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Category: CounterPunch+

  • The 2nd Afghan War and Retreat from Central Asia

    We’ve just hit the 20th anniversary of the Afghan war. But which one? There were actually two Afghan wars. The first began within a few weeks of the 9-11 tragedy, when the US was attacked by Al Qaeda with the assistance of elements of the Saudi Arabia ruling elite. In the first war US forces invaded More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jack Rasmus.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Why I’m Still Not Convinced by 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

    On 11 September 2019, I wrote an article for a UK-based online publication called The Canary titled On the anniversary of 9/11, let’s remember that conspiracy theories are counterproductive. The article sparked an unexpectedly large amount of debate and, sadly, an even larger amount of abuse from followers of the so-called “9/11 Truth” movement. In More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Peter Bolton.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • A Confederacy of the Malicious

    “Men that make envy and crooked malice nourishment, dare bite the best.” – William Shakespeare People are getting sick and dying because Republicans are focused on attacking President Joe Biden for violating individual freedom for mandating injecting vaccines to combat the coronavirus, a systematic undermining of a policy implemented to save lives. These extremist Trumpist More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Richard C. Gross.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Plot to Destroy Sagebrush on the Bighorn

    The Bighorn National Forest is one of the hidden gems of the West. With peaks towering to over 13,000 feet and spacious flower-studded meadows, the forest is an underappreciated scenic and wildlife haven of the West. Because it is often overlooked, the Forest Service management capitulates to the desires of the livestock industry. As an More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by George Wuerthner.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Vocabulary of Neoliberal Diplomacy in Today’s New Cold War

    George Soros has thrown a public sissy fit over the fact that he can’t make the kind of easy money off China that he was able to make when the Soviet Union was carved up and privatized. On September 7, 2021, in his second mainstream editorial in a week, George Soros expressed his horror at the recommendation by Black Rock, the world’s largest asset manager, that financial managers should triple their investment in China. Claiming that such investment would imperil U.S. national security by helping China, Mr. Soros stepped up his advocacy of U.S. financial and trade sanctions. More

    The post The Vocabulary of Neoliberal Diplomacy in Today’s New Cold War appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Michael Hudson.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Biden Exits Afghanistan, Heads in the Wrong Direction

    A major motivation for getting out of Afghanistan is to give the US a freer hand to bring down China and Russia.  And this is not to be a peaceful “Pivot.”  The US has surrounded both countries with military bases, and the Pivot to Asia pioneered by Obama/Hillary/Biden sees 60% of America’s naval forces ending up in China’s neighborhood. More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by John V. Walsh.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Arendt and QAnon

    Image by Wesley Tingey.

    Although she wrote The Origins of Totalitarianism in 1951, the political philosopher Hannah Arendt had Marjorie Taylor Greene’s, QAnon’s, and most of the Republican Party’s number, down to almost the last decimal point. Nowhere else will one find a more chilling anticipation and explanation of Trumpism’s deranged conspiracy-mongering and startling resilience.

    Since 2016, it’s been obvious that Trump himself is a purveyor of conspiracy theories, notably about a “deep state” conspiracy (which about 40% of Americans now believe) and 2020 election fraud. Republicans’ steadfast, sycophantic support for Trump, coupled with their recent decision to neither censure Taylor Greene nor strip her of her committee posts, their failure to vote to convict Trump in the Senate during the recent impeachment trial, and an ongoing, farcical “election fraud” investigation in Arizona authorized by state Republicans, confirm that they have morphed into a far-right party with a solid authoritarian base, one reminiscent of European extremist parties.

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  • 9/11: The Doctrines of Bush, Obama, Trump & Biden

    Image by UX.

    Daniel Falcone: Can you comment on September 11, 2001 as a historical event and provide how this day continues to shape the way the United States sees itself in the world?

    Richard Falk: The attack itself on 9/11 was a most momentous event from the perspective of international relations, undermining the dominating historic role of hard power under the control of national governments in explaining historical agency.

    Dramatically, 9/11 revealed the vulnerability of the most powerful country, as measured by military capabilities and global security hegemony, in all of world history, to the violent tactics of non-state combatants in coercive interactions labeled by war planners as ‘asymmetric warfare.’

    On the basis of minimal expenditures of lives and resources, al-Qaeda produced a traumatizing and disorienting shock on the United States from which it has yet to recover, responding in ways that are fundamentally dysfunctional with respect to achieving tolerable levels of global stability in a historical period when security threats were moving away from traditional geopolitical rivalries as climate. While not fulfilling its goals, great devastation and human suffering was spread far and wide, especially in the Middle East and Asia.

    Such an efficient use of terrorist tactics by al-Qaeda, not only as an instrument of destruction, but as a mighty symbolic blow directed at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, embodiments of American economic and military hegemony. The effect was further magnified by its status as a spectacular visual moment unforgettably inscribed on the political consciousness of worldwide TV audiences, conveying the vulnerability of the strong to the imaginative rage and dedicated sacrifice of the avenging weak.

    Of course, the ‘success’ of this attack was short-lived, producing an initial wave of global empathy for the innocent victims of such mayhem, heralding widespread support in the spirit of internationalist solidarity on behalf of greatly augmented efforts at criminal enforcement of anti-terrorist policies and norms. Yet this early international reaction sympathetic to the U.S. has been erased in the American memory, as well as overshadowed internationally by the effects of the American over-reaction that claimed during the next twenty years many times the number of innocent victims than were lost on 9/11. This over-reaction has had counterrevolutionary impacts worldwide that are still reverberating.

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    The post 9/11: The Doctrines of Bush, Obama, Trump & Biden appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Richard Falk – Daniel Falcone.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Central America’s Forgotten History

    Aviva Chomsky’s new book, Central America’s Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration, provides a much-needed corrective to the skimpy and frequently inaccurate coverage of Central America which dominates U.S. media. But more than that, it makes a compelling case for, in Chomsky’s words, “changing the structures and institutions which have brought so much harm [to the region].”

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    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • 9/11 and the American Mind

    Still from When the Towers Fell.

    It is the second plane that haunts the mind, curving on a course that seems to descend right out of a waking nightmare. Even before it struck that ugly steel and glass tower, there was already a dreadful familiarity to it. Somehow we’d seen its shape before. The Hindenburg in flames. JFK’s head blooming open on the Zapruder film. The Challenger space shuttle exploding live before our eyes in the stratosphere on an impossibly sunny Florida day. The Waco fire incinerating women and children in those Texas winds. The events of 9/11 played out like a horrifying novelty show, seared into the brainpan of the nation by thousands of instant replays.

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    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • New Opportunities For Progressives in an Evolving Middle East?

    The American withdrawal from military intervention in Afghanistan continues a broader American as well as European disengagement from the Middle East. Greater US energy independence and a shift on the part of Europe to Russian oil, fatigue among Americans over their “endless wars” in the region, and a perceived need to “pivot” to the challenge More

    The post New Opportunities For Progressives in an Evolving Middle East? appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jeff Halper.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Twenty Years After 9/11: a Health Worker’s Perspective

    I attended the American Public Health Association in Atlanta in late October 2001. Against the backdrop of daily bombing runs projected on the megascreen of the CNN Center, I thought that I might find fellow health workers opposed to the war. After all, UN agencies such as the World Food Program and UNICEF had been drawing attention to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan that pre-dated 9/11. Severe drought and twenty years of war in Afghanistan had led to conditions bordering on widespread famine. Shouldn’t public health workers, who are concerned about the health and well-being of people, oppose the U.S. war on Afghanistan? More

    The post Twenty Years After 9/11: a Health Worker’s Perspective appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Seiji Yamada.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Battle of the Plutocrats in Virginia

    Invoking the played-out trope of the American Dream, with its symbolism of dogged aspiration and hard work, has of course long been a staple in US politics. The truth here is that Youngkin’s father worked in finance and played basketball for Duke University—hardly a shabby background for his son, the aspiring politician. The website shuffles-off the Carlyle Group as “an investment firm”. More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Kenneth Surin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The End of White Hegemony?

    The Census Bureau recently released the first-round of results from the 2020 census and its findings shocked many, especially older white, conservative Americans. William Frey, of the Brookings Institute, reports, “Yet most notable is the small decline in white population — the first in any census since 1790. During much of the nation’s history, white More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by David Rosen.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • So Long to a Sense of Community

    When reading about anti-maskers in Los Angeles attacking a breast cancer patient seeking care in a medical facility, and then reading about Boston College’s policy of not requiring masks in classrooms this fall with expected faculty pushback, I wondered where the hell all of this led? As the echoes of 1960s’ solidarity lose even their place in the rearview More

    The post So Long to a Sense of Community appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Howard Lisnoff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Sept. 11 – Day of Warning

    Sept . 11 is approaching – the 20th anniversary of the most startling event in the lifetime of most adults. The notorious Muslim suicide terror attack of Sept. 11, 2001, killed nearly 3,000 Americans and horrified the world. Nineteen young male fanatics, armed only with boxcutters, hijacked four airliners and flew them like projectiles into More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by James A Haught.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Republican FreeDumb is Killing Us

    There’s no nice way to put it. Hundreds of Montanans are now getting sick and dying thanks to the anti-science, anti-mask, anti-vax messages propagated by the insane rhetoric of Republican politicians under the false rubric of “personal responsibility” and “freedom.” But as the costs to society continue to rise exponentially while the more lethal, more More

    The post Republican FreeDumb is Killing Us appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by George Ochenski.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Address the Global Public Health Crisis: Ban Glyphosate Now!

    Environmentalist and campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason recently wrote an open letter to the head of the Pesticides Unit at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Jose Tarazona. (Since this article was written, Jose Tarazona has stepped down from his position and the letter has been forwarded to his successors, Manuela Tiramani and Benedicte Vagenede.) Mason More

    The post Address the Global Public Health Crisis: Ban Glyphosate Now! appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Colin Todhunter.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Cheap Fun: Job Growth Under Trump and Biden

    The August jobs report was somewhat disappointing. The economy added only 235,000 jobs for the month, just 48,000 more than the 187,000 pre-pandemic monthly average under Trump. Seriously, most of us did expect more jobs (my number had been 500,000), but after two months where job growth averaged more than 1 million, some falloff should More

    The post Cheap Fun: Job Growth Under Trump and Biden appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Dean Baker.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • A CIA Drone Analyst Apologizes to the People of Afghanistan

    The post A CIA Drone Analyst Apologizes to the People of Afghanistan appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Josh Frank.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Republicanism For The Anthropocene

    Image by NASA.

    You don’t have to read the almost 4,000 pages of the grim new IPCC Climate Report to know the gravity of Earth’s situation where humans are driving at least a million species, including their own, to extinction. We’ve had warnings for a long time, from Joseph Fourier (1824, greenhouse effect), Svante Arrhenius (1896, CO2 emissions), Guy Stewart Callendar (1938, global warming) and others through to the IPCC report of 2007 (90% sure that CO2 emissions were responsible for most observed climate warming). Scientists had done their thing but where were the political thinkers? The climate disaster is a political problem. You only have to look at who is most affected. It’s no news that low-income individuals and peoples are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, that developing countries suffer about 99% of the casualties caused by it, but the fifty poorest countries account for 1% of greenhouse gas emissions, while 92% are attributable to countries of the so-called Global North (as if this were merely a geographical category) with only 19% of the global population. It’s evident that the problem is neoliberal capitalism, which has been regulating markets in favor of the rich for the last fifty years.

    Naturally, this system isn’t presenting solutions. When necessary, there’s a greenwashing tweak here or there. We’re told we’re all guilty and all doomed. Meanwhile big corporations will keep making a killing, billionaires will look for bolt holes in remote places, and governments will keep lying. Their tax systems tell us where their loyalties lie: they’re billionaire friendly. So, it’s après moi le déluge because, as we say here in Catalonia, they couldn’t give a rabbit’s fart.

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  • Up in Smoke

    Image by Marcus Kauffman.

    As my wife Chelsea and I drove through Arizona on our annual pilgrimage from California to Montana, orange smoke billowed along the darkened horizon, signals of hearts shattered and landscapes scorched. Days earlier nineteen hot shot firefighters died together as they battled the intense blazes near the mountain town of Yarnell. It was the most lethal wildfire America had witnessed in 80 years.

    The Yarnell flames were so erratic and intense the team became suddenly trapped, and despite each of the men deploying their individual fire shelters, all fighting the flames that day perished. The lone survivor was out fetching a truck for his crew, only to return to the gruesome scene to find his buddies were gone. It was the single deadliest incident for firefighters since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

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    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • The Other Forever War

    Still from Straight Outta Compton. (New Line Cinema)

    Why does the drug war grind on, decade after decade, immune to reason, often grotesque in its hypocrisy? How can one listen without laughing to the solemn posturing of the U.S. government about the  stings Mexican banks for their washing of drug money, without a word about corresponding drug money-washing by U.S. banks? Small wonder Mexican politicians deride the US  for its double standard.

    In all its hypocrisy and cruelty the drug war drags on because it serves an important repressive function that no state is eager to abandon. If its real, as opposed to its proclaimed purpose is recognized, the drug war “works.”  And that purpose has never been the halting of production, shipment and consumption of drugs. Take a look at the history of drug wars over the past 175 years. These drug wars are either openly avowed or tacit enterprises that expand the drug trade, or they are pretexts for social and political repression.

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    The post The Other Forever War appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jeffrey St. Clair.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Fiona Apple ‘Fetch The Bolt Cutters’

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Josh Frank.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Robert Hunziker

    Environmental and climate journalist Robert Hunziker joins CounterPunch+ and CounterPunch Radio to discuss his latest writing about the climate apocalypse unfolding around us. Eric and Robert discuss the Arctic emergency, methane nightmares, the toxic planet, the anthropogenic rocketship, the death of our coral reefs and wetlands, and so much more. Don’t worry, there’s a little inspiration at the end! More

    The post Robert Hunziker appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Josh Frank.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • JP Sottile on Biden’s Infrastructure Bill

    CounterPunch once again chats with the Newsvandal, JP Sottile. Eric and JP discuss Biden’s infrastructure bill, the shifting political terrain in Washington, the Left and the Right over the decades, and the dying planet. Don’t worry, it’s fun!

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  • “Rogue Nations” and “Failed States”: America Doesn’t Know the Difference

    It would be easy to blame Donald Trump for the  disarray in the transatlantic alliance, but twenty-five years of American exceptionalism is the real culprit.  The aggressive expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the Clinton and Bush administrations over the objections of our West European allies began a period of discontinuity that still exists.  Bush deepened the disarray in 2002 with his “axis of evil” speech that set the stage for the invasion of Iraq.  Bush and Barack Obama considered Afghanistan the “good war,” which brought two full decades of chaos throughout Southwest Asia.  President Joe Biden contributed to the fault lines within the transatlantic alliance with his failure to consult our allies on the Afghan withdrawal. More

    The post “Rogue Nations” and “Failed States”: America Doesn’t Know the Difference appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Melvin Goodman.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Revisiting 9/11, Ward Churchill and Those “Little Eichmanns”

    In July 2007 Ward Churchill was dismissed from his teaching position within the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado (CU). While CU administration attested that his ousting was due to scholarly fraud, Churchill argued it was most certainly not, and had much more to do with his controversial political writings on 9/11. The More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Joshua Frank.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Judge Issues Injunction Requiring Immediate Actions at U.S. Army Corps Dams to save Willamette River Chinook Salmon and Steelhead

    PORTLAND, OREGON Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez issued a final opinion and order directing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to immediately undertake new measures at dams in the Willamette basin to prevent the extinction of threatened Upper Willamette River wild spring Chinook salmon and winter steelhead. In the final order, More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by CounterPunch News Service.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Montana Still Hasn’t Learned Anything From Its History

    The Preamble to our State’s Constitution speaks to the importance of Montana’s quiet beauty, the grandeur of our Mountains, and the vastness of our rolling plains as underpinning our desire to improve our quality of life, equality of opportunity and to secure the blessings of liberty for this and future generations. In fulfillment of that More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by James C. Nelson.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.