Articles by Jeff Sparrow

Everyone knows that much of Afghanistan’s current misery can be traced back to the willingness of the Soviets and the US to fund various groups of cut-throats during the cold war. We’re doing exactly the same today.

Most Australians now oppose the conflict in Afghanistan. Yet, perversely, its very unpopularity has led to less rather than more public debate about the war.

Last week, with very little fanfare, Afghanistan became the longest war in US history. Where are the mea culpas from all the experts whose earnest predictions about Afghanistan went so terribly awry?

A campaign of assassination of local leaders thought to be loyal to the Taliban contains an obvious potential for human rights abuses, especially since it’s almost impossible for the media to monitor what undercover troops actually do.

What’s it like to attend a Lord Monckton meeting? For the cheering crowd of Old-Australia-RSL-club climate change deniers who flocked to see him, it was like a rock concert.

Nine years of bloodshed and death, and billions upon billions of dollars spent on the Afghanistan occupation, we are facing negotiations on significantly worse terms than before the war began.

ASIO says that five refugees from Oceanic Viking constitute a threat to national security. How can this be a healthy democratic country when a secret agency plays such a major role in a political debate, without even making its sources available?

Stephen Conroy’s internet filter smells just like a campaign to put clothes upon the world’s animals. It will generate headlines about decency and families, but leave the fundamentals of society entirely untouched.

Did any of the Right-wing pundits who fostered the denialist cause ever sit down and decide that, in the wake of Howard’s defeat, the conservative movement would best counter Kevin Rudd’s steady popularity by installing the most ferociously reactionary leader the Liberal Party has ever seen?

The Republicans in the US understand too well the conundrum now facing the Liberals: You can’t run your party if you don’t heed the crazies — but you can’t run the country if you do.

A leaked contribution to the Chilcot Inquiry has revealed that Tony Blair deliberately misled parliament over his intentions in Iraq, writes Jeff Sparrow.

Beenie, the Jamaican DJ just dropped from the Big Day Out, may be a phenomenal talent. But he has, at various times, been openly, flagrantly — almost murderously — homophobic.

Michael Moore aims his new movie Capitalism: A Love Story simultaneously at the head and the heart. Therein lies its biggest problem, writes Jeff Sparrow.

Kevin Rudd repeatedly denounces traffickers as “the vilest form of people on the planet” but says nothing whatsoever about those governing Sri Lanka — almost as if it’s morally worse to smuggle victims away from atrocities than it is to perpetrate them in the first place.

In 2004, prison guards carried Todd Willingham into the death chamber, strapped him onto a gurney and injected him with sodium thiopental to paralyse him, pancuronium bromide to collapse his lungs, and potassium chloride to stop his heart. One problem: Willingham was probably innocent.

Barack Obama wins a Nobel peace prize AND may escalate a war? Well, we live in post-ironical times, where we all dutifully believe six impossible things before breakfast. Like, nuclear weapons are ultimately peaceful.

Australian publishers may not like it, but e-books are not going away. And with the launch of the Kindle in Australia, the industry’s going to have to adapt.

Given the Left-liberal orientation of most people attending the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, the Rightward slant of the topics seems distinctly odd.

In Sri Lanka, an appalling human rights tragedy continues to play out. After the wake of the military defeat of the Tamil Tigers, 250,000 Tamils have been herded into detention.

The Oz jumps on the “let’s beat ‘em up” bandwagon with support for a tougher, leather-clad Fonz in the White House.