The US was born a settler colony, that unique product of largely British (but also European) migration during the era of empire, which was to leave a permanent Anglo-Saxon footprint in such disparate lands as North America and Australia.

The settler colony produced a quite different dynamic and mentality from that of Europe and Asia, both of which were characterized by the relative continuity of their native populations.

The establishment of settler colonies meant the conquest and brutal destruction of the native populations.

It is impossible to understand the psychology of the Americans, without understanding what they did to the Indians. This was not ethnic cleansing but something closer to ethnic extermination.   more »

Both elements of the Bush doctrine, pre-emptive wars and nuclear strikes, are deeply disturbing because they carry within them the seeds of perpetual confrontation.

In threatening some countries with first nuclear strikes, they push these countries to seek protection in developing their own nuclear weapons, thus ensuring violent confrontation with Washington.

In determining threats to the peace, the Bush administration rides roughshod over the UN Security Council.

In promoting pre-emptive wars before threats materialised, the Bush doctrine guarantees American involvement in conflicts without resolution, and wars without end. That is the Bush legacy that Congress urgently needs to reverse.   more »

Farmers in southern Iraq have started to grow opium poppies in their fields for the first time, sparking fears that Iraq might become a serious drugs producer along the lines of Afghanistan.

Rice farmers along the Euphrates, to the west of the city of Diwaniya, south of Baghdad, have stopped cultivating rice, for which the area is famous, and are instead planting poppies, Iraqi sources familiar with the area have told The Independent.

The shift to opium cultivation is still in its early stages but there is little the Iraqi government can do about it because rival Shia militias and their surrogates in the security forces control Diwaniya and its neighbourhood.   more »

Everyone knows what a McJob is. It is exactly what the Oxford English Dictionary says:

"An unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp one created by the expansion of the service sector."

Now McDonald's is trying to get the word removed or re-defined by putting up some patsy MPs to sign an early day motion, and organising a petition and an open letter signed mainly by other service employers and some who have taken the McShilling at some time or another.

Oddly enough, they are not protesting - as perhaps they might - at the rubbishing of their brand name.   more »

The resistance in Palestine, in Lebanon and in Iraq deserves the full support of all progressive forces who struggle for unity and human solidarity.

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and United for Peace and Justice have called for a protest and teach-in on June 10 and a lobby day on June 11 in Washington, D.C., “to protest the 40th anniversary of Israel’s illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.”

As events this week so starkly confirm, the crisis in the region is rooted in the creation of the state of Israel and the massive expulsion of the indigenous Palestinian population in 1948.

It is essential that actions in solidarity with Palestine address the whole crime and demand an end to all occupation.   more »