Dahr Jamail
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Dahr Jamail: Environmental Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico – The Escalation of BP's Liability
During a recent discussion in his office, Blanchard told Al Jazeera that the fishing waters off Louisiana are only producing one per cent of the shrimp they formerly produced. ‘Half of the local fishermen have shut down,’ he stated. ‘They are dying. And [as] for the fishing, every day they are hauling dead porpoises in… Continue reading
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The Source of Our Despair in the Gulf By Dahr Jamail and Erika Blumenfeld
The scope and scale of this disaster are impossible to communicate. While flying in giant, arcing circles around the source, I saw nothing but oil in every direction. Jonathan Henderson works for the Gulf Restoration Network. While looking out at the literal sea of oil beneath us, he reminded us that, at the moment, 75,000… Continue reading
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Fending For Themselves By Dahr Jamail
Theresa is a member of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe. They are a small community of self-described Indians that live in southern Louisiana along a small stretch of the Bayou Pointe-au-Chien. Now, oil from the BP disaster threatens their very existence. Continue reading
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Trucking Toward Climate Change By Dahr Jamail
The tar sands mining project in Alberta, Canada, is possibly the largest industrial project in human history and critics claim it could also be the most destructive. The mining procedure for extracting oil from a region referred to as the “tar sands,” located north of Edmonton, releases at least three times the CO2 emissions as… Continue reading
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All the (un)usual suspects. What is RT.com up to? By William Bowles
Full page ads in the London Independent? Though the word ‘Russia’ is nowhere to be seen, instead it’s RT.com, what we used to know as Russia Today. But RT.com is a far cry from its crude beginnings four years ago as a mouthpiece for the Russian state. The question is, what kind of animal is… Continue reading
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Veterans Group Calls on Soldiers to Refuse Orders to Deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq By Dahr Jamail
In response to President Barack Obama’s announcement on December 1 to deploy 30,000 additional troops to the occupation of Afghanistan, the organization March Forward!, with comprising both veterans and active-duty members of the US military, has called on all soldiers to refuse their orders to deploy. Continue reading
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The Psychological Implosion of Our Soldiers By Dahr Jamail
US Army Specialist Lateef Al-Saraji, a decorated combat veteran, came back from the occupation of Iraq with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Saraji joined the military because he wanted to serve his country. He served well as a linguist and translator working under secret clearance with military intelligence, according to a letter of recommendation written… Continue reading
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U.S.: Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan By Dahr Jamail
U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas. Continue reading
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MidEast Dispatches: Where Will They Get the Troops? Preparing Undeployables for the Afghan Front
After eight years of two major counterinsurgency wars (and various minor encounters in what used to be called the Global War on Terror), with many soldiers experiencing multiple tours of duty, with approximately 120,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq and almost 70,000 in Afghanistan, with the Afghan War clearly in an escalatory phase, commanders in… Continue reading
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U.S.: “War Comes Home” with Ft. Hood Shootings By Dahr Jamail
While investigators probe for a motive behind the mass shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas Thursday, in which an army psychiatrist is suspected of killing 13 people, military personnel at the base are in shock as the incident “brings the war home”. Continue reading
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US Army Prisoners Isolated, Denied Right to Legal Counsel By Dahr Jamail
The military’s treatment of Army prisoners is “part of a broader pattern the military has of just throwing people in jail and not letting them talk to their attorneys, not let visitors come, and this is outrageous. In the civilian world even murderers get visits from their friends,” according to civil defense attorney James Branum. Continue reading
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Afghanistan: Where Empires Go to Die By Dahr Jamail
On September 7 the Swedish aid agency Swedish Committee for Afghanistan reported that the previous week US soldiers raided one of its hospitals. According to the director of the aid agency, Anders Fange, troops stormed through both the men’s and women’s wards, where they frantically searched for wounded Taliban fighters. Continue reading
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Art as Resistance By Dahr Jamail
Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have tough truths to tell, and it has been well demonstrated that the establishment media does not want to broadcast these. Given the lack of an outlet for anti-war voices in the corporate media, many contemporary veterans and active-duty soldiers have embraced the arts as a tool for resistance,… Continue reading
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Kill the Indian. Save the Man. by Dahr Jamail
The term Manifest Destiny ceased to be used in a political context in the early 20th century. However it would seem that the idea continues to impact political actions overseas in the 21st century, if nothing else, to camouflage serious economic and political violations that the United States indulges in, across the globe. Continue reading
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Colonizing Culture By Dahr Jamail
Here I offer a brief glimpse into the less obvious but far more insidious phenomenon of “soft” colonization. That scholars and political thinkers have talked at length of such processes only establishes the uncomfortable reality that history is bound to repeat itself in all its ugliness, unless the human civilization makes a concerted effort to… Continue reading
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Unfit for Combat By Dahr Jamail
The shocking story of a soldier killing five of his comrades does not come as a surprise when we consider that the military has, for years now, been sending troops with untreated PTSD back into the US occupation of Iraq. Continue reading
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Iraqi Doctors in Hiding Treat as They Can By Dahr Jamail
In early 2008, the Iraqi Health Ministry said that 628 medical personnel have been killed since 2003. Many believe the real figure is far higher, and that there is additionally a very large number of doctors who have been kidnapped and tortured. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 