America: The Gift Shop
If American foreign policy had a gift shop, what would it sell? (Via Mike Soron.)
Klein Responds to Critics of The Shock Doctrine
Naomi Klein has written a follow up to the Right’s criticism of her latest book, The Shock Doctrine, one year after its publication. I recently read the book over the summer and highly recommend it to anyone who’s interested. (Via Mike Soron.)
Psychological Mind Games at Guantanamo
Stephen Soldz in The Boston Globe:
Psychologists have been identified as key figures in the design and conduct of abuses against detainees in US custody at Guantanamo Bay, the CIA’s secret “black sites,” and in Iraq and Afghanistan. Psychologists should not be taking part in such practices.
Yet a steady stream of revelations from government documents, journalistic reports, and congressional hearings has revealed that psychologists designed the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques, which included locking prisoners in tiny cages in the fetal position, throwing them against the wall head first, prolonged nakedness, sexual humiliation, and waterboarding.
Jane Mayer, in her new book, “The Dark Side,” reports that the central idea was the psychological concept of “learned helplessness.” Individuals are denied all control over their world, lose their will, and become totally dependent upon their captors.
This sort of thing makes The Black Book of Psychoanalysis look like a joke. On a related subject I hear they also use CBTs there. (Via 3 Quarks Daily.)
Iraq as Holiday Destination
The Mirror:
Having a fantastic time, scorching weather and friendly locals… wish you were here in sunny Basra? It might sound like the sort of postcard you would only find in a joke shop but holidaying in Iraq’s second largest city might not be as ridiculous as you think.
Absurd. (Via Lenin’s Tomb.)
Larry Summers is a Jackass
He does a terrific job of pointing out just how vapid his neoliberal ideology is: Keynesianism for the empire, free-markets for the colonies. And as the former head of the World Bank, Summers got the opportunity to unleash his venom on a good amount of the “Third World.” How is it possible that people like this can be taken seriously? At least other neoliberals are consistent enough to endorse unleashing their terrible ideas on themselves as well, rather than simply being outright imperialists.
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Check out this great interactive venn diagram of Bush administration criminals over at Slate. The who’s-who of torturers, crooks and liars is about what you’d expect. (Via Matthew Yglesias.)
Believing is Seeing
Errol Morris in the New York Times’ photo-op:
I have asked myself how this controversy over a photograph became international news. Clearly, there are many reasons. But at the center of them all is this question: Are we on the brink of another war? I remind myself that the war in Iraq started with bellicose posturing and photographs. At the United Nations, Colin Powell displayed several photographs of Iraqi sites showing incontrovertible evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Of course, we now know that this incontrovertible visual evidence was false. We don’t need advanced digital tools to mislead, to misdirect or to confuse. All we need is a willingness to uncritically believe.
The Party of Torture
Check out these amazing conservative t-shirts, particularly the waterboarding and Ann Coulter ones. Good to see that the GOP has made torture and imperialism its explicit slogans this year. Classy, as always. (Via Matthew Yglesias.)
The Second Gilded Age
Mike Soron has a great post comparing our current “era” to a repeat of the Gilded Age, which is something I’ve long been in the habit of joking about, so I’m glad that there are others out there who confirm my world-views (What else could blogging be for?). I would add that perhaps in this instance we should “stand Hegel on his head”: if the first Gilded Age occurred as farce, then the second occurred as a tragedy.
Disaster Capitalism: State of Extortion
Naomi Klein writing for The Nation:
One week after the no-bid service deals were announced, the world caught its first glimpse of the real prize. After years of back-room arm-twisting, Iraq is officially flinging open six of its major oil fields, accounting for around half of its known reserves, to foreign investors. According to Iraq’s oil minister, the long-term contracts will be signed within a year. While ostensibly under control of the Iraq National Oil Company, foreign firms will keep 75 percent of the value of the contracts, leaving just 25 percent for their Iraqi partners.
This development seems hardly surprising given U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East over the past several decades, but surely such an endeavor might make suspect the claim that we went to fight in Iraq in order to liberate them and to eliminate the threat of weapons of mass destruction, etc. But of course that would be ludicrous.
Moreover, it strikes me as impossible to call the relationship between the U.S. and Iraq as anything other than “imperial,” but that can’t be, we hate empires! After all, the U.S. was born out of anticolonial struggle. Perhaps something to remember over fourth of July weekend.
Preparing the Battlefield
Seymour Hersh has written a an extremely thorough and insightful article on the Bush administration’s ongoing effort to start a war with Iran in the New Yorker, detailing the covert actions undertaken by the White House against Iran over the past year or so, as well as Congress’ capitulation to the GOP war machine. Highly recommended reading. (Via 3 Quarks Daily.)
Judy Miller Is Back
Hilarious analysis of this bullshit NY Times article on the mysterious origins of US-UK-French no-bid contracts for Iraqi oil.