to quit campaigning before actually doing so, Obama is promising to leave Afghanistan, but not yet, except that he isn't promising to ever leave at all. The agreement is open-ended. Obama spoke recently of a transition to Afghan control, but we've heard that talk for a decade. That's not some new bright idea that requires two-and-a-half more years to develop. Obama talked of fighting al Qaeda, but the US has not been fighting al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and has admitted for years that there is virtually no al Qaeda presence there. That's not the two-year project, and it's not the reason to remain indefinitely after 2014. The agreement requires that all "entities" involved in a peace process renounce violence, but the Taliban will no more do that while under foreign occupation, than the United States will do so while occupying. This is not a serious plan to leave, nor is it a plan based on Afghan sovereignty, numerous claims to the contrary notwithstanding. This is a treaty for more years of war, on the model of the Bush-Maliki treaty for Iraq, but with the difference that theirs included an end date.

Michael Carmichael: Netanyahu has Decided to Attack Iran!

Senior Israeli officials now confirm that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has, "decided to attack Iran before the US elections in November." Netanyahu's agenda is much broader than knocking out Iranian nuclear installations for his aim is to reshape the political landscape in the USA and Israel, shifting everything to the far, far right in order to create a new comfort zone for religious fundamentalists. Netanyahu's major backer,, Sheldon Adelson, is now firmly behind Mitt Romney, and they are known to believe that an Israeli attack in September or October will displace Obama and many dovish Democrats in Congress and establish a hawkish regime in Washington. Israel has agreed to restrain any attack on Iran until after the current round of five talks between Iran and the P5+1 that will come to an end in either late July or August: "US, Israel continue preparations for strike on Iran nuclear facilities. The website cites US defense contracts and Israel's new military preparations, suggesting that all sides are getting ready for whatever may come. Israel and the US are pushing forward with preparations to jointly strike Iran's nuclear facilities, the US blog Business Insider reported on Saturday. "US defense contracts, an Iranian F-16 acquisition, and Israel's new military preparations suggest that all sides are getting ready for whatever may come," the report says. According to the blog, the US navy has recently signed a $338 million contract with defense contractor Raytheon to "provide the Navy with 361 Tomahawk cruise missiles in their most recent configuration. According to the website, the US is either renewing its stock of missiles or planning ahead.  

Cenk Uygur: The Central Mistake of Obama Administration!

The individual mandate in the health care law was originally proposed by the Heritage Foundation, the most conservative think tank in the country. It was supported by almost every Republican in the country, including the first President Bush, Mitt Romney and conservative stalwarts like Orrin Hatch. Simply put, it was a conservative idea. There is no question about that, it is a fact. Let me immediately digress to point out how terrible our media is, since about 2% of the country knows that fact. If you asked the average American now, I'm sure they would say it was a liberal idea, originally proposed by Barack Obama. Another fact, Barack Obama was originally opposed to the mandate during his campaign for president. So, this brings us to the central problem with President Obama's administration. They were under the unbelievable mistaken impression that if they worked with the Republicans, compromised with them, and gave them what they wanted, that the Republicans would react likewise. Progressives warned them that would not be the case. We were dismissed. Now look at what's happened. Not only did the Republicans not thank the president for including their mandate in the health care law, they have turned around and pretended they are against it. But of course it goes much deeper than that. In fact, they are now using it as the principal argument to take down the whole law. They have no sense of shame or propriety. They will do whatever it takes to win and support the corporate interests they are sworn and paid to defend. They also know that Democrats, generally speaking, are horrible at defending themselves and the media will help them tremendously by calling everything even. So, we warned the president: Don't ever, ever agree with the Republicans, they will only use it against you.

Liz Goodwin: In Arizona, Scalia blasts Obama's Deportation Stay!

In a stinging, 22-page dissent to Monday's decision striking down most of Arizona's tough anti-illegal immigration law, Justice Antonin Scalia criticized President Barack Obama's announcement earlier this month, that he would stay the deportation of young illegal immigrants, and suggested that the federal government does not want to enforce its immigration laws. "The president said at a news conference that the new program is 'the right thing to do' in light of Congress's failure to pass the administration's proposed revision of the Immigration Act, " Scalia, a Reagan appointee, wrote in his dissent. "Perhaps it is, though Arizona may not think so. But to say, as the Court does, that Arizona contradicts federal law by enforcing applications of the Immigration Act that the President declines to enforce boggles the mind." Scalia went on to write: Arizona bears the brunt of the country's illegal immigration problem. Its citizens feel themselves under siege by large numbers of illegal immigrants who invade their country. Federal officials have been unable to remedy the problem, and indeed have recently shown that they are unwilling to do so. Thousands of Arizona's estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants, including not just children, but men and women under 30, are now assured immunity from enforcement, and will be able to compete openly with Arizona citizens for employment. Scalia also repeatedly referenced Obama's policy of prosecutorial discretion, which directs Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to prioritize deporting the illegal immigrants who are frequent border crossers, have committed crimes, or recently entered the country illegally. The Obama administration has deported a record number of illegal immigrants, but its prosecutorial discretion policy still draws the ire of illegal immigration hawks. Scalia also repeatedly referenced Obama's policy of prosecutorial discretion, which directs Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to prioritize deporting the illegal immigrants who are frequent border crossers, have committed crimes, or recently entered the country illegally.   

Prof. Michel Chossudovsky: Syria, NATO's Next "Humanitariian" War?

"In order to facilitate the action of liberative forces, a special effort should be made to eliminate certain key individuals, to be accomplished early in the course of the uprising and intervention. Once a political decision has been reached to proceed with internal disturbances in Syria, CIA is prepared, and SIS (MI6) will attempt to mount minor sabotage and coup de main incidents within Syria, working through contacts with individuals. Incidents should not be concentrated in Damascus. Further, a "necessary degree of fear, frontier incidents and staged border clashes", would provide a pretext for intervention. The CIA and SIS should use capabilities in both psychological and action fields to augment tension." (Joint US-UK leaked Intelligence Document, London and Washington, 1957) In this online interactive I-book, we bring to the attention of our readers a selection of feature articles on the Syrian crisis. Our objective is to dispel the tide of media lies and government propaganda, which presents the events in Syria as a "peaceful protest movement". The "protests" did not emanate from internal cleavages as described by the mainstream media. From the very outset, they were the result of a covert US-NATO intelligence operation geared towards triggering social chaos, with a view to eventually discrediting the Syrian government of Bashar Al Assad and destabilizing Syria as a Nation State. Since the middle of March 2011, Islamist armed groups, covertly supported by Western and Israeli intelligence, have conducted terrorist attacks directed against government buildings, including acts of arson. Amply documented, trained gunmen and snipers, including mercenaries have targeted the police, armed forces, as well as innocent civilians. There is ample evidence, as outlined in the Arab League Observer Mission report, that these armed groups of mercenaries are responsible for killing civilians. 

Lynn Parramore: Joseph Stiglitz Sees Terifying Future for America!

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, one of America's most prescient voices, wrote an article for Vanity Fair several months before Occupy Wall Street was born. "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% called attention to the widening gap between rich and poor, and its deadly impact on our society and its democratic institutions. In his newly released book, "The Price of Inequality, Stiglitz returns to this theme of a divided society, delving into the origins and consequences of economic unfairness. I caught up with Professor Stiglitz and talked to him about how the persistent myths and beliefs associated with our capitalist system help to drive this trend, turning America from a land of opportunity to a land of broken dreams. Joseph Stiglitz: Capitalism does have a lot of strengths, including producing things that are very innovative, but what drives capitalism is the profit motive. You can profit not only by making good things, but also by exploiting people, by exploiting the environment, by doing things that are not so good. The narrative that you describe ignores the extent to which a lot of the inequalities in the United States are not the result of creative activity, but of exploitive activity, and if you look at the people at the top, what is so striking is that the people who've made the most important creative contributions are not there: By that I mean the really foundational things like the computer, the transistor, the laser. And how many people at the top are people who made their money out of monopoly, exercising monopoly power? Like bankers who exploited through predatory lending practices and abusive credit card practices, or CEOs who took advantage of deficiencies in corporate governance.

Chris Hedges: Why We Fight!

I park my car in the lot in front of the rectory of Sacred Heart in Camden, NJ, and walk through a gray drizzle to Emerald Street. My friend Lolly Davis, whose blood pressure recently shot up, and whose kidneys shut down, had been taken to a hospital in an ambulance, but now was home. I climb the concrete steps to her row house and ring the bell. There is an overpowering stench of garbage in the street. Her house is set amid other brick and wooden residences, some of which have been refurbished under Monsignor Michael Doyle's Heart of Camden project at Sacred Heart, a Roman Catholic parish. Other structures on Davis' street sit derelict or bear the scars of decay and long abandonment. Lolly's grandson, nicknamed Boom Boom or Boomer, answers the door. He tells me his grandmother is upstairs. I enter and sit on a beige chair in the living room near closed blinds that cover the windows looking out on Emerald Street. The living room has a large flat screen television and two beige couches with brown and burnt-red floral patterns that match the chair. There is a stone fireplace with a mantel crowded with family photos. Her grandson, one of numerous children from the neighborhood whom she adopted and raised, yells upstairs to let Lolly know I have arrived. Lolly, 69, appears at the top of the stairs. Clutching the railing, she makes her way gingerly down the steep wooden steps. Boomer, who is 21 and recently completed a special education program at a high school, goes back to the kitchen, where he was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Lolly's two Chihuahuas, Big Pepsi Cola and Little Pepsi Cola, father and son who get into frequent growling matches, scamper around the room. I have interviewed Lolly several times over the past two years for the new book, "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt," that I wrote with the cartoonist Joe Sacco.