Is John Pilger ever able to write anything that isn't clearly anti-western/anti-US. Last I saw the US were leading the relief of Haiti.

I think he'd be better writing from somewhere more suitalbe - like Pyongyang perhaps. His mentality suits the leadership there.

John Pilger.

While I give you your right to point out all or faults as Western societies, you need to broaden your outlook to show us all how we can change rather than merely preach all of the horrors to the already converted people that thrive on all that is wrong in our world.

Just tell us how the world should be in a realistic way, or is just too hard for you.

Just the usual lunatic pap from Pilger. He needs professional help.

Try to get a grip on reality, Pilger, although you've been grovelling in your repulsive fantasies for so long now there's probably no hope.

This reference provides all the information one needs to understand the history of Haiti as a western sacrifice zone.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Haiti/Haiti.html

It also confirms what Bronwyn writes in her essay today.

As usual John Pilger has seen the forest in spite of the trees.
The USA is not there to help Haiti it is there for its own capitalistic reasons. Mainly to get the American owned factories back to work and to ensure popular support for people power (socialism) is not re-established.

Thank you John Pilger for adding an authoritative article to the continuing history of Haiti's subjugation by Imperialism and neo colonialism together with the link provided by Ho Hum and the post by Bronwyn Winter.

Without you contributions, the apologists for United States military aggression, spread their disinformation without challenge

Keep up the good work

Port Au Prince airport was closed due to it being taken over by US military aircraft, and flights carrying medical and food relief were diverted to Dominica. Pity the US was'nt as quick in relief, for New Orleans during Katrina.

Pilger said

"Never before has an American president subordinated his government to the military establishment of his discredited predecessor, as Barack Obama has done. In pursuing George W. Bush’s policy of war and domination, Obama has sought from Congress an unprecedented military budget in excess of $700 billion. He has become, in effect, the spokesman for a military coup".

Now this would have to be one of the most cynical comments I have ever heard from anyone seeking to provide thoughtful comments on any incident or event.

If only Obama was interested in the dribble offered by Pilger that he would take the time to make a response to defend US efforts trying to do something positive in Haiti

thanks John. I'm sure you are a very hard person to upset, but i just want to add that not everyone on this forum is screaming commie pinko in your direction. Love your posts here and on Znet and where ever else i can find them. You are a candle in a dark place

John Pilger is writing against Corporate America and the surreptitious manner in which it forces itself onto Haiti. This type of technique is used by Corporate America, Corporate Europe,etc. to impoverish developing nations all over the world.

Naomi Klein calls it the "Shock Doctrine" of Disaster http://fora.tv/2008/10/16/Naomi_Klein_Disaster_Capitalism

"Nobel Laureate and former Chief Economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz wrote a review of The Shock Doctrine for the New York Times, calling the parallel between economic shock therapy and the psychological experiments conducted by Ewen Cameron "overdramatic and unconvincing" but also saying, "the case against these policies is even stronger than the one Klein makes" and that the book contains "a rich description of the political machinations required to force unsavory economic policies on resisting countries." (wikipaedia)

I'm from the right side of politics as far as free markets go and don't share all Pilger's philosphy.John Pilger is 100% correct in his assessment of the Corporate Global Oligarchy trying to rule the planet at the moment.This Oligarcgy is not about freedom of markets or fairness since that takes effort.It is about absolute power without accountability and that means servere suffering for the masses.

Pilger is one of the few Journo's who in the words of John Swinton,is NOT an "intellectual prostitute."

More power to you John.

There are two kinds of political commentator:

Those who work from reality.
Those who work from the perception of some utopian standpoint.

Pilger is of the latter. This means that when he is writing about those who wield a degree of power, they are compared to the pure perfect ideal. Somewhat ironically, the only purists in politics tend to be extremists who end up wreaking havoc.

Thus, whoever he is writing about won't measure up. This approach is all well and good, however Pilger takes things one step further. When they don't measure up to this ideal, they are effectively portrayed as an evil, conspiratorial cabal.

This whole act gets rather childish and repetitive after a while. I'll pass.

TRTL I don't think that Pilger works from some unattainable utopian standpoint.He is looking at a reality that in 2008 I would never have entertained.Both Bush and Obama are owned by the same people.ie Wall St and the big Global Res banks.

You like the most of the Western World have been seduced by the Corportate deception of freedom when in fact,we including Haiti are in the slavery of debt that need not exist.You just do not understand the injustice of this system.

Go to http://wearechange.org/

I met Luke Rudowski a co-founder of this big movement in the USA and Europe late last yr.Go there and learn the truth.

Pilger is one of many who love the benefits and comforts produced by people with a Christian Judea ethics but hates the people. On the other hand he endorses the vodoo and other demonic practices and blames others for the fruit of it.

Thanks John Pilger for another illuminating and percipient article about the Corporate States of America. Most of Haiti's dire problems as a nation for 200 years can be laid at the door of the French and the Americans, who sponsored the vile Duvalier dictatorship.

This is also a great article, by the Guardian's Gary Younge, published on the National Times website today:
http://tinyurl.com/ybzmcpo

Street, Chris Lewis, KenH and TRTL, you have nothing to say. Clearly, you know nothing about Haiti, nor wish to know it, despite its tragic route on to the front pages for a few days. Not one of you even mentioned Haiti. No doubt the mere sight of Pilger's name gets you salivating or, to use Pilger's word, 'hyperventilating'. This is supposed to be a site for people to argue and debate, perhaps to inform; you're just making a personal attack.

Runner likes to pretend that modern comforts and peace are the sole invention of judeo-christian ethics. Ignorance prevents runner from seeing that almost all were derived from other civilisations both preceding and coexistent, and doesn't note that in the absence of wealth they don't correlate as well. Does Runner know where the word ethics came from?

Note that the parable of the good samaritan is not about a jew.

Runner doesn't understand his religion or much else.

Come on runner, prove you actually know something not part of the hackneyed televangelist mould: *where* does the word "ethics" come from?

Rusty

A must-watch film about Obama and previous USA Presidents being in the pocket of the Bilderberg group.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&NR=1&feature=fvwp (1hr. 50 mins.)

Not a conspiracy theory. Obama promised to withdraw troops from Afghanistan but added more troops.

With all due respect Rapscallion, you didn't actually mention any new details about Haiti either.

Pot, kindly meet the kettle. Apparently it's black.

Assumptions breed ignorance Rapscallion, and my entire point was that there are many shades of morality. You can't exercise some moral high ground by saying you care more about Haiti. Words are all there are here. All we did was say we don't agree with Pilger's more extremist conspiratorial theories. That doesn't give you the right to dictate what we do or don't care about.

For the record, I'm a leftie. It's the extremists at either end of the spectrum that give the rest a bad name, and I define extremists as idiots who jump in and cry foul while ascribing false motives to their opponents.

Something to think about.

TRTL is playing the old left right paradigm which the Oligarchs just love to see.They don't care what side of politics you're from,they can get an equal share of the tax revenue since they determine who will be in Govt.

Pilger is not an extremist in defining the source of the problem.Every Govt in the West is under the control of a corporate elite who determine our leaders,where the next war will be,the price of energy,creation of money,debt,and how much you on averge will earn.

With all the techno advances since 1980,our real living standards have fallen.We now work harder and longer for less.

TurnedRightThenLeft:

'All we did was say we don't agree with Pilger's more extremist conspiratorial theories.'

Far from an accurate summary of what you said. You didn't even get so far as to say that you disagreed - let alone why - with the article's substance.

Rather than getting on the moral high ground, I merely criticised your writing, not to discuss (or argue with) the article, but merely to denigrate the author in such a way as to dismiss the topic itself. Why not just stay away?

The only commenter I mentioned who gave any sign of having read the article was Chris Lewis. Street and KenH provided mere wild denigration, and you, based on the asserted premise that Pilger is 'utopian', clearly deduced that you could dismiss the piece.
Your argument about him goes thus: he is utopian therefore 'whoever he is writing about won't measure up'. Inverted reasoning? Actually, Pilger often found that things were not as benign as they seemed or were portrayed to be, and therefore became a critic. Yes, a crusading one, perhaps. It's fashionable to disparage what he does - an 'extremist' you call him - yet there are few journalists who have had the sheer temerity to investigate and stick their necks out like he has. I wouldn't put him on a pedestal, but I believe he is more likely to be correct than the press agencies' anodyne 'reportage' you get in the MSM. The labels 'utopian' and 'political commentator' (are there really only TWO kinds?? Oxymoronic?) are absurd.

There are plenty of articles to be found about the 'dark' side of what seems to have happened in Haiti for the last 200 years; I don't think they can all be dismissed as 'anti-western... utopian... cynical... dribble...lunatic pap', as his denigrators here describe him.

If everything by Pilger must, ipso facto, be discounted, try these:
http://tinyurl.com/yf8ujj2
http://tinyurl.com/ylfpsj4
Both by Marc Weisbrot, of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, DC
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/14/haiti-history-earthquake-disaster by Jon Henley, who is also not John Pilger
http://www.markdanner.com/articles/show/156 by Mark Danner.

I doubt you'll read them.

Rapscallion

I do read Pilger's articles, and I do think it is important that the negative aspects of power and history are highlighted.

My problem with Pilger, who is longstanding and acclaimed journalist, is that he needs to add a further dimension to his work; that being to show us how a better world can be achieved rather than just pointing out his extreme biased position. You, and many others, may find him illuminating, but I find his commentary pretty ordinary.

You are right, I am defensive of the West because I do think it has done a reasonable job in recent decades given the way the world has been throughout history.

Maybe Pilger, who specialises in criticism, may want to balance the ledger a bit more with criticism on the non-West. Believe me, as china rises, he will have much more to cry about.

Rapscallion

I think a key point that annoys me and others is that Pilger appears to wait to any issue to arise to sink the boots in.

Now I realise that we, who love to give our opinion and tell anyone how it is, need material to write about, but Pilger's opportunism wears a bit thin.

He could have used the Haiti situation to herald a new dawn in how the west treats such poor nations. This would allowed him to bring up the past, offer reasons why more needs to be done, and offer ideas rather than mere criticism.

Now I am sure Pilger has many good reasons to live in a western society. We do discuss key issues and we know that change can occur if public opinion is galvanised. So he should utilise these reasons to spread a positive message that makes appeal across the political spectrum. We who defend the West (rather enthusiastically) also want ideas to balance national and international considerations.

Sure, I and others struggle for effective ideas as our realism tends to be a bit gloomy, but perhaps a man of Pilger's experience can lead the way rather than rest on his political opportunism to highlight the gloom and doom associated with the West's flaws. Believe me, the Pilger approach is all too easy in Western societies that tolerate and respect dissent, albeit that Pilger does it in a most articulate way.