Some of what I've missed

...out of town for about two weeks, so back on hiatus I go.

* Is the US too "stingy" with aid? Tom Regan looks at competing views following the South Asian tsunami. See also: Gideon Levy on "two types of disasters."

* "The hypocrisy, narcissism and dissembling propaganda of the rulers of the world and their sidekicks are in full cry" with the western media coverage of the tsunami disaster, declares John Pilger. "Superlatives abound as to their humanitarian intent while the division of humanity into worthy and unworthy victims dominates the news. The victims of a great natural disaster are worthy (though for how long is uncertain) while the victims of man-made imperial disasters are unworthy and very often unmentionable. Somehow, reporters cannot bring themselves to report what has been going on in Aceh, supported by 'our' government. This one-way moral mirror allows us to ignore a trail of destruction and carnage that is another tsunami."

* Mike Whitney and Peter Phillips also note the hypocrisy of the the American media's wall-to-wall coverage of the tsunami, contrasting news of human death and devastation there with the lack of any comparable reports coming out of Iraq.

* Newsweek has "learned" that the Pentagon is "intensively debating" the use of "death squads" in Iraq to hunt down insurgents, a la El Salvador/Nicaragua in the '80s.

* According to AFP, the head of Iraqi national intelligence, General Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani, says the insurgency in his country "includes more than 200,000 active fighters and sympathizers," a force larger than the number of American troops. Also see an updated report by Anthony Cordesman of CSIS on the state of the insurgency.

* Baghdad is currently the "least attractive city" in the world, according to a recent survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

* Displaced and terrorized Fallujans recently began returning to their city, only to find destruction and unlivable conditions.

* Mike Whitney argues that the American media's treatment of the destruction of Fallujah "illustrates what happens when the nation's information delivery system is controlled by a handful of corporate plutocrats. Media becomes the bullhorn for butchery and adventurism. All hope of rekindling democracy in America depends on eradicating the current media paradigm."

* An IRIN report notes that medical personnel working in Fallujah have "recovered more than 700 bodies from rubble where houses and shops once stood," of which "more than 550 were women and children."

* This is a telling report from an Economist reporter embedded with US troops in Iraq.

* "We have made a disaster in Iraq," Jack Beatty writes in the Atlantic Monthly. "We cannot escape from all of its consequences. But the human consequences of staying — the Iraqi civilians we will kill, the young American men and women alive this minute who will die or be maimed in body or mind — are worse than the political consequences of withdrawing." See also Naomi Klein's related piece, "You Break It, You Pay For It."

* James Dobbins writes in Foreign Affairs that "the ongoing war in Iraq is not one that the United States can win. As a result of its initial miscalculations, misdirected planning, and inadequate preparation, Washington has lost the Iraqi people's confidence and consent, and it is unlikely to win them back. Every day that Americans shell Iraqi cities they lose further ground on the central front of Iraqi opinion." Nevertheless, he continues, "The war can still be won -- but only by moderate Iraqis and only if they concentrate their efforts on gaining the cooperation of neighboring states, securing the support of the broader international community, and quickly reducing their dependence on the United States."

* In Harper's, Joy Gordon says the blame for the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal should be laid at the feet of the UN Security Council, and by extension the US, not the UN's general body. See also: "The UN's Real Disgrace was the Sanctions Regime."

* Jim Lobe reports that the "Bush administration's foreign policy may be costing U.S. corporations business overseas, according to a new survey of 8,000 international consumers released this week by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite (GMI) Inc." Plus: "Is the World Falling Out of Love with US Brands?"

* According to Bryan Bender of the Boston Globe, a recent report by the Defense Science Board makes implicit criticisms of the Pentagon's handling of the Iraq war and "is recommending a significant expansion of the State Department to cope with the diplomatic challenges of nation-building efforts that cannot be met by the Pentagon."

* Samantha Shapiro looks inside the Arab media war for the NY Times Magazine.

* In Foreign Affairs, Mahmood Mamdani reviews Olivier Roy's new book, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, alongside Gilles Kepel's The War for Muslim Minds.

* Daniel Pipes, an appointed member of the US Institute for, yes, Peace, seems to support concentration camps for Muslims.

* Adam Morrow of IPS observes that the Bush administration is backing away from its ambitious goal of promoting "democracy" in the Arab world, replacing it with a more focused and conservative goal of promoting economic reform. This story was foreshadowed by an earlier NY Times piece.

* Brian Foley writes that "Focusing on torture as the main objection to Alberto Gonzales' taking over as Attorney General distracts us from his greater sin: his attempt to give the president the power to imprison Americans incommunicado and indefinitely, without recourse to courts or lawyers. Such contempt for our civil rights shows that Gonzales cannot be trusted to protect them." See also: "We Are All Torturers Now."

* "The evidence is credible, compelling and abundant," announces Chris Floyd. "The lines of authority are clear. The blood of the tortured is on Bush's hands."

* The CIA's "torture jet" is no longer being coordinated from Boston, it seems. The paper trail now extends to Oregon.

* The Washington Post reports, "Administration officials are preparing long-range plans for indefinitely imprisoning suspected terrorists whom they do not want to set free or turn over to courts in the United States or other countries, according to intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials."

* Jonathan Raban searches for the truth about terrorism in a NYRB review essay.

* In Harper's, Benjamin DeMott declares that the "plain, sad reality" of the 9/11 Commission's final report is that, "despite the vast quantity of labor behind it," it's a "cheat and a fraud."

* "The United States has gone down a road in which the use of force has become a chronic feature of U.S. foreign policy, and the country's security has been weakened rather than bolstered as a consequence," conclude Robert W. Tucker and David C. Hendrickson in an article for Foreign Affairs. "It is true, of course, that the American public does not like the idea of deferring to others, but it may come to see the advantages of doing so once it appreciates that enterprises undertaken on a unilateral basis must be paid for on a unilateral basis."

* "Just as the long Cold War gave rise to the military-industrial complex that President Dwight Eisenhower warned against," Robert Parry warns, "the Long War against Islamic extremism will put the United States on a course toward a more militarized society, a form of government more like an Empire than a Republic."

* In Monthly Review, Richard Peet reviews Thomas P. M. Barnett's newish book, The Pentagon’s New Map.

* Stan Goff outlines a plan for attacking "the basis of imperial political power from within."

* Pentagon Budget cuts? Not bloody likely.

* "What do the CIA, the Pentagon and the UN have in common?" asks Katrina vanden Heuvel. "They share a prescient view of the world's greatest dangers and their unheralded agreement on key issues facing the planet has received far too little attention in the media."

* How fitting that Maher Arar was named Newsmaker of the Year in Time's Canadian edition, while Dubya was adorned with Person of the Year in the US.

* Thank you, John Conyers. At least someone in Congress cares about the state of electoral democracy in the US.

* The gang at The Free Press explain in a two-part feature (one; two) why Bush's victory doesn't add up.

* Those who think Bush won the November election because of the appeal of "moral values" are missing the point entirely, says Rev. William E. Alberts. Instead, he contends, Dubya's victory reveals "the rise of authoritarian tendencies in Americans. It is this apparent phenomenon, and the moral and spiritual crisis it represents, that need to be examined and addressed."

* Stealing a page from Tom Frank's playbook, Michael Lind argues in the Prospect that "Red-state America - inland, suburban and working-class - represents the future of the US, not the expensive, class-stratified coastal cities like New York, Boston and San Francisco. Conservatives, a minority among American voters, have managed to put together a majority coalition because they have learned to speak the populist language of the vast region between the Appalachians and the Rockies. Liberals can do so as well - but only if they stop sneering at the people they aspire to lead."

* Amy Sullivan asks, "Why doesn't W go to church?"

* Mmm. More Bush propaganda -- bought and paid for by the American taxpayer.

* Bob McChesney says the time has come for media reform. My own opinion, again, is that the media's failures on Iraq could be used to open the door to reform.

* Let's have a round of applause for the inaugural winners of the "Falsies Awards."

* How did Wal-Mart become a "corporate gorilla"? Simon Head investigates in the NYRB.

* Ritt Goldstein of IPS contends that recent withdrawals of prescription drugs are just one indication that the FDA is in the pocket of the pharmaceutical industry.

* Barry Mason reports on the findings of a new UNICEF report, which concludes that a "billion children are suffering from one or more forms of deprivation."

* "At the heart of President Bush's plan to sell Social Security private accounts is a simple notion: You're always better off investing your retirement money than letting the government do it," declares David R. Francis of the CS Monitor. Historically speaking, however, that's not necessarily the case.

* Somebody wake Michael Harrington from his eternal slumber. Harold Meyerson says "The 'Other America' May Be Coming Back."

* American Leftist introduces Michael Donnelly's Counterpunch essay on "How Nonprofit Careerism Derailed the 'Revolution'."

* Also check out American Leftist's Top 10 Unanswered Questions of 2004.

* Michael Byers reviews the recently-released Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) in the London Review of Books.

* Dialogic bids adieu to Susan Sontag.

* "Do SUVs Make You Stupid?" Mark Morford wonders.

* Kirsten Anderberg is frequently told she's "too angry." Perhaps you are, too.

* Linda Rothstein, Catherine Auer, and Jonas Siegel rethink doomsday in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

* John Summers observes that Noam Chomsky is nowhere to be found in the historical canon of American academia.