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Patrick Cockburn: Saudi Arabia Funds Terrorism & Mass Murder — USG Silent & Therefore Complicit [While Also Approving $4B to “Train & Equip” Saudi National Guard]

Mass murder in the Middle East is funded by our friends the Saudis World View: Everyone knows where al-Qa’ida gets its money, but while the violence is sectarian, the West does nothing Patrick Cockburn The Independent, Sunday 8 December 2013 Donors in Saudi Arabia have notoriously played a pivotal role in creating and maintaining Sunni …

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Chuck Spinney: Mike Lofgren Reinforces Bill Polk — Get A Brain, Reconnect with Ethics, Leave the Middle East, Ideally All Three

Mike Lofgren Responds to William R. Polk’s, “Intellectual and Political Foundations of 21st Century Jihad. Lofgren retired after 28 years on the congressional staff.  He held senior staff positions in the both the House and Senate Budget Committees, where he specialized in Defense and Foreign Policy.  After he retired, he authored “The Party Is Over: …

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Chuck Spinney: The Intellectual and Political Foundations of 21st Century Jihad Sayyid Qutub’s Fundamentalism and Abu Bakr Naji’s Jihadism

My friend, Bill Polk, a distinguished historian specializing in the Middle East, is busily writing a series of extended essays aimed at increasing our understanding of the conflict in Syria and, by extension, our seemingly  perpetual war with the Islamic world.  I posted the first part of this series, collectively entitled Understanding Syria, on 8 …

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4th Media: We Don’t Make This Stuff Up! — Occupy as a Form of Rising Anarchism

The New Politics of the 21st Century: Global Resistance and Rising Anarchism A number of occurrences have taken place of the past 13 years since the rise of the new millennium; we have seen and are seeing the rise of popular movements all over the world and a resistance to the forces of imperialism, capitalism, …

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Chuck Spinney: Patrick Cockburn Interviews Muqtada al-Sadr on Iraq — Toxic Mix of Sectarianism, Incompetent and Corrupt Government, and Interference by US, UK, and Iran

The United States bears a moral responsibility for the murderous state of affairs in Iraq, but contemporary American grand strategy has become a self-referencing mix of arrogance, narcissism, and exceptionalism; so it is not surprising that most Americans have dismissed Iraq their minds (as they are now dismissing Afghanistan).  Below is an excellent reminder of the situation …

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Review: God’s Terrorists – The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad

Charles Allen Important History Not Understood By Most, November 22, 2013 The historical half is mind-glazing, the more recent chapters highly relevant to understanding the deep ignorance of the US Intelligence Community and the US policy (prostitution) community these past 12 years. I have given the book four stars in part because it is not …

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Review: Wrong Turn – America’s Deadly Embrace of Counterinsurgency

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-Regarded in Afghanistan, A Real Gem, November 22, 2013 This book is in our J-2 Library in Afghanistan, and it is a very well-regarded gem. This is a vitally important book. The author drives the value-proposition home with his Afterword, entitled “Truth as a Casualty of COIN.” His core point: …

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