CounterCurrents: This War Is Not Aimed At ISIS, But At Assad, Poverty Report Contradicts GDP Claims,

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In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


New Steps To Wider War In Middle East
By Patrick Martin

http://www.countercurrents.org/martin031014.htm

The US military has deployed a quick-reaction force of 2,300 Marines to the Middle East, the Pentagon revealed Wednesday, the latest step in a carefully planned escalation of American military power in the region


This War Is Not Aimed At ISIS, But At Assad
By Dan Glazebrook

http://www.countercurrents.org/glazebrook031014.htm

Watching the debate in the British parliament last Thursday, over whether Britain should, yet again, launch aerial attacks against the long-suffering people of Iraq, it was striking just how much admission there was of the failure of Britain's policy in the region hitherto


Poverty Report Contradicts GDP Claims
By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.countercurrents.org/roberts031014.htm

It is amazing how the government manages to continue selling Brooklyn Bridges to a gullible public. Americans buy wars they don’t need and economic recoveries that do not exist


Palestinian-U.S. Relations Head For Stormy Times
By Nicola Nasser

http://www.countercurrents.org/nasser031014.htm

Washington’s response to the speech that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered at the UN General Assembly last September 26 confirms that the bilateral Palestinian-U.S. relations are heading for stormy times


The Downing Of Malaysia Airlines MH 17 Observed From Australia (PDF)
By George Venturini

http://www.countercurrents.org/venturini031014.pdf

The entire Australian political Establishment seized on the tragic deaths of 298 people in the crash of MH17 in Ukraine to ratchet up the escalating U.S.-led provocations against Russia. Before any investigation team reached the disaster site in eastern Ukraine, the Liberal-National Coalition government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, followed by the Labor Party Opposition - the two wings of a decaying sub-tropical Westminster System - accused Russian-supported separatists in eastern Ukraine of shooting down the plane, and called for retribution against the rebels and Russia itself


Sharing a (not so) Living Planet
By Rajesh Makwana

http://www.countercurrents.org/makwana031014.htm

As further evidence comes to light of how our economic systems are decimating the natural world, sharing is fast emerging as the central theme in the discourse on how to ensure prosperity for all within planetary boundaries


An Economics Fit For Purpose In A Finite World
By Herman Daly

http://www.countercurrents.org/daly031014.htm

Causation is both bottom-up and top-down: material cause from the bottom, and final cause from the top, as Aristotle might say. Economics, or as I prefer, “political economy,” is in between, and serves to balance desirability (the lure of right purpose) with possibility (the constraints of finitude). We need an economics fit for purpose in a finite and entropic world


'Haider' Review
By Iymon Majid

http://www.countercurrents.org/majid031014.htm

At the political level the director looks at the tragedy of Kashmir through a definite lens which is Indian. It is not ultra-nationalist but it is more akin to the view of Indian liberal academicians. They decry human rights violations but when it comes to overall Kashmir dispute they believe it is a part of India. Thus Haider becomes a revenge tale so becomes Kashmir


Contestation And Conflict of Ideas: Love-Jihad As A Challenge To Plural Society
By David Dani lal

http://www.countercurrents.org/danilal031014.htm

Idea of love is essential to India of today similar to freedom, rights, justice and equality. Every individual of any gender, caste, religion, ethnicity, creed, race, colour, etc. should have right to choose partner. Love-Jihad hate campaign is no lesser to Manus social laws, fatwas of Taliban regime and diktats of Khap panchayat

02 October, 2014


What 35,000 Walruses Forced To The Beach Tell Us About Global Warming
By Sarah Lazare

http://www.countercurrents.org/lazare021014.htm

As sea ice recedes amid warming oceans, Pacific walruses crowd onto beaches to rest and forage for food. The walruses are telling us what the polar bears have told us and what many indigenous people have told us in the high Arctic


As The Globe Warms, So Does The Climate Movement
By Todd Gitlin

http://www.countercurrents.org/gitlin021014.htm

Nature and history have talked back. In a few short centuries, the carbon-based fuels of the industrial breakthrough have come to threaten the entirety of a civilization they made possible. In the People’s Climate March is the suggestion that civilization might rise to the challenge, perhaps in time to avert total catastrophe. After the march, the four-letter word I heard most was: hope


Hong Kong: Obama And Occupy Share An Umbrella?
By Mickey Z.

http://www.countercurrents.org/mickeyz021014.htm

This is not say that none of the protestors are sincere or have valid reasons to hit the streets but here’s how the “left” media is explaining all this: “Protesters are united around one central issue: They want to be able to choose their top leader, the chief executive, without interference from China.”Taken at face value, this motivation is hardly revolutionary so how can we additionally get global support from those who seek more than reforms? Easy… call it “Occupy Central” and you’ll have Twitter ablaze, Facebook pages gobbling up traffic, solidarity rallies in cities across the globe, and innumerable declarations of the inevitable Occupy rebirth. Give the proceedings a color (yellow) and a symbol (umbrella) and Instagram will do the rest!


Why Hong Kong Matters
By N. Jayaram

http://www.countercurrents.org/jayaram021014.htm

What is unfolding in Hong Kong now matters because it is a democratic challenge to the entirely undemocratic nexus between crony and monopoly capital and the cynical monarchs in Beijing, something that is also being witnessed in the United States, India and many other parts of the world


USA Illegally Shuts Off Water To Own People
While Illegally Spending 1 Trillion On Nuclear Bombs
By Robert Barsocchini

http://www.countercurrents.org/barsocchini021014.htm

Monday, a US federal judge ruled that water will continue to be cut off to disadvantaged residents of Detroit, Michigan. Water has been cut off to “50,000 low-income households since January 2013 and continues at the pace of 400 households a day.” Shutoffs will continue, the judge said, because there is no such thing as a “fundamental right” to water. He added that access to water is “based on ability to pay.”


What If ‘Islamic State’ Didn’t Exist?
By Ramzy Baroud

http://www.countercurrents.org/baroud021014.htm

What if the so-called Islamic State (IS) didn’t exist? In order to answer this question, one has to liberate the argument from its geopolitical and ideological confines


The Futility of Asking Congress To Block The Next Gate
By Judy Bello

http://www.countercurrents.org/bello021014.htm

There are those who want to support emerging bills in Congress that would limit the administration's ability to put 'boots on the ground' and give Obama an authorization for the current air war with an expiration date. I very much disagree with this strategy and believe that even promoting it is counter productive. Sometimes, instead of supporting a new law that does not do the whole job, and which will cause the current 'status' to become 'quo' and to be taken for granted, we should encourage people to stand up and say 'no' 'no' 'no' to the whole initiative


The 3 Stooges of “Liberal Democracy”: Bill Maher, Obama, Netanyahu
By Gary Corseri

http://www.countercurrents.org/corseri021014.htm

Let’s recall the words of Samuel Huntington, who wrote in the 90s, foreseeing our present “clash of civilizations”: “The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion […] but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.”


New European Commission Set To Serve A Corporate Agenda
By Colin Todhunter

http://www.countercurrents.org/todhunter021014.htm

In the images courtesy of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and Attac Austria, basic insight is provided into the backgrounds of some of the prospective members of the new Juncker Commission, which will be in office from November 2014 to 2019. The information reveals serious conflicts of interest


Creating a World Culture That Is Nonviolent
By Robert J. Burrowes

http://www.countercurrents.org/burrrowes021014.htm

As we celebrate Mahatma Gandhi's birthday on 2 October, the International Day of Nonviolence, we have the chance to reflect on our progress in creating a nonviolent world


Mahatma Gandhi’s Ideals Are More Relevant Today Than Ever! Tribute To A Great Soul!
By George Abraham

http://www.countercurrents.org/abraham021014.htm

On 15 June 2007, United Nations passed a resolution to observe International Day of non-violence each year on the birth anniversary date of Mahatma Gandhi who helped lead India to its Independence and inspired movements of civil rights across the world. What it shows is that UN recognizes that ultimately it is not discussion and dialogue but an inner awakening of the soul will only make a real difference from the impasse of scores of issues that are confronting the world today. Martin Luther King, a great follower of Gandhian method of non-violence once said “If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable; we may ignore him at our own risk”


How Power Holders Failed Gandhi
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

http://www.countercurrents.org/srivastava021014.htm

The day of 2nd October is not the birthday of Gandhi. It is a day of fight between Gandhian values and Hobbesian truths. More responsibility lies on the political world. They must reflect what harm they have done to India. They must look inside and ponder over the vast masses which still live in deficiencies of many counts. Gandhian message was , when you have to decide anything ,look the poorest person as your benchmark, whether your decision and actions will help the destitute. That is main base of Gandhian decision making. Do political leaders pay heed to it?


Of Money-In-The-Blood And Blood-Money
By Ravi Sinha

http://www.countercurrents.org/sinha021014.htm

Recently, the Indian Prime Minister had occasion to report to the Japanese on his genealogy and haematic chemistry. Addressing a house-full of corporate honchos in Tokyo he declared, “I am a Gujarati, money is in my blood”. One does not know what percentage of Gujaratis would feel insulted by such a description. It can be asked, perhaps more meaningfully, if great civilizations are created by money-in-the-blood types and one may wonder if Gujarati greats such as Narsi Mehta, Narmad, Govardhan Ram or Gandhi, too, had money flowing in their blood


Encourage Inter-Religious Marriages: An Open Letter To PM Modi
By Ankur Betageri

http://www.countercurrents.org/betageri021014.htm

It is only by encouraging inter-religious marriages, that is, marriages between Hindus and Muslims, that we can create an atmosphere in which rational scrutiny of religions can take place. Inter-religious marriages will destroy the religious insularity of Muslims and Hindus and help them face the realities of a changing world with a rational and open mind. It will also create a new generation of youngsters who will be capable of inheriting the true syncretic culture of India


Gondi Adivasi Language To Be Standardised, To Get A Dictionary Soon
By Aishik Chanda

http://www.countercurrents.org/chanda021014.htm

You may get to refer to a Gondi dictionary soon. That too in Devanagari script! Bhopal-based NGO CGnet (Swara) is working with top Gondi language specialists from 5 states to formulate a standardized Gondi language and bring out a dictionary