Article published in Amauta with permission from the author

by Ray McGovern

Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, came home with sweaty palms from his mid-February visit to Israel.  He has been worrying aloud that Israel will mousetrap the U.S. into war with Iran.

This is of particular concern because Mullen has had considerable experience in putting the brakes on such Israeli plans in the past.  This time, he appears convinced that the Israeli leaders did not take his warnings seriously — notwithstanding the unusually strong language he put into play.

Upon arrival in Jerusalem on February 14, Mullen wasted no time in making clear why he had come.  He insisted publicly that an attack on Iran would be “a big, big, big problem for all of us, and I worry a great deal about the unintended consequences.” Read the full story

Source: t r u t h o u t

(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: hugovk, ishmagination)

by Henry A. Giroux
March 4, 2010

The absolute … spells doom to everyone when it is introduced into the political realm.

- Hannah Arendt [1]

Democracy in the United States is experiencing both a crisis of meaning and a legitimation crisis. As the promise of an aspiring democracy is sacrificed more and more to corporate and military interests, democratic spheres have largely been commercialized and democratic practices have been reduced to market relations, stripped of their worth and subject to the narrow logics of commodification and profit making. Empowerment has little to do with providing people with the knowledge, skills, and power to shape the forces and institutions that bear down on their lives and is now largely defined as under the rubric of being a savvy consumer. When not equated with the free market capitalism, democracy is reduced to the empty rituals of elections largely shaped by corporate money and indifferent to relations of power that make a mockery out of equality, democratic participation and collective deliberation. Read the full story

Fuente: Rebelión

por Maximiliano Sbarbi Osuna
18 de febrero, 2010

Nuestra región se caracteriza por ser una zona libre de conflictos bélicos. Desde hace quince años que no se registra una guerra convencional, siendo el enfrentamiento armado entre Perú y Ecuador de 1995 el último en producirse. Sin embargo, el Instituto Internacional de Estudios Estratégicos (IISS), un think tank cercano a los sectores conservadores de Washington, reveló días atrás que en los últimos cinco años América Latina y el Caribe incrementaron su gasto en armamentos y defensa en un 151 por ciento. Read the full story

Fuente: Word Socialist Web Site
Traducción: Beatriz Morales Bastos, Rebelión

Marinas de los Estados Unidos batallando en la provincia de Helmand, Afganistan. (Foto: David Guttenfelder/Associated Press)

por Bill Van Auken
6 de febrero, 2010

Mientras los soldados estadounidenses y británicos se preparan para atacar la ciudad de Marjah en la provincia Helmand de Afganistán, los comandantes militares y los medios de comunicación comparan abiertamente la operación con el asedio a Faluya en noviembre de 2004, uno de los crímenes de guerra más sangrientos de la guerra de Iraq.

La operación en el centro de la provincia de Helmand, a lo largo de una zona donde hay una intensa resistencia a la ocupación dirigida por Estados Unidos, constituirá la mayor ofensiva militar desde que Washington invadió el país en octubre de 2001. Se espera que al menos 15.000 soldados sitien la ciudad a orillas del río Helmand que tiene 80.000 habitantes y que, según el ejército estadounidense, es un bastión de los talibán. Read the full story

Fuente: IPS

por William Fisher

NUEVA YORK, 5 feb (IPS) – Defensores de las libertades civiles y juristas reaccionaron este viernes a lo que describieron como “la ejecución deliberada de ciudadanos estadounidenses alejados de toda actividad hostil, si el Poder Ejecutivo determina en forma unilateral que se ajustan a una definición secreta de enemigo”.

La reacción respondió a una admisión del director de Inteligencia Nacional, Dennis Blair, que tomó por sorpresa a la comunidad de inteligencia y a sus críticos. Blair reconoció el miércoles en una audiencia del Congreso legislativo que Estados Unidos puede, con aprobación del Poder Ejecutivo, matar a ciudadanos estadounidenses sospechosos de terrorismo. Read the full story

A Yemeni anti-terrorist soldier. (AP)

Source: Salon.com

by Glenn Greenwald
January 27, 2010

The Washington Post’s Dana Priest today reports that “U.S. military teams and intelligence agencies are deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops who in the past six weeks have killed scores of people.”  That’s no surprise, of course, as Yemen is now another predominantly Muslim country (along with Somalia and Pakistan) in which our military is secretly involved to some unknown degree in combat operations without any declaration of war, without any public debate, and arguably (though not clearly) without any Congressional authorization.  The exact role played by the U.S. in the late-December missile attacks in Yemen, which killed numerous civilians, is still unknown. Read the full story

Security stands watching as relief aid is unloaded from a U.S. air force cargo jet at Port -au-Prince International airport January 16, 2010. (REUTERS/Hans Deryk)

Source: Rebel Reports

by Jeremy Scahill
January 18, 2010

The Orwellian-named mercenary trade group, the International Peace Operations Association, didn’t waste much time in offering the “services” of its member companies to swoop down on Haiti for some old fashioned  humanitarian assistance disaster profiteering. Within hours of the massive earthquake in Haiti, the IPOA created a special web page for prospective clients, saying: “In the wake of the tragic events in Haiti, a number of IPOA’s member companies are available and prepared to provide a wide variety of critical relief services to the earthquake’s victims.” Read the full story

El fin de la cumbre de la decepción (Crédito: Ana Libisch/IPS)

Fuente: IPS

por Stephen Leahy

COPENHAGUE, 19 dic (IPS/TerraViva) – No se hizo historia en Copenhague. Tampoco se selló ningún pacto contra el cambio climático. Tras dos años de intensas negociaciones entre 194 países, rompe los ojos la división entre el mundo rico y el pobre.

Los países pobres quieren reducciones drásticas de las emisiones causantes del recalentamiento por parte del mundo industrial, y éste sigue resistiéndose a cortes sustantivos y metas obligatorias. Read the full story

La agropecuaria será el sector más afectado por el recalentamiento. (Crédito: Sociedad de Criadores de Hereford del Uruguay)

Fuente: IPS

por Daniela Estrada

COPENHAGUE, 17 dic (Tierramérica) – América Latina debería aprovechar el tiempo para buscar un nuevo modelo de producción, consumo y distribución adaptado al cambio climático. Pero sin un acuerdo mundial para reducir las emisiones contaminantes, para 2100 podría perder casi 137 por ciento de su producto interno bruto.

Esa es la conclusión del estudio “La economía del cambio climático en América Latina y el Caribe”, presentado este miércoles por la Cepal en la 15 Conferencia de las Partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (COP 15), que se desarrolla hasta este viernes en la capital danesa. Read the full story

Source: The Guardian

UN secretariat initial draft shows gap of up to 4.2 gigatonnes of CO2 between present pledges and cuts required to limit rise to 2C

Read the UN analysis document here

Nomadic Turkana pastoralists at a dried out dam in Kenya. A rise of 3C would mean up to 170 million more people suffering severe coastal floods and 550 million more at risk of hunger, according to the Stern review. Photograph: Stephen Morrison/EPA

by Suzanne Goldenberg, John Vidal and Jonathan Watts (in Copenhagen)
December 17, 2009

A confidential UN analysis obtained by the Guardian reveals that the emissions cuts offered so far at the Copenhagen climate change summit will lead to global temperatures rising by an average of 3C.

The analysis seriously undermines the statements by governments that they are aiming to limit emissions to a level ensuring no more than a 2C temperature rise over the next century, and indicates that the last 24 hours of negotiations will be extremely challenging. Read the full story