Truthout

  • How Petraeus Created the Myth of His Success

    By Gareth Porter, Truthout | Report

    Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, right, holding a meeting with community leaders in Mosul, Iraq on April 30, 2003. (Photo: Ruth Fremson / The New York Times) Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, right, holding a meeting with community leaders in Mosul, Iraq on April 30, 2003. (Photo: Ruth Fremson / The New York Times) The discovery of his affair with Paula Broadwell has ended David Petraeus' career, but the mythology of Petraeus as the greatest US military leader since Eisenhower for having engineered turnarounds in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars lives on.

    A closer examination of his role in those wars reveals a very different picture, however.

    As this four-part series will show, Petraeus represents a new type of military commander, whose primary strength lay neither in strategy nor in command of combat, but in the strategic manipulation of information to maintain domestic political support for counterinsurgency wars of choice, while at the time enhancing his own reputation.

    Read more...
  • Print
Uncategorised
Published Date
Rob Joyce
Hits: 1368526

.

  • Beyond Fiscal Cliff, an Austerity Bomb

    Beyond Fiscal Cliff, an Austerity Bomb

    By Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co. | Op-Ed

    Brian Beutler of Talking Points Memo seems to have been the first to use the phrase "austerity bomb" to describe what's scheduled to happen in the United States at the end of the year. It's a much better term than "fiscal cliff."

    The cliff stuff makes people imagine that it's a problem of excessive deficits when it's actually about the risk that the deficit will be too small; also and relatedly, the fiscal cliff stuff enables a bait-and-switch in which people say "So, this means that we need to enact Bowles-Simpson and raise the retirement age!" — both of which have nothing at all to do with it.

    Read more...
  • Of Plagues and Prisons: Two Films Everyone Should See

    Of Plagues and Prisons: Two Films Everyone Should See

    By Joe Macare, Truthout | Op-Ed

    David France's How to Survive a Plague and Eugene Jarecki's The House I Live In are both movies that address fundamentally important issues left out of both the official historical narrative and our contemporary political discourse. It is either ironic or bitterly appropriate that the two films were first released in the period immediately before the US presidential election, a time when the political conversations being played out in the national media are usually at their lowest level.

    Read more...

Op-Ed

News Analysis

Book Excerpt

Exclusive Report

News Analysis

News

Opinion

Howard Zinn Speaks

Art

More Images

Video

Massive Fire Kills at Least 118 Factory Workers in Bangladesh at Walmart Supplier

Massive Fire Kills at Least 118 Factory Workers in Bangladesh at Walmart Supplier

Africa Lost 1.6 Trillion in Capital Flight and Odious Debt Over Forty Years

Africa Lost 1.6 Trillion in Capital Flight and Odious Debt Over Forty Years

After Brokering Gaza Ceasefire, Egypt’s Morsi Reignites Protests With Decree Expanding Powers

After Brokering Gaza Ceasefire, Egypt’s Morsi Reignites Protests With Decree Expanding Powers

Onion Book of Known Knowledge
The Public Intellectual
Occupy the Narrative
Moyers and Company1
Economic Update
Solutions
Ladydrawers
Environmental Possibilities: Zero Waste
Peace Calendar

© 2012 Truthout