STWR - Share The World's Resources

In his 2005 inaugural address, President George W. Bush declared that the United States would support democratic movements around the world and work to end tyranny. Furthermore, he pledged to those struggling for freedom that the United States would "not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors." Despite these promises, the Bush administration—with the apparent acquiescence of the Democratic-controlled Congress—has instead decided to continue U.S. support for the dictatorship of General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president.

Don’t worry, the White House is telling us.  The world’s most powerful leader was simply making a rhetorical point.  At a White House press conference last week, just in case you haven’t heard, President Bush informed the American people that he had told world leaders “if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.” World War III.  That is certainly some rhetorical point, especially coming from the man singularly most capable of making such an event reality.

Sociology professor emeritus James Petras surely ranks as one of the most astute scholars and chroniclers of capitalism and imperialism, as well as being a realistic appraiser of progressivist movements in the world. His latest book — Rulers and the Ruled in the US Empire: Bankers, Zionists, Militants — is a valuable compendium of how power is distributed and wielded in society and among states.

In Sicko, Michael Moore's new film, a young Ronald Reagan is shown appealing to working-class Americans to reject "socialised medicine" as commie subversion. In the 1940s and 1950s, Reagan was employed by the American Medical Association and big business as the amiable mouthpiece of a neo-fascism bent on persuading ordinary Americans that their true interests, such as universal health care, were "anti-American".

It was July 12 in Detroit, and all eight Democratic Party presidential candidates had just finished sparring at a forum sponsored by the NAACP when John Edwards and Hillary Clinton were caught hatching a plot to rid future debates of all but front-runners.

On September 21, 2007, I had the extraordinary opportunity to interview Noam Chomsky. The interview will be aired on Venezuelan and Latin American television as part of the promotion for the III International Book Fair in Venezuela, which this year focuses on the theme: "United States: Is Revolution Possible?" The transcription of the interview follows.