Skip to main content

film

The Breadwinner Review – A Girl’s Courage on the Streets of Kabul

Mark Kermode The Guardian
An Irish-Canadian-Luxembourgish co-production, adapted from Deborah Ellis’s much-loved YA novel, it’s a tale of youthful fortitude in Taliban-era Afghanistan that has something of the defiant feminist spirit of the French-Iranian gem Persepolis.

I Helped Sell the False Choice of War Once. It’s Happening Again. (Now with Iran)

Lawrence Wilkerson New York Times
Ex- Bush official confesses. President George W. Bush would have ordered the war even without United Nations support. "That led to a war that resulted in catastrophic losses for the region and the United States-led coalition, and that destabilized the entire Middle East". This should not be forgotten, since the Trump administration is using much the same playbook to create a false impression that war is the only way to address the threats posed by Iran.

In the Middle East, Maybe We’re the Bad Guys

Danny Sjursen Tom Dispatch
Here’s the truth of it, if you just stop to think about America’s wars for a moment: it’s only going to get harder to look a widow or mother in the eye and justify them in the years to come.

Tidbits - July 20, 2017 - Reader Comments: Capitalism?; Charters; Made in America or Internationalism?; Black Panther Party, Paul Robeson, Peekskill, Dashiel Hammett, IWW; Nuclear Weapons; Israel; Rasmea Odeh; Resources; Announcements; and more...

Portside
Reader Comments: Capitalism in our Future?; Bosses - Like Dictators - and now one is our President?; More on School Charters; Trump's Made in America or Working Class Internationalism?; Looking at Radical History - Black Panther Party, Paul Robeson, Peekskill, Dashiel Hammett, IWW; UN and Banning of Nuclear Weapons or a Return to "Duck Under Your Desk?"; South Africa, Israel; Rasmea Odeh; Resources; Announcements; and more...

Trump Aides Recruited Businessmen to Devise Options for Afghanistan

Mark Landler, Eric Schmitt and Michael R. Gordon New York Times
Mr. Prince laid out his views in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in May. He called on the White House to appoint a viceroy to oversee the country and to use "private military units" to fill the gaps left by departed American soldiers. While he was at Blackwater, the company became involved in one of the most notorious episodes of the Iraq war, when its employees opened fire in a Baghdad square, killing 17 civilians.

The Activists: Documentary

THE ACTIVISTS: War, Peace, and Politics in the Streets is a documentary film that brings to life the stories of ordinary people who tried to stop and end the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

books

The CIA Story, from Phoenix to Now

Paul Buhle Special to Portside
For those of us who need a reminder of the notorious record of the CIA over the last sixty-plus years, here is a useful up-to-date history. Reviewer Paul Buhle shows some of this new book's high points.
Subscribe to Afghanistan