What's Going on in Afghanistan: An Interview with Sonali Kolhatkar
By Mike Whitney, CounterPunch, July 31, 2008.

Sonali Kolhatkar is the co-author, with James Ingalls, of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence (Seven Stories 2006). She is also the Co-Director of Afghan Women's Mission, a US-based non-profit organization that works in solidarity with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).

Mike Whitney: On a recent stopover in France, Barack Obama said, "We must win in Afghanistan. There is no other option." Recent polls, however, show that public support for the war in Afghanistan has fallen off sharply. In fact, many American's don't even know why we are still there. Is there a big difference between what "winning" means to the Bush administration and what it means to the people of Afghanistan? Also, have you seen any indication that the Bush administration intends to keep its promises and establish security, rebuild the country's infrastructure, spread democracy, remove the warlords, liberate women, and "modernize" Afghanistan or was that all just a public relations smokescreen to promote the invasion?

Law Suit a Tar Sands Stopper?
by Tom Sandborn, The Tyee, July 28, 2008.

Jack Woodward and the Beaver Lake Cree aim to change Canadian law -- and their success likely would throw a huge wrench into Alberta's tar-sands oil production.

The suit pits the Beaver Lake Cree band against the governments of Canada and Alberta, asking the court to rule invalid the government authorization for thousands of petroleum projects on the band's core territory.

[Note that though this commentary focuses on the United States, it is talking about an occupation of which Canadian troops are an integral part -- GSN]

The U.S. Treats Afghans Like Roaches
by Glenn Ford, Black Agenda Radio commentary, July 23, 2008.

To be occupied by foreign soldiers is always a degradation, but some countries are singularly unsuited to lord it over other nations. The United States seems incapable of conforming to the most elemental standards of civilized behavior when occupying Muslim lands. Americans routinely commit horrific atrocities against populations they are legally obligated to protect from harm. Since the beginning of the U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, wedding parties have been especially attractive targets of U.S. airpower. "The crimes - mass murder from the air - point up the casually racist nature" of U.S. rule over non-European "others."

Stop the Imminent Deportation of US War Resisters: Cross Canada Actions
via Chris Web, Canadian Dimension blogs, July 10, 2008.

This from the Canadian War Resisters Support Campaign

War Resister Robin Long is being held in jail in Nelson, B.C. and is threatened with deportation to the United States on Monday, July 14.

Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) has told Long they intend to deport him as early as next Monday. This was a shocking revelation to Mr. Long and his counsel. At what was expected to be a routine detention hearing, it was revealed that a negative decision had been issued on his Pre-Removal Risk Assessment in early May; however, it was never communicated to either Long or his lawyer.

Canada's War Resisters
by Will Di Novi, The Nation, July 7, 2008.

Former Private Kimberly Rivera is a long way from home.

Since moving to Toronto with her family a year and a half ago, the 26-year-old Iraq War veteran and mother of two has confronted struggles both personal and political: estrangement from her family back in Texas, long periods of unemployment and, above all, the imminent threat of deportation.

Kimberly would not have it any other way. To Canada's first female defector from the United States military, her adopted home is a "peaceful environment, somewhere I can raise my family, somewhere I can be me".

The American military calls people like Kimberly "deserters". To their supporters in Canada and the US, they are "war resisters."

War in Heaven
March 20, 2008 By Jim Miles
Original Source: Palestine Chronicle

War in Heaven – The Arms Race in Outer Space.
Helen Caldicott and Craig Eisendrath.
New Press, N.Y., 2007.

In this short volume, Helen Caldicott and Craig Eisendrath provide a sharp and concise analysis of the American nuclear weapons industry and its many ramifications for society and the peoples of the world in general. While they see the big picture, they ably document the details of theory and practice of the (mostly) American push towards bigger and better (deadlier and more accurate) nuclear armaments that accompany the American push towards global dominance.

IRAQ: Five Years, And Counting
Analysis by Dahr Jamail

WASHINGTON, Mar 18 (IPS) - Devastation on the ground and largely held Iraqi opinion contradicts claims by U.S. officials that the situation in Iraq has improved towards the fifth anniversary of the invasion Mar. 20.

U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, during a surprise visit to Iraq on Monday declared the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a "successful endeavour".

According to the group Just Foreign Policy, more than a million Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion and occupation, now entering its sixth year. A survey by British polling agency ORB estimates the number of dead at more than 1.2 million.

New allegations, same old secret trials
by Matthew Behrens, republished from Rabble.CA
February 26, 2008

In typical government style, a series of rehashed ancient suspicions, new unfounded allegations, and outright lies against secret trial detainees Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub, Hassan Almrei, Mohamed Harkat, and Adil Charkaoui were "released" last Friday afternoon. Conveniently, there was little or no opportunity for informed journalists to put things into perspective and get beyond the fear mongering the allegations are meant to inspire.

Omar Khadr and Guantánamo: Canada's Glaring Double Standards on Torture
by ANDY WORTHINGTON, CounterPunch, January 19, 2008.

How humiliating.

The story begins with the shameful case of Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian who was kidnapped by US agents as he changed planes in New York in 2002, and rendered to Syria, where he was tortured for a year on behalf of the Americans before being released.

Mr. Arar -- who was awarded millions of dollars in compensation by the Canadian government in January 2007, but has yet to receive even an apology from the US administration -- had been wrongly fingered by Canadian intelligence, and his case his one of many chilling examples of the damage caused by failed intelligence in the American's program of "extraordinary rendition."

LAIBAR SINGH CASE: PEOPLE AT AIRPORT WERE ACTING OUT OF A SENSE OF JUSTICE
AND COMPASSION

A version of this article was published in the Indo-Candian Voice,
December 15 2007

The recent case of paralyzed Laibar Singh has created much debate and
division. There is a strong outpouring of sympathy for Laibar Singh and

Why Are We in Afghanistan?
by Jason Kunin, November 26, 2007, Z-Net

There are probably still a few people among the hardcore supporters of Canada’s war in Afghanistan who believe we’re there to restore peace, create democracy, and help women go to school. Yet among opponents, whose numbers are growing, the most common analysis is that we’re there to please the U.S. and to atone for the fact that Canada did not send troops to Iraq – complaints often rooted in a lament for a romanticized Canada, the "honest broker," the "peacekeeping" nation.

Suspended Afghan Parliamentarian Visits Canada
by Gina Whitfield, November 03, 2007, Z-Net

There are no honourary citizenships on offer for those who deviate from the script that justifies Canada’s war in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan today: Six years of a war of terror
Tariq Ali interviewed by Sherry Wolf

October 25, 2007, originally from Socialist Worker, found via Z-Net

THE U.S. launched its first assault in the “war on terror” in Afghanistan six years ago. Today, the country remains one of the poorest places on earth, ruled by a corrupt warlord elite. Here, TARIQ ALI, a veteran of the antiwar struggle for four decades, talks to SHERRY WOLF about the disastrous consequences of the U.S. war--and what the future holds.

Mohawks unite with Zapatistas at Intercontinental Summit in Mexico
Mohawks: Revolution begins with awakening

By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

TUCSON, Arizona – Mohawk Warriors joined in solidarity with Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatistas at the Gathering of Indigenous Peoples of América. They quickly learned that one factor is the same for Indigenous Peoples all over the world: Corporations intent on seizing the land, minerals and water have no regard for the lives or rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"Indian Country": Beyond the Green Zone in Iraq
by Scott Starr, from Z-Net

The old tales of the conquest of "Indian Country" are sobering reminders of human folly, delusion, tragedy and hubris that may provide an ominous foretelling concerning the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.