KUNDUZ, Afghanistan – A U.S. jet dropped 500-pound bombs on two tanker trucks hijacked by the Taliban before dawn Friday, triggering a huge explosion that Afghan officials said killed more than 70 people, including insurgents and some civilians who had swarmed around the vehicles to siphon off fuel. Full article.
US plans for ‘imperial’ presence in Pakistan
The same Blackwater is now getting ready to replicate its Iraqi tactics in Pakistan and some of its operatives are already believed to be in action in Peshawar and its environs. The word has gone out that the Americans are keen to buy Peshawar’s lone 5-star hotel in order to accommodate the likes of Blackwater in luxury for special operations within Pakistan and beyond, in Afghanistan, of course.
The State Department has obviously drawn no lessons from its skewed Iraqi operations and seems willing to retry them in Pakistan. One shudders to think of the fallout of a lethal confrontation between the rogues of Blackwater, running berserk across the troubled North West Frontier Region just as they did in Iraq, and the trigger-happy Pakistani Taliban to whom these provocative aliens would be like red rag to an enraged bull. Full article.
Why the free market can’t cure health care
If there’s any idea worth rethinking these days, it’s the idea that our needs are best met through “voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges.” Full article.
A Little Girl in Kabul by Norman Solomon
Helmand Refugee Camp in Afghanistan: “Basics like food arrive at the camp only sporadically, Khan said. Donations come from Afghan businessmen. The government of Afghanistan does very little. The United Nations doesn’t help. Neither does th…e U.S. government. You could say that the last time Guljumma and her father had meaningful contact with the U.S. government was when it bombed them.” Full article.
The view from Afghanistan by Norman Solomon
To the ears of Americans, “peace” may sound a bit wispy or abstract – but here it’s a hope-laced word for a lifeline that continues to fray. Thirty years of war have decimated Kabul and much of the rest of Afghanistan.
From the air, loo…king out on a vast panorama of sandy-colored mountains and valleys near Kabul, I wondered: Where are the trees?
They’re gone – destroyed by war and deprivation – victims of countless bombs and the collapse of irrigation.
At home, we push for green sustainability. Here, the streets are blowing with harsh dust, a brutal harvest of war. Full article.
The Muslims Who Saved The Jews
Host Liane Hansen speaks with photographer Norman Gershman about his book Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II, which is also the subject of a documentary called God’s House. Greshman spent five years collecting stories of Albanian Muslims who harbored Jewish refugees during World War II. Full transcript from NPR.
Kabul US embassy guards ‘staged near-naked parties’
Private contractors hired by the US Government have jeopardised security at the American embassy in Kabul with lewd, drunken conduct and an understaffed guard force at a time of rising violence in the Afghan capital, a watchdog group says. Full article.
Sen Coburn Tells Women Crying Over Health Care “Govt Is Not The Answer”
here’s an idea: the govt shouldn’t be asked to help with healthcare, neighbors should help one another.
intl visitor leadership program – dinner at our house, aug 31, 2009
the u.s. dept of state’s bureau of educational and cultural affairs administers the intl visitor leadership program, a professional exchange program designed to build mutual understanding between the u.s. and other countries of the world. i had the opportunity to host a dinner for 4 guests from israel – two muslim and two jewish.
in the back, from L to R: eyal, me, josephine (the coordinator), tzahala, my mom, in front: raida and faten.
Cindy Sheehan: America needs to wake up
‘Patient capital’ and power by Bina Shah
On Pakistan-US relations: “The US invests in our education, health or power crisis, but with no short-term expectations, no pressure, no demands. They act as a friend helping out another friend in need. They wait, patiently, for the long-term di…vidends of this investment: an improved opinion of the US and the elimination of resentment.”
just one question for this woman: what is she smoking!!! the unfortunate full article.
Why We Need Government-Run Universal Socialized Health Insurance
Pakistan: No Military Campaign Against the Taliban
“For the Obama Administration, the Pakistani military’s reluctance to take on the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan doesn’t bode well for the pursuit of U.S. interests. Washington would like Islamabad to confront the groups that pose a direct threat to NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan – the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network.”
tell me again what this war is all about? protecting pakistanis from the extremists or keeping the american occupation viable?
read full article.
Blast kills 16 Pakistan cadets; NATO trucks bombed
Bombings targeted a Pakistani police station and set a NATO fuel convoy ablaze Sunday, killing 16 cadets in the northwest’s Swat Valley and threatening the supply line to international forces in Afghanistan in a separate attack near the border. Full article.
review: inglourious basterds
i know it’s unfair to compare everything tarantino does to “pulp fiction” – it’s just never gonna happen again. i know that. but “inglourious basterds” left me disappointed.
the premise of the film is unusual – an alternative end to WWII in which hitler, his henchmen, a large number of german officers and their escorts are mowed down by machine gun fire, burned in a film theater, and finally exploded with dynamite.
this abrupt (and dramatic) end to the war is brought about by two separate forces, acting independently of each other: (1) the basterds – a group of american jews led by brad pitt, a hillbilly from tennessee, who are sent in by the CIA to terrorize the nazis. their rule is to kill every nazi they encounter and then scalp him. (2) shosanna – the sole survivor of a jewish family discovered and killed by hans landa, a nazi colonel nicknamed “the jew hunter.” she becomes the proprietor of a film theater and decides to burn it down at a nazi film premiere.
ok, so here’s what i thought of the film. there is much gratuitous violence, as expected (including frequent scalping shots replete with blood and squelching sound effects) but it isn’t a catalyst for much tension, irony or humor. it’s just gratuitous. the film seems to imply that there is an automatic pleasure to be derived from this mindless savagery. after all, the jews get to stick it to the nazis and it is justifiable payback for the holocaust. but there’s something awful about humanity’s quick race to the bottom of hell. the whole revenge fantasy doesn’t feel right. whether jews are being shot or germans are being scalped and machine gunned in the back while trying to escape a burning building, it’s all part of the same circle of brutality and evil.
in spite of a bevy of characters with immense potential, all abundantly supplied with catchy names, nicknames, histories and quirks, the film doesn’t give most of them the chance to develop into anything concrete or fully realized. they remain juicy tidbits that can never coalesce into a fully formed, captivating plot.
finally, sorry but brad pitt’s curled lip and hillbilly accent didn’t quite work for me. mike myers, as a british officer, is surprisingly calm and convincing. hans landa, played by christoph waltz, is probably the most compelling character in the film. wish he had had a much larger role.
