When Reel Tales Rewrite Real History: Rethinking World War II
 Leon Hadar
In his new revisionist study, No Simple Victory: World War II in
Europe
, 1939-1945, renowned British historian Norman Davies challenges the "very superficial and Americanocentric view" of World War II reflected in the popular war histories. For instance, the American author Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers and American director Steven Spielberg's movie Saving Private Ryan show World War II as a struggle between freedom, represented by the Anglo-American powers, and the forces of fascism and totalitarianism that climaxed with the Normandy invasion.
Cost of ‘War on Terror’ Could Rise to $2.4 Trillion
 AFP
The total cost, including debt servicing, of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could reach 2.4 trillion dollars by 2017, a report by the Congressional Budget Office found Wednesday. The report, by the body which provides non-partisan budget analysis for Congress, said higher estimates for spending for the wars could top out at 1.7 trillion dollars by the end of the next ten year period. Under the most intense scenarios of US military activity, a further 705 billion dollars could be added to the cost by interest payments, assuming the wars continue to be largely financed by government borrowing, the report said.
'Closer to Reality': VP’s Plan for Iran Attack Starts With Israeli Strike
 Der Spiegel (Germany)
US Vice President Dick Cheney -- the power behind the throne, the eminence grise, the man with the (very) occasional grandfatherly smile -- is notorious for his propensity for secretiveness and behind-the-scenes manipulation. He's capable of anything, say friends as well as enemies … In the scenario concocted by Cheney's strategists, Washington's first step would be to convince Israel to fire missiles at Iran's uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Tehran would retaliate with its own strike, providing the US with an excuse to attack military targets and nuclear facilities in Iran. This information was leaked by an official close to the vice president.
Putin Honors Stalin Victims 70 Years After Terror
 Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin paid his respects on Tuesday to millions of people killed under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and called for the country to unite to prevent a repeat of its tragic past. Putin, a former KGB spy, marked Russia's annual day of remembrance for the victims of Stalin's purges with a visit to Butovo, a military training ground near Moscow where tens of thousands of people were executed by firing squads. Millions of people were executed under Stalin and many more perished from abuse and disease in a vast network of prison camps, known as the Gulags.
Polish Senator Who Doubted Holocaust Gets Top Role
 Reuters
A Polish senator who questioned the Nazi Holocaust has been given a top ceremonial role in parliament, drawing anger from the party that won Sunday's parliamentary election. Senator Ryszard Bender was named by President Lech Kaczynski as "speaker senior", a post that will give him ceremonial duties at the re-opening of parliament on Nov. 5. The president's office said Bender was named because he was the oldest senator. Bender has said in the past that the Nazi extermination camp of
Auschwitz
was "not a death camp, it was a labor camp".
In Britain, Revised Focus in A-Level History Course
 The Telegraph (Britain)
A new history A-level will see lessons focus on 'concepts' rather than on periods in time such as the World Wars, the Victorians and the Tudors, it emerged yesterday. The alternative A-level, developed by the exam board OCR and heading for English secondary schools next year, breaks the convention of teaching history based on events in a particular era … Historical controversies will be a key topic and for the first time, the OCR includes the issue of Holocaust denial and will teach pupils how to defend against the claims. According to the OCR's guidance, this will include looking at the trial of David Irving, the British historian …
Jews Control US Foreign Policy, Says Prof. Dawkins
 Israel NN
Professor Richard Dawkins, a senior British evolutionary scientist and outspoken atheist, drew fire on Monday for saying that Jews “more or less monopolize American foreign policy.” Religious Jews are a small group, Dawkins said, but are “fantastically successful” in lobbying the US government. Dawkins, who is currently in the US in an attempt to promote atheism and fight religious influence, expressed hope that atheists would be similarly successful in determining government policy. A number of Jewish leaders responded immediately, with ADL head Abe Foxman calling Dawkin’s remarks “classic anti-Semitism.”
Hillary Clinton Rakes in Cash From US Weapons Industry
 The Independent (Britain)
The US arms industry is backing Hillary Clinton for President and has all but abandoned its traditional allies in the Republican party. Mrs Clinton has also emerged as Wall Street's favourite. Investment bankers have opened their wallets in unprecedented numbers for the New York senator over the past three months … Employees of the top five US arms manufacturers – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon – gave Democratic presidential candidates $103,900, with only $86,800 going to the Republicans…
The Empire is Over
 Charley Reese
… We are like all empires in their final stages. We have grown soft. We like our comforts. We don't wish to be inconvenienced. We like poor Mexicans to do our stoop work and poor Americans to do our fighting, provided they do it far away so we won't be disturbed by explosions and screams. We enjoy our decadence, and there are always people in the media who can rationalize anything, no matter how sick and revolting it is … The only way to avoid a bad end is to find some realists and put them in public office … Otherwise, we will join the other third-rate countries, once empires, on history's discard pile.
World War II Mass Graves Open a Wound in Slovenia
 Reuters
… The Lancovo grave is one target of a Slovenian government program to help people come to terms with a hidden legacy of unprecedented slaughter during the war. So far, 540 such sites have been registered across Slovenia. They are believed to hold up to 100,000 bodies … Those killed in Slovenia were mostly soldiers who collaborated with the Nazis. Most were slain in the woods without trial. They were victims of a vengeful killing spree by partisans of the Yugoslav leader after British-led Allied troops turned them back from Austria and handed them over.
US Mismanaged $1.2 Billion for Iraqi Police
 USA Today
The State Department so badly managed a $1.2 billion contract for Iraqi police training that it can’t tell what it got for the money spent, a new report says. Because of disarray in invoices and records on the project — and because the government is trying to recoup money paid inappropriately to contractor DynCorp International, LLC — auditors have temporarily suspended their effort to review the contract’s implementation, said Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen Jr.
American Kids: Dumber Than Dirt?
 SF Gate
… We are now at a point where we are essentially churning out ignorant teens who are becoming ignorant adults and society as a whole will pay dearly, very soon … But most of all, he simply observes his students, year to year, noting all the obvious evidence of teens' decreasing abilities when confronted with even the most basic intellectual tasks, from understanding simple history to working through moderately complex ideas to even (in a couple recent examples that particularly distressed him) being able to define the words "agriculture," or even "democracy." Not a single student could do it.
The Iraqi Genocide
 Paul Craig Roberts
…The indisputable facts are that the US and Israel have attacked four Middle East countries and are determined to attack a fifth. Yet, it is peaceful Iran, at war with no one, that Bush and Israel blame for causing instability in the Middle East … International polls show that the rest of the world regard the US and Israel as the greatest dangers to world peace. Americans claim that they are fighting wars against terrorism, but it is US and Israeli terrorism that worries everyone else. The rest of the world knows that the wars are about US and Israeli hegemony and that the US and Israel are prepared to engage in whatever acts of terror are necessary to achieve hegemony. That is the bare fact.
Sun Sets Early on the American Century
 Philip S. Golub -- Toronto Star
The disastrous outcome of the invasion and occupation of Iraq has caused a crisis in the power elite of the United States deeper than that resulting from defeat in Vietnam 30 years ago … The signs of slippage are apparent everywhere … Transnational opinion surveys show a consistent and nearly global pattern of defiance of U.S. foreign policy as well as a more fundamental erosion in the attractiveness of the United States: The narrative of the American dream has been submerged by images of a military leviathan disregarding world opinion and breaking the rules … History is moving on and the world is slipping, slowly but inexorably, out of U.S. hands.
US Army Lures Foreigners with Promise of Citizenship
 Der Spiegel (Germany)
… More than 30,000 foreign troops are enlisted in the US Army, many of them serving in Iraq. Their reward for risking their lives for their adopted country is US citizenship … Without its foreign soldiers, the United States would have trouble coming up with enough troops to meet the demand in Iraq … Since Sept. 11, 2001, the United States has granted US citizenship to 32,500 foreign soldiers … The foreigners already represent five percent of all recruits. They even make up the majority of soldiers from some New York and Los Angeles neighborhoods.
Canadian Ban on 'Right-Wing' Conference Raises Free Speech Issue
 Canadian Press
A vote by MPs to bar two right-wing extremists -- Alexan Kulbashian and Paul Fromm -- be denied from holding a news conference in a Parliament Hill press theatre has raised concerns about freedom of speech. Wayne Sumner, a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, said the decision smacks of prior restraint - of banning people for what they might say. … They claim human rights legislation is being used to stifle political dissent. Fromm and Kulbashian have been the subject of commission investigations. They are also associated with a long list of far-right groups.
President Bush Has 'Accepted Ethnic Cleansing'
 Seymour Hersh (interview) – Der Spiegel (Germany)
… We have this wonderful capacity in America to Hitlerize people. We had Hitler, and since Hitler we've had about 20 of them. Khrushchev and Mao and of course Stalin, and for a little while Gadhafi was our Hitler. And now we have this guy Ahmadinejad. … The real thing in the mind of this president is he wants to reshape the Middle East and make it a model. He absolutely believes it … This guy believes he's doing God's work … The Surge means basically that, in some way, the president has accepted ethnic cleansing, whether he's talking about it or not.
Nixon's Jew Count: the Whole Story
 Timothy Noah – Slate
It was the last recorded act of official anti-Semitism by the United States government … On Sept. 24, the presidential recordings program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs released transcripts of Nixon White House tapes concerning the unauthorized publication in the New York Times and the Washington Post of the Pentagon Papers … Nixon: “The government is full of Jews. Second, most Jews are disloyal. You know what I mean? … But Bob, generally speaking, you can't trust the bastards. They turn on you. Am I wrong or right?”
Bush Cites Israel to Warn of 'World War Three' Danger
 The Telegraph (Britain)
President George W. Bush today warned that world leaders risk helping bring about “World War Three” unless they do more to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons. In remarks timed to coincide with Russian president Vladimir Putin’s visit to Tehran, Mr Bush said the Islamic republic must remain isolated until it drops its nuclear ambitions. “We've got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel," Mr Bush told a White House press conference. “So I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding World War Three, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."
The Secret History of the Impending War with Iran
 John H. Richardson -- Esquire
In the years after 9/11, Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann worked at the highest levels of the Bush administration as Middle East policy experts for the National Security Council. Mann conducted secret negotiations with Iran. Leverett traveled with Colin Powell and advised Condoleezza Rice. They each played crucial roles in formulating policy for the region leading up to the war in Iraq. But when they left the White House, they left with a growing sense of alarm -- not only was the Bush administration headed straight for war with Iran, it had been set on this course for years. That was what people didn't realize.
Maternal Death Rate Higher in US Than in Europe
Reuters
The United States has a sharply higher rate of women dying during or just after pregnancy than European countries, even some relatively poor countries such as Macedonia and Bosnia, according to the first estimates in five years on maternal deaths worldwide. The report released by various United Nations agencies and the World Bank on Friday shows that Ireland has the lowest rate of deaths, while several African countries have the worst. The United States has a far higher death rate than the European average …
Israel Seeks Worldwide ‘Holocaust Education’
 The Jerusalem Post (Israel)
More than 60 years after the Holocaust, the [Israel] Foreign Ministry is working to keep the Nazi genocide at the forefront of international consciousness. The ministry submitted a resolution to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization this week calling for the creation of a UNESCO-sponsored curriculum to teach students around the world about the Holocaust and its role in history. The Holocaust Remembrance resolution, proposed by the ministry's Division of International Organizations, aims to preserve the memory of the Holocaust while preventing its denial.
The Strange Life of Ilya Ehrenburg
 Mark Weber
Ilya Ehrenburg, the leading Soviet propagandist of the Second World War, was a contradictory figure… During the War, he was a leading member of the Soviet-sponsored Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee … Ehrenburg's incendiary writings certainly contributed in no small measure to the orgy of murder and rape by Soviet soldiers against German civilians … This new revelation about one of the most influential figures of the Stalinist regime shows that, whatever he may have said for public consumption, Ehrenburg never privately disavowed Zionism or forgot his ancestry.
US Too Often Follows Israel's Lead
 Paul Findley
There is an open secret in Washington. I learned it well during my 22-year tenure as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. All members swear to serve the interests of the United States, but there is an unwritten and overwhelming exception: The interests of one small foreign country almost always trump U.S. interests. That nation of course is Israel … It is time to call politicians to account for their undying allegiance to a foreign state. Let the Mearsheimer-Walt book be a clarion that bestirs the American people to political action and finally brings fundamental change to both Capitol Hill and the White House.
Last year, I agreed to speak to a Jewish youth group about my organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, and our opposition to Israel's occupation. My talk was to follow one from a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which calls itself "America's pro-Israel Lobby." A week before, a shaken program leader said the AIPAC staffer had threatened to get the entire youth program's funding canceled if I was allowed in the door. The threat worked, and in disgust, they canceled the whole talk … Unless this atmosphere of intimidation is confronted, Americans will continue to lack access to information and perspectives necessary to formulate effective | | | |
Cecilie Surasky -- Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas)