Obama, CIA & Assassination

While Bush’s war on terror has often been criticised by liberals for its unilateralism and cowboy-style-guns-a-blazing, I wonder how many Obama supporters will react to this recent expose – that the current administration is continuing with CIA practice to use spy drones to target suspected terrorists in Pakistan even if their full identities are unknown. In brief, this means, assassinating people who might be innocent.

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1000 days and still counting

I thought this was an excellent piece by an Al Jazeera correspondent on the situation in Gaza. Even with the UN endorsement of the Goldstone report, which only limits itself to the 2008/9 invasion, there remains something much more dire that has since escaped international attention. It is the state of Israel’s economic blockade that is slowly but surely killing the lives and dreams of ordinary civilians in Gaza. 

Security over women’s rights in Afghanistan

We have been repeatedly rammed down our throats the rationale for supporting the invasion of Afghanistan  – the myth that this is a ‘war against terror’. A war to eradicate and stop terrorists from destabilising the region and the world. A war against Islamic fundamentalisms advocated by the likes of groups such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban that preaches extremist beliefs and practices including those against women.

Women voices from Afghanistan

Al Jazeera has reported on the Afghan Women’s Writing Project (AWWP), an English language blog which is written by women in the war-torn country. Given that women rights are seriously curtailed in Afghanistan, these writers have to write under conditions of anonymity and fear of personal safety.

According to the founder of the blog, an American novelist, Masha Hamilton, ‘We don’t just put anything up. It’s a dialogue and a communication. We want to help them express their stories, and their writing often becomes more personal as time goes on.’

Reading some of the entries, one is reminded of the plight of women in  Aghanistan. In the blog entry titled, Sitara, Roya (not her real name) documents the violence perpetuated against a girl who simply wants to go to school:

… That day that she [Sitara] got burned, it was her father who burned her, her father who killed her. He didn’t like Sitara or her mother. When he burned her, he forbid her to go to the hospital because there were male doctors there. The neighbors helped her and her mother to the hospital…

Or the poem by Freshta, her hopes for a more enlightened and better government. This is an excerpt:

Afghans suffers pain, trial, labor, grief, sorrow, tragedy.
Now the president needs to serve them
Serve for people, serve those who need

Serve for those who have lost their families, loved ones who live only in memory.
Serve for those who have lost their parents, who had dignity but are now called orphans.
Serve for orphans who hide their face with their hands and hear the slap of tongues when they say thanks.
Serve for orphans who watch other parents caress their children
Tears come from their eyes as thunder appears in the sky.
Tears of hopelessness, discouragement, depression.
Serve for people, serve for those who need

A project worth supporting.

Carter says the rightest (darndest) thing

Leave it to Jimmy Carter to say the rightest (darndest) things.

According to a report from OneWorld.net, the former American President has commented that Hamid Karzai has stolen the recent Afghanistan elections and that the current increase in American troops to the failed state is counterproductive. This is because,

“Americans have turned against the war in Afghanistan,” Carter said. “Every time we launch one of our unmanned drones from Kansas and kill 100 people, we make 100,000 new enemies.”

Instead, he calls for negotiation with the locals.

On another note, Carter has floated the idea of a binational state for both Palestinians and Israelis alike. He said that Palestinian elites are considering this notion given Israel’s goals of colonising the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

It is hard not to see the force of Carter’s comments which reflects common sense, a rare phenomenon in politics. Unfortunately, his critics often sidestep this issue. We need more courageous politicians who can stand up to public pressure and give us the reality of our world.

Obama, the (ongoing) war president

When America voted Obama as the next President instead of John McCain, many around the world, including liberals/ pro-demcorats/ anti- republicans thought things will change. After all, this is the first black President (debatable) who has promised the world that ‘yes we can’.

Anti- war Protest – 6th anniversary of the Iraqi Invasion

The Gaza Defence Committee and Stop the War Coalition held an anti-war protest on yesterday afternoon at Sydney Town Hall which saw an attendance of about 200 participants.