United for Peace of Pierce County

COMMENT: Brexit vote 'changed everything'

Details: Written by Henry Adams; Published: 24 June 2016

After June 23's historic Brexit referendum, in which Britons voted by a margin of about one million votes to leave the European Union, Philip Stephens, the chief political commentator of the Financial Times of London, said that the vote "changed everything." -- Stephens said it was hard to overestimate its significance: "Economic and foreign policies crafted over nearly half a century overturned in the course of a single night. -- A political establishment shattered by an insurgency against the élites. -- The nations of the United Kingdom divided; and England split between its metropolitan cities and post-industrial provinces. -- A vote against globalization. -- A decision that weakens Europe and the West. -- Political earthquake is an understatement."[1] -- In a Los Angeles Times Op-Ed, two European academics called the vote a "catastrophe" in which "British voters willfully walked off a cliff."[2] -- They said that the American voters will have an opportunity to "make the same mistake by voting for a Trump presidency come November."

COMMENTARY: Little-noted Muslim responses to Orlando mass shooting

Details: Written by Hank Berger; Published: 15 June 2016

On Monday a site managed by the Duke Islamic Studies Center posted a piece on Muslim responses to the massacre that took place on Sunday in Orlando, Florida.[1] -- Observing that "mainstream news media only gives scant coverage" to statements from Muslim groups, Ray Hanania of the Arab Daily News also compiled on Monday seven such statements denouncing the atrocity.[2] -- On Tuesday, Abdul Cader Asmal, a Muslim affiliated with the Islamic Council of New England, wrote in the Arlington (MA) Advocate that Muslims "condemn this vile act" and affirmed that "Muslims remain committed to the extermination of such hatred within and without our country."[3] ...

COMMENTARY: On the US failure to reform the 'Iraqi' army

Details: Written by Henry Adams; Published: 04 June 2016

It is a convention of U.S. mainstream media to report what has happened as what might happen, when what has happened is unpalatable to the powers that be. -- This time-honored convention was on display again this week in a piece co-authored by Jonathan Landay of Reuters. -- Landay reported that the weakness of the so-called Iraqi army "could" impede the struggle against ISIS, and also that the Sunni-Shiite divide "threatens" to split the country.[1] -- Yet it was almost ten years ago that we pointed out the obvious -- that this split had already occurred. -- Recognizing the obvious is not permitted in mainstream media when state interests dictate otherwise, however. -- COMMENT: Donald Trump's willingness to express the inexpressible is one of the many reasons he is anathema to the American political establishment. -- In July 2015, for example, Trump said on CNN: "There is no Iraq. There are no Iraqis -- they’re broken up into so many different factions." -- Hillary Clinton, in a major speech yesterday, tried to convince her listeners that Trump is a deranged lunatic living in a fantasy world, but it Clinton's assertion on Thursday that "We need to . . . close Iraq's sectarian divide" that strikes us as a dangerous fantasy.[2] -- "It’s clear [Donald Trump] doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about," she said mockingly, but it's even clearer that Hillary Clinton knows more than she's saying. -- It is also clear that the presumptive Democratic nominee is more of a hawk than the presumptive Republican nominee, and Susan Sarandon, for one, was quick to say so: -- "I believe in a way [Hillary Clinton] is more dangerous. -- She did not learn from Iraq, and she is an interventionist, and she has done horrible things, and very callously, I don’t know if she is overcompensating or what her trip is."[3] ...