Israel’s Insane War on Iran Must Be Prevented

Editor' NOTE:This article is extremely long but excellent. I encourage everyone to read the whole piece even if in more than one sitting.--Dr. J. P. Hubertby Muriel Mirak-WeissbachGlobal Research,July 26, 2010Israel’s attack on a humanitarian aid ship headed for Gaza may prove to be the greatest strategic error the government has ever made. Like the Soweto riots in South Africa in 1976, or Bloody Sunday – the American civil rights march on March 7, 1965, in Selma, Alabama, where police opened fire and killed civilians – the Mavi Marmora affair...

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Different "Party" Same Afghan old War

House Approves More Afghan War Funding:Congressmen Embrace Escalation as Evidence of War's Folly Growsby Jason Ditz,Antiwar.comJuly 27, 2010Though one would have expected that the massive release of some 92,000 classified documents Sunday underscoring just how poorly the war is going would have changed some minds, the Obama Administration has gotten its way once again, with the House of Representatives approving the $59 billion emergency funding bill to keep the war going by a 308-114 vote.There was, at the very least, some vigorous debate in...

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Weakileaks Notes

More on US Wars of Agression and the Wikileaks Document DumpAfghan War Leaks Expose Costly FollyBy Ray McGovernJuly 26, 2010 "Information Clearing House" --- The brutality and fecklessness of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan have been laid bare in an indisputable way just days before the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on whether to throw...

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Editoral-OTHER VOICES - Sindhi Press If McChrystal was here…

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama sacked his top commander Gen Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan over insubordination, stressing that in a democracy institutions are stronger than individuals. Gen McChrystal enjoyed much support both among ordinary people and the rulers. Gen McChrystal criticised the American civilian leadership … holding President Obama and his team responsible for “blunders”.… After sacking the general, President Obama, in a brief address to the media … said that democratic traditions required “respect for civilian control over the (military)...

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Editoral-Woman of no importance By Zafar Masud

BY no stretch of imagination can Christine Boutin be described as someone addicted to provocation. A matronly figure of 66, she is a mother of three who at the moment has the entire French political scene in a state of turmoil. The maverick trait in her nature already came to public attention as far back as the late ’70s when she first decided to step into a political career; her dynamism even then was undeniable and within three years she moved from the seat of an elected municipal councillor in the Parisian suburb of Yvelines to become its mayor....

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Editoral-Fewer new drugs By Julia Kollewe

THERE is fresh evidence of a dwindling number of new drugs coming on to the market from the pharmaceuticals industry as a new research shows that just seven per cent of sales come from medicines launched in the past five years.The report by CMR International, owned by Thomson Reuters, shows the bulk of sales at the world’s leading pharmaceuticals is derived from an ageing portfolio of drugs, while the number of medicines failing during late-stage testing is sharply on the rise.The problem is the ‘patent cliff’ — after a few years products lose...

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Editoral-‘Tectonic rift’ Dawn Editorial

If there is a ‘tectonic rift’ in US-Israel relations, as claimed by the Israeli ambassador in Washington, one can be reasonably sure that Tel Aviv will not be much of a loser. What has irritated Israel is that under the Obama administration it is missing the traditional ease with which it has been used to getting things done in Washington. For instance, the Bush administration turned the other cheek when the then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, having signed the Annapolis declaration along with President George Bush and other world leaders,...

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Editoral-Hyderabad blast

Many questions remain regarding Monday’s tragic tanker blast in Hyderabad’s Hala Naka. Several people were killed while many more were injured in the explosion which occurred at a truck depot. At the time of writing police and government officials were offering differing versions about what was inside the tanker. Some said the explosion was caused by a gas cylinder while others claimed that the truck was carrying thinner. Still others maintained that the tanker contained LPG, while the injured conductor of the vehicle told Dawn’s correspondent...

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Editoral-Oil price deregulation

The government proposes to take away the powers of the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority to determine the domestic prices of petroleum products and give them back to the refineries and oil marketing companies from next month. There is no evidence, however, that the petroleum ministry has resolved the issues that had prompted allegations of price manipulation by the OMCs’ ‘cartel’ and forced the government to assign the job to Ogra. The return to the old mechanism, goes one argument, would give the refineries and OMCs another opportunity to unfairly...

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Editoral-Nuclear energy the answer?By Pervez Hoodbhoy

It seems odd at first sight to understand why Pakistan, a country that can make nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and has an atomic energy commission that employs over 30,000 people, has electricity blackouts. Pakistani authorities blame western countries for denying it nuclear energy because it will not sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). The NPT expressly forbids transfer of any kind of nuclear technology, including that for power generation, to non-signatories. But the fact is that despite a 50-year long nuclear history, and...

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Editoral-Major policy rethink By Shahid Javed Burki

THE great virtue of democratic systems is that the policies governments adopt reflect the will of the people. While Pakistan is tending towards the adoption of democracy as the preferred system of governance it is quite clear that the country is not there as yet. If it had become a fully representative system some of the approaches being pursued in foreign affairs would not have been adopted. In this space last week I argued that economics rather than ideology or history’s many burdens should inform the making of public policy. That is not happening....

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