I took the "could" out of the headline. For the simple reason that "could" was included to quell fear.Or to create the perception that this threat will not come to pass.

Al-Akhbar | May 28, 2013

Several people were wounded Tuesday when a barrage of rockets launched from Syria hit Lebanon’s eastern Hermel region, one day after a girl was killed in a similar attack.
The National News Agency said that at least seven rockets struck Lebanon in third straight day of such attacks. They landed only hours after gunmen killed three Lebanese soldiers in nearby Ersal.

An article in the Washington Post on July 6, 2010, reported me standing before the White House, announcing a new epithet for President Barack Obama: “Wuss – a person who will not stand up for what he knows is right.” The report is correct – and so, I believe, is the epithet. And after the [...]

Prior to the 2012 election, President Obama told aides that he wanted to institutionalize the ad hoc war on terror, thus shaping it for years to come whether he was re-elected or a successor took over, according to the New York Times. This desire led to the recent presidential speech at the National Defense University [...]

Twelve and a half years after Congress didn’t declare war on an organization of hundreds or, at most, thousands of jihadis scattered mainly across the backlands of the planet, and instead let President George W. Bush and his cohort loose to do whatever they wanted; twelve and a half years after the president, his top officials, his neocon supporters, [...]

When John McCain slipped into Syria the other day to meet with Islamist rebels, Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted “best wishes” to his fellow warmonger and claimed “dibs on his office if he doesn’t come back.” Leave it to Sen. Graham, who has been agitating along with McCain for the US to send weapons to the [...]

Sunday evening, almost at the same moment I published a "How Safe Is Sweden?" post on my travel blog, Robert Reich tweeted a Wall Street Journal story about how growing economic inequality is fueling the social tensions between white Swedes and immigrants and the children of immigrants born in Sweden.

The violence continued today. At least 49 Iraqis were killed and 102 more were wounded.

It has now been well over 11 years since CIA agent, Osama Bin Laden, aka "Tim Osman" died due to complications from his failed kidneys..... He died in the Tora Bora region of northeastern Afghanistan and his death was announced in major world news reports, but of course...

White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler --Sorry, no shoe shots"When you take a woman who has risen to a remarkable position, serving as the lawyer to the President of the United States of America, and you call her a “litigatrix” in “stunning 4-inch bright pink stiletto spikes,” you diminish her, her accomplishments, and all women."-- John Aravosis, in an Americablog post, "Wash Post runs sexist

By Phil Greaves | notthemsmdotcom | May 22, 2013

A distinct increase of negative coverage has been forming in Western and Gulf press. This focus is specifically regarding Hezbollah’s direct involvement in the battle currently raging to take control of the Syrian town of Qusair; its overall role in Lebanon and the region, and its ties to both Syria’s President Assad, and the government of Iran.

As Eric mentioned on the blog last week, Charley Reese has passed away. He was one of the nation’s best newspaper columnists. I never met him in person but he and I exchanged a few letters.  He struck me as the incarnation of a thoughtful, considerate, Southern gentleman.

GOP idiots wasting their moneyJohn Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN), Ron Barber (New Dem-AZ) and Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ) are 4 of the House Democrats who vote most frequently and most consistently with Republicans on key matters of policy.

By BOB FANTINA | CounterPunch | May 28, 2013

In an interview with The Daily Caller, NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake the Obama administration’s targeting of journalists, their sources, and government whistleblowers is an attack on the First Amendment.

http://www.stripes.com/news/germans-prep-for-post-2014-role-in-afghanistan-1.222524
Stars and Stripes
May 28, 2013
Germans prep for post-2014 role in Afghanistan
By Alex Pena
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Of course the White House was aware! Would anyone believe otherwise?  I have heard it said that John McCain is insane? He isn't really, though.A psycopath, sure. Completely, evil/vile, yes. But ruthlessly, calculating and rational.The psychopathy and evil would be necessary attributes to consort with NATO's butchers, organ eaters, rapists and mass murdering killers.

There’s a discussion over at the Lawfare blog about whether or not finally repealing the expansive war powers authorized in the 2001 AUMF will actually do anything to constrain Obama and future U.S. presidents.
Mind you, the Lawfare crowd includes former Bush administration officials who wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to the expanded executive war powers usurped in the post-9/11 world being made permanent. But the discussion is revealing nonetheless.

You may have noticed that lately, the noisy right-wing Hate Machine has decided to take a little energy out of their stream of hatred and calumny usually reserved for Nancy Pelosi, to focus it on Keith Ellison (D-MN). After all, Keith, a very outspoken and articulate co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and only 49, will be in Congress long after Pelosi, 73, retires. Sean Hannity has declared a right-wing crusade against Ellison and spends an inordinate amount of energy smearing him. We've tried to have Keith's back.

Link

Yemen Post | May 27, 2013

Qatar which has been a staunch supporter of the Free Syrian Army against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria is now looking to enroll Yemen’s military elite to fight alongside other Arab-backed militias in a bid to offset Assad’s recent advances against the opposition.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 065. I was a guest on The Medical Freedom Report Podcast, with host Michael Ostrolenk, a couple years ago, discussing Patents on Medical Technology and Pharmaceuticals (Feb. 24, 2011). Patents & Copyrights: intellectual property rights or monopoly control of ideas? Why are medical devices protected by patent law while medical procedures are exempt? […]

I am indeed worried about where the economy here in Canada is going these days...

by James Corbett
BoilingFrogsPost.com
May 28, 2013

According to Angel Rabasa of the RAND Corp., we really need to start directly arming the Syrian rebels. How do we do that without bolstering the influence and lethality of extremist groups? Simple, he says: just “establish as soon as possible a task force to organize and supervise a train and equip program for the Syrian opposition forces.”

International Solidarity Movement | May 27, 2013

Hebron, Occupied Palestine – This morning, settlers from Kiryat Arba, an illegal israeli settlement in the city of Al Khalil (Hebron), started to place road markers for the construction of a road through the Palestinian olive groves of Wadi al-Hussein. They were accompanied by Israeli military and police.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
May 27, 2013
Libyan Prime Minister visits NATO

Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is, in essence, one thing above all else-- a self-loathing, closeted homosexual whose fear of exposure motivates everything else in his miserable life. Lindsey Graham should not be in the Senate or in government service at all. He is obsessed with his own homosexuality. His life in the dark, dank closet, trembling with fear that "the rednecks" will find out, has made him a practiced liar and has stoked a severe mental illness.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Leo Tolstoy: Selections on war
Henri Troyat: Thoughts stop with a shock: War!
Russian writers on war
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Press TV – May 28, 2013

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Araqchi has strongly rejected recent claims by Yemen’s foreign minister about Iran’s interference in the Arab country’s affairs.

RT | May 28, 2013

The failure of the European Union to agree on a new arms embargo for Syria is undermining the peace process, Moscow says. But the delivery of S-300 surface-to-air missiles may help restrain warmongers.

By Franklin Lamb | Al-Manar | May 28, 2013

Beirut – Under withering pressure from Washington and the UK, the European Union met this week to decide whether to increase the pressure on the Syrian public by repealing the March 2011 arms embargo that was intended to prohibit arms shipments to Syria and whether or not to continue economic sanctions against the Syrian public.

The thrice-promised land it has been called. It is that land north of Mecca and Medina and south of Anatolia, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. In 1915 — that year of Gallipoli, which forced the resignation of First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill — Britain, to win Arab support for its [...]

The dust in Iraq rolls down the long roads that are the desert’s fingers. It gets in your eyes and nose and throat; it swirls in markets and school playgrounds, consuming children kicking a ball; and it carries, according to Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, “the seeds of our death”. An internationally respected cancer specialist at the [...]

Darwin observed that conscience is what most distinguishes humans from other animals. If so, grief isn’t far behind. Realms of anguish are deeply personal—yet prone to expropriation for public use, especially in this era of media hyper-spin. Narratives often thresh personal sorrow into political hay. More than ever, with grief marketed as a civic commodity, [...]

"When Tony Blair and George W. Bush are put in front of war crimes trials, along with Rumsfeld and many others, we can talk.

A series of bombings mostly in Baghdad's predominantly Shi'ite neighborhoods left scores dead. Across all Iraq, at least 81 people were killed and 246 were wounded.

Dangerous douche bags Huckabee and Crowley... with guitarsEarlier today, we mentioned in passing, that Joe Crowley is one of the most corrupt Members of Congress... in history, and that he's been facilitating corrupt relationships between freshmen New Dems-- he's the ex-Chairman of the Big Business-owned coalition of anti-working family Democrats.

By Justin Doolittle | CrimeThink | May 26, 2013

CPTnet | May 27, 2013

Because of the dire economic situation in the Old City in Hebron every day children go to the Ibrahimi Mosque soup-kitchen to get food. Walking out through the mosque checkpoint shortly after noon on Sunday 26 May, I was surprised by the number of people standing at the other end of the checkpoint.

Wall St. shills Crowley & Himes, leading freshmen to slaughterEarly this morning we saw how California voters drove the obstructionist Republicans away from the levers of power and made it impossible for them to obstruct government. And the result was a $60 billion deficit turned into a $4 billion surplus.

Press TV – May 27, 2013

Iran has officially inaugurated a railroad which connects the northern Iranian city of Gorgan to Incheh Borun town along the border with Turkmenistan.
The Gorgan-Incheh Borun railroad came on stream in a ceremony attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Roads and Urban Development Minister Ali Nikzad in Golestan Province on Monday.

International Solidarity Movement | May 27, 2013

In the U.S., our job for today is clear. It’s Memorial Day and there are a solemn thoughts to have and wreaths to lay. “Ultimate sacrifice” must be repeated again and again. And as MSNBC’s Chris Hayes learned last year, best not to raise even the smallest question of whether  painting each and every dead soldier with a broad “hero” brush is accurate.

Press TV – May 26, 2013

British campaigners have called on French Singer Julien Clerc to consider the plight of Palestinians and cancel his upcoming concert in apartheid Israel.

By Sabrina Hummel | The Argentina Independent | May 27, 2013

More than 20 indigenous Tonocoté families were violently evicted from their community in Santiago del Estero on Friday, it has emerged. The eviction has caused an outcry among human rights and environmental organisations from around the country.

By Ibrahim al-Amin | Al-Akhbar | May 27, 2013

Relations between the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus and the Lebanese Resistance had already reached a high-level of coordination and mutual support even before the outbreak of the Syrian crisis. At the time, the two allies tended to respect each others’ boundaries, recognizing each other’s key roles in the region.

From the Facebook page of Robert Higgs, a photograph of an injured Iraqi boy and an important reminder:

If this is what must to done to “protect my freedoms,” I greatly prefer that my freedoms be left for me to protect. Of course, it’s all pretentious rubbish. The U.S. imperial wars have nothing to do with protecting my freedoms, and indeed they contribute greatly to the destruction of my remaining freedoms while wreaking unthinkable suffering on millions of hapless people abroad.

Advocates of U.S. military action in Syria have grown fond of responding to opponents of intervention with what they seem to think is a ‘gotcha.’ Opponents of intervention keep warning of the potential catastrophe of getting involved in another Middle Eastern conflict that could draw us in to another lengthy quagmire like Iraq and Syria. Advocates cleverly retort: “But we don’t want boots on the ground!!”