Saturday, December 05, 2009

The Christian Myth of Jesus's Birth

By the Rev. Howard Bess
December 5, 2009

The Advent season is a fun time. For many Christians, it is the happiest season of the year. The joy comes from the anticipation: “Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king.”

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The Afghan Ambush

By Michael Winship
December 5, 2009

The decision has been made. The months of meetings and briefings are over. Tuesday night, the President made it official: 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan.

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Friday, December 04, 2009

'Up in the Air' and Down to Earth

By Lisa Pease
December 4, 2009

If there’s one film I’d like President Obama to see this month, it’s the new film by Jason Reitman “Up in the Air.” Seeing all those people laid off in the course of the film made me want to run out and start a jobs program.

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Thursday, December 03, 2009

Israeli Scholar Disputes Founding Myth

By Morgan Strong
December 3, 2009 (Originally Posted April 12, 2009)

The founding narrative of the modern State of Israel was born from the words of Moses in the Old Testament, that God granted the land of Israel to the Jewish people and that it was to be theirs for all time.

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Obama Pleases the Neocons

By Robert Parry
December 3, 2009

President Barack Obama’s escalation of the Afghan War has upset many rank-and-file Democrats who had hoped for a more peaceful strategy, but Obama’s order to dispatch 30,000 more U.S. troops is being welcomed by neoconservatives, a group that has long favored U.S. military interventions in Muslim lands.

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US 'No-Fly' List Keeps Growing

By Ivan Eland
December 3, 2009

With the holiday travel season upon us, the U.S. government’s terrorism watch list and no-fly list get ever more bizarre.

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Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Afghanistan: 'Roach Motel' for Empires

By Zoltan Grossman
December 2, 2009

In his West Point speech on Tuesday, President Obama denied that “Afghanistan is another Vietnam” - -and in some senses he is correct. Vietnam was a far more unified state -- ethnically and politically -- than Afghanistan ever has been.

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Colin Powell's My Lai Connection

By Robert Parry and Norman Solomon
December 2, 2009

On March 16, 1968, a bloodied unit of the Americal Division stormed into a hamlet known as My Lai 4. With military helicopters circling overhead, revenge-seeking American soldiers rousted Vietnamese civilians -- mostly old men, women and children -- from their thatched huts and herded them into the village's irrigation ditches.

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Obama with Blood on His Hands

By Nicolas J S Davies
December 2, 2009

President Barack Obama carefully avoided describing his decision to dispatch 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan as an "escalation," but that is what he announced.

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Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Larry McGovern on Obama's Escalation

By Larry McGovern
December 1, 2009

In one brief year, President Barack Obama has left a trail of shattered dreams, culminating in his option for more war in Afghanistan.

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Explaining the Drop in Iraqi War Dead

By Robert Parry
December 1, 2009

The Iraqi government has announced that the civilian death toll for November – 88 – was the lowest since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, marking a two-year decline in killings that has corresponded with a less aggressive American military strategy and a pullback of U.S. troops to bases on city outskirts.

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The President Acting as a Caesar

By David Swanson
December 1, 2009

During a televised football game on Sunday, an announcer welcomed the members of the U.S. military viewing the game in 177 nations around the world.

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Monday, November 30, 2009

Why an Expanded Afghan War?

By Lisa Pease
November 30, 2009

President Barack Obama appears set to approve a dramatic increase in troops in Afghanistan. The original goal of the U.S. effort there was to find and capture Osama bin Laden. Why is Washington not still seeking the man who allegedly masterminded the attack on American on Sept. 11, 2001?

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Obama's Weak Report Card on the CIA

By Melvin A. Goodman
November 30, 2009

President Obama has had nearly a year to make necessary changes in the intelligence community and the Central Intelligence Agency.

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How War Hawks Caged Obama

By Robert Parry
November 30, 2009

Two of President Barack Obama’s most acclaimed Cabinet appointments – keeping Republican Defense Secretary Robert Gates and picking former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State – set the risky course that his administration is following toward a military escalation in Afghanistan.

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