What has happened to the virile Western investigative reporting? Today on world affairs news reporting is confused with opinion pieces or commentary and that is the least of its crimes. The tenacious reporter is a thing of the past. (S)He now have their "reports" typed up by government or directly military sources and are in most cases pure propaganda. The reporter has become too lazy to check on the story and prefers to spend her/his time in the pub with the powers that be.

This is particularly true of the invasion of Iraq mostly written as a fairy tale with no no relation to fact. The same applies in Afghanistan, Libya and maybe Iran or Syria depending on which Arab country is decided to bring under Western control.

America is once more powerful in the UN as Ban Ki-moon the hapless Secretary general is totally controlled by America. The same applies to the IAEA with El Baradei retired and replaced by Yukiya Amano also a plaything of the USA they can now concoct lies and pass them off as truth. Is America planning to attack Iran or will it leave that to Israel?

America and Britain are not welcomed in the Arab world they have proved to be puppets of Israel or at least the Zionists there who have proved themselves to be bigoted, bloodthirsty, uncivilized trouble makers.

It certainly is a sad state of affairs. When you stop to think
about it - the international military establishment
employs an estimated 100 million people. World military
expenditures are a record $900 billion plus. All this expense
represents a colossal diversion of funds from socially useful
goals. For example, a single hour's worth of these
expenditures would suffice to save, through immunization, some
120,000 children around the world
who die each day from preventable infectious diseases.

Ultimately, the prospects for peace depend on the collective
action of ordinary people. If a modern society goes to war,
as in the case of the US - it is not just because the leaders
have opted for war, but because the people
have implicitly or explicitly done so also
- or at least they have not opted for peace.

Media reporting on the whole tends to support
the status quo. There are very few reporters who dare risk
their jobs to "tell it like it is," with the possible exceptions
of a select few. People shouldn't forget that the media is
owned by Corporations with a conservative fiscal agenda.
That isn't about to change any time soon.

Lexi, I beg to differ with you. It just so happens that I'm reading "The War Within" by Bob Woodward for a second time and it is abundantly clear that the American population had long changed their opinion on the misguided invasion of Iraq. The decision to go to war was based on what must be the most unique set of circumstances ever to occur; a complete breakdown in the intelligence agencies of all the Western countries at the same time. Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed that he had intelligence that stated that Saddam Hussein could deploy his weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes. A remarkable feat for some one who didn't posses any. The idea of embedded reporters at the time of war is bad they get briefings from the military which are pure propaganda and even with this incredible advantage in brain washing the American people wanted out of Iraq. Over four thousand American troops dead. hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, men women and children dead. The most appalling treatment of Iraqi POWS that included torture and rendition to countries that were not adverse to torture. And still Iraq is raised to the ground, its infrastructure destroyed, it is pumping less oil today then before the invasion. And the length of time before the "reporters" discovered these heinous crimes against humanity was a direct result of unquestioned reporting.

Dear Ulis,

I haven't read Woodward's book. But I shall get hold
of a copy. From your description is sounds like an
interesting read. My information in this case was
based on what I could get from friends living in Los Angeles.
Thank You for the information you've provided.
The more information we get, the better informed we'll
be. ;-)

Lexi and Ulis, I agree with both you. I don't think you're contradicting each other are you?

It strikes me as odd that so many critics of war abroad are the same ones in favour of big government at home.

Having just read this commentary on Iran by John Pilger, I feel reassured that he, and people like him, live and write. There is always a silver cloud in a world dominated by history repeating itself, which is the story of wars drummed up and executed by the powerful psychopathic powers that George Orwell warned us about. Speaking of George Orwell, here's a good synopsis of how so very Orwellian is the current propaganda on Iran. More reassurance that such writers exist in these dark Orwellian times:
http://www.salon.com/2011/12/04/george_orwell_on_the_evil_iranians/singleton/