Tom Hayden's Blog, page 38

U.S. Senate Votes for Accelerated Afghanistan Withdrawal

The US Senate voted 62-33 on Thursday for an “accelerated” withdrawal of American combat troops from Afghanistan to be completed no later than the scheduled December 31, 2014, deadline or “at the earliest date consistent with a safe and orderly drawdown.”

UN Recognizes Palestinian State

Barbara Tuchman’s classic, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam, identifies three stages in the descent to self-destruction by an elite: having reached a permanent impasse; being advised that there is a viable alternative; rejecting the alternative and marching to folly. Israel, with the US as enabler, moved closer to folly, opposing UN recognition of the Palestinians as a “nonmember observer state.” The measure, passed on a 138-9-41 vote, approves statehood status and renders Israel officially as an occupying power.

Bradley Manning Admits Sending War Documents to WikiLeaks

A Navy doctor, Captain William Hocter, who examined Army Pfc. Bradley Manning for months during his solitary confinement in Quantico, Virginia, requested the “senseless” conditions of his isolation be lifted, but was refused by Marine prison authorities in 2010. Prior to being sent to Quantico, Manning was held at Army Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.

Obama, Dems Can Prevent Deadly Sweatshop Fires

As David Bacon shows in the report below, the fire that killed 112 garment workers at a Walmart factory in Bangladesh was not an unavoidable accident. The worker deaths were due to negligent enforcement policies by the United States government over unscrupulous contractors.

White House Secretly Working on Drone Rules

Call it “Jon Stewart diplomacy,” but President Obama signaled his intent to develop new rules for drone attacks in an interview with the popular Comedy Central figure on October 18. Obama’s team was working in secret to develop the new rules in the event that Mitt Romney was elected, according to the New York Times’ Scott Shane, in a story published two weeks after the president’s interview with Stewart.

Petraeus According to Shakespeare

A friend in Charlotte told me Paula Broadwell was “a quasi-celebrity here even before the affair.” As one example, he mentioned a local event during the Democratic National Convention where Joe Klein, now a Time pundit about our national scene, was speaking and introduced Paula in the crowd. Joe and Paula, fellow fawners over Petraeus. But that was then…and now, my friend said, “I guess life imitates art.” I’ll say.

Cold War with China Revives U.S. ‘Open Door’ Trade Policy

The Obama administration’s accelerating military “pivot” to the Pacific complements its so-far secret trade negotiations to blanket the Pacific Rim in a free trade zone favorable to US multinational corporations. The administration has yet to respond to complaints from 130 Congress members about the secrecy of negotiations to build a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), now entering a 15th round from December 3-12 in a closed Auckland, New Zealand, summit

The Possibility of a 'Drone Drawdown' in Peace Talks

The tangled path to ending US drone strikes will be mapped through diplomacy, courtroom challenges, activist protests and pressure on the mainstream media to challenge official secrecy.

The Possibility of a “Drone Drawdown” in Peace Talks

The tangled path to ending US drone strikes will be mapped through diplomacy, courtroom challenges, activist protests and pressure on the mainstream media to challenge official secrecy.

Eyeless in Gaza

The Israeli political establishment – and donors like Sheldon Adelson and the militant neo-conservatives – seem to be eyeless in Gaza, in the phrase of Aldous Huxley.