The Colder War? by John Pilger Last week, the US government announced that it was building the biggest-ever war machine. Military spending will rise to $379 billion, of which $50 billion will pay for its "war on terrorism".

How Different Are Islamic Societies? by M. Shahid Alam There are two opposite visions that animate American scholarship on Islam and Islamic societies. In the days, months and years ahead, a great deal will hinge on which of these two visions prevails in our foreign policy.

Mullahs and Heretics by Tariq Ali

The State of the Union and the New Cold War by Rahul Mahajan Any who doubted the characterization of the war on terrorism as a new Cold War had only to listen to the State of the Union address, Bush's most depressing speech since he launched his unlimited war with his address to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001.

Confronting Terrorism and War by Stephen R. Shalom THANKFULLY AND ASTONISHINGLY, it now appears that the original death estimates for the World Trade Center attacks were too high; the actual toll may turn out to be in the neighborhood of three thousand rather than six thousand. But such is the enormity of what happened on September 11 that even if the original count is reduced by half, this was an atrocity of horrific proportions.

Blaming America First by Todd Gitlin
Why are some on the left, who rightly demand sympathy for victims around the world, so quick to dismiss American suffering?

George Bush's Permanent War by Matthew Rothschild

MLK/911: I Have A Dream by David Potorti
"I have a dream today." Martin Luther King Jr.'s words are, in retrospect, downright commonplace: don't we all have a dream? A dream of owning our own home, getting zero percent financing on a new car, or taking early retirement? Or, our dreams might be more mundane — finding a job. Putting food on the table. Getting our kids home from school in one piece.

Still, some dreams are bigger than others. Some have a way of capturing our imaginations. And King's dream, like his goal of freedom, continues to ring as true as it remains elusive...

Crimes of the "Northern Alliance" Seen Through the Eyes of a Grieving Mother RAWA

More Than Bush Bargained For? American Involvement Has South Asia on the Brink of Nuclear War By Eric Margolis

Media's Patriotism Provides a Shield for Bush Joan Konner A CURTAIN of prescribed patriotism has dropped over our TV news screens, obscuring all but the most ratings-driven stories.

The Big Lie is Bush's Most Powerful Weapon by Ira Chernus The most powerful weapon in the so-called “war on terrorism” is not any gun or bomb or spy technology. It is The Big Lie. Mr. Bush and his government wield The Big Lie constantly and shamelessly. If we want peace, we must first begin to speak The Big Truth.

The Proposed U.S. Military Commissions Under President Bush's November 13th Military Order on military commissions, any foreign national designated by the President as a suspected terrorist or as aiding terrorists could potentially be arrested, tried, convicted and even executed without a public trial, without adequate access to counsel, without the presumption of innocence or even proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt, and without the right to judicial appeal...

An Alternative to War in Iraq By John Absood

Corporate Patriotism by Ralph Nader U. S. corporations aren't even subtle about it. Waving a flag and carrying a big shovel, corporate interests are scooping up government benefits and taxpayer money in an unprecedented fashion while the public is preoccupied with the September 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan.

Christian Wahhabists Barbara Ehrenreich
There has been a lot of loose talk, since September 11, about a "clash of civilizations" between musty, backward-looking, repressive old Islam and the innovative and freedom-loving West. "It is a clash between positivism and a reactionary, negative world view," columnist H.D.S. Greenway writes in The Boston Globe.

Pakistan’s nukes Muddassir RizviWestern media turns its attentions once again toward our ally’s arsenal

There is another America When Bonnie Greer returned to America to talk to the people she grew up with, she came across a different set of attitudes towards the events of 11 September

Dialogue, not clash of civilisations This week, the Arab League held an important symposium questioning the logic that civilisations are condemned to clash. Mohamed Sid-Ahmed comments

Will Iraq be next? Sunder Katwala Will the "war on terrorism" extend beyond Afghanistan? The Observer asked Lawrence Freedman, David Clark, Ivo Daalder and more foreign policy analysts from Britain and America read the runes

Now we can see clearly the awful complexity of declaring war on terrorism

Defining Terrorism By Phillip Cryan "Terrorism" may be the most important, powerful word in the world right now. In the name of doing away with terrorism, the United States is bombing Afghanistan and talking about possible attacks elsewhere. Political leaders from many countries are at once declaring support for the new U.S. war and seeking to re-name their own enemies as "terrorists."

UK will support strikes on other countries, says Hoon By Kim Sengupta

Allies justify mass killing By Nicholas Watt, Richard Norton-Taylor, and Luke Harding in Mazar-i-Sharif Allies justify mass killing of Taliban prisoners in fort

We Are the War Criminals Now By Robert Fisk Everything we have believed in since the Second World War goes by the board as we pursue our own exclusive war.

Playing the great game By Jonathan Freedland As the Afghan war reaches a climax, questions about the slaughter of prisoners cannot be brushed aside

Here Are the Muslim Feminist Voices, Mr. Rushdie! By Fawzia Afzal-Khan

A silent genocide By Faiza Rady Ignored by the media and dismissed

US policy on Taliban influenced by oil - authors
By Julio Godoy Until just a month before the September 11 attacks, the United States blocked intelligence agencies' investigations on terrorism in favor of negotiating with the Taliban over a deal on Osama bin Laden, a recently-released book claims. The motivation behind the policy, the authors say, was to secure US oil interests in Central Asia..

Aftershocks that will eventually shake us all
By Fred Halliday, November 25, 2001 A new international order may not have emerged from the cauldron of 11 September, but it is not too early to discern the outlines of the emerging world...

Opium farmers rejoice at defeat of the Taliban
By Richard Lloyd Parry in Surkhrud, Afghanistan , 21 November 2001

Moves to get a foot in Afghanistan's door
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

Lifting the veil does not liberate women
By Mary Dejevsky

Pipeline Politics: Oil, gas and the US interest in Afghanistan By Richard Tanter

Islam and violence: breaking the link
By Katerina Dalacoura, November 18, 2001 Does political Islam encourage violence and terrorism? Yes and no: despite extremist interpretations, there is a just war tradition in Islam too. But Islamic violence is political not theological, so the solution will have to be political too...

Beware the peace that kills Paddy Ashdown, November 18, 2001 We have been too obsessed with the dangers of war and given too little thought to Afghanistan's future...

Kabul paper trail damns al-Qaeda Jason Burke in Jalalabad, Tim Judah in Kabul and Peter Beaumont, November 18, 2001 Crucial

Afghan women will still be ignored Natasha Walter, November 15 2001 'Everyone is delighted that women can take off their ghost costumes, but there is little discussion of the long-term picture for them'...

Suicidal Ignorance By Edward Said By now, at least, it should be clear: the US just doesn't get it. Time for a change of policy...

What will the Northern Alliance do in our name now? I dread to think... Robert Fisk, November 14 2001 'Why do we always have this ambiguous, dangerous relationship

The United States is a Leading Terrorist State: An Interview with Noam Chomsky

Most Afghans don't share this optimism: The power vacuum has already been filled with killing and looting Felicity Lawrence and Jonathan Steele, November 13 2001
They should have been celebrating. After all, most western media and politicians were doing just that. But these were Afghans with relatives still in Kabul and Herat, and at a late night meeting on Monday, as news of the Northern Alliance's advance to Kabul was breaking, their mood was one of deep foreboding...

No Surprise at Rumors of New Atrocities by Our 'Foot-Soldiers' by Robert Fisk
The Northern Alliance's sudden victories in Afghanistan may be good news for the West but the bad news is not far behind. The Uzbek, Tadjik and Hazara gunmen who make up this rag-tag army have a bloody reputation for torturing and executing prisoners which – if resumed in the coming days – will plunge America and Britain into a moral abyss...

Executions of P.O.W.'s Cast Doubts on Alliance Nov 13, 2001.
Minutes after Northern Alliance soldiers, advancing toward Kabul, surged deep into Taliban territory, they chose to celebrate with executions.

Bin Laden interview with Hamid Mir, the editor of Ausaf, at an undisclosed location near Kabul. Nov 7, 2001.This was the first interview given by Osama to any journalist after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

Taliban should be overthrown by the uprising of Afghan nation RAWA statement on the US strikes on Afghanistan. Again, due to the treason of fundamentalist hangmen, our people have been caught in the claws of the monster of a vast war and destruction. America, by forming an international coalition against Osama and his Taliban-collaborators and in retaliation for the 11th September terrorist attacks, has launched a vast aggression on our country.

Afghanistan: Terrorism, The Taliban and The Role of Women in Peace and Security .
October, 2001. The harboring of suspected terrorists by the Taliban comes as no surprise to the women's movement, which has been protesting the Taliban regime since it fought its way to power in 1996. Governments including the United States historically empowered and heavily supported fundamentalist extremist forces in Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden himself, in an effort to oust Soviet power following the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union in 1979...

America's Terrorist Training Camp By George Monbiot
What's the difference between Al Qaeda and Fort Benning?

Does anybody really understands what is happening in Afghanistan right now. By Geov Parrish
Seven and a half million people at risk of dying in a matter of months. That's three times the number of people Pol Pot took years to kill. Thirty-five times the number that died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, combined. If 5,000 died on September 11, we're talking the equivalent number of deaths to ten World Trade Centers, every day, for 150 days.

US Campaign Against Afghanistan Not Self-Defence Under International Law By Brian J. Foley
Looking at the Security Council resolutions 1368 and 1373 are the US attacks on Afghanistan self-defence and does international law condone these?

Holding Terrorists Accountable? It Depends on the Colour and the Cause By Tim Wise
Members of his terrorist organization and network have killed Americans, on American soil. Those inspired by his message have engaged in a mass atrocity: blowing innocent people out of their offices as the building where they worked crumbled to the ground...

A war that presents us all with a crisis of faith By Salman Rushdie
This isn't about Islam." The world's leaders have been repeating this mantra for weeks, partly in the virtuous hope of deterring reprisal attacks on innocent Muslims living in the west, partly because, if the US is to maintain its coalition against terror, it can't afford to allege that Islam and terrorism are in any way related...

Scholars debate the Root causes of Islamic Terrorism in Middle East News Online
Miami - Since the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, many people have pondered the motivations and ideology of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network. In Boca Raton, Florida, two university professors specializing in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies recently held a forum to discuss the subject. The two men presented differing points of view that raised eyebrows among many who attended...

More and More, War Is Viewed as America's By Donald G. McNeil Jr.
Whatever doubts the world's politicians may raise about America's war on terror, the world's people do not seem to be voting with raised fists -- yet.

Analysis: Kashmir threat to coalition: The America-led air strikes against Afghanistan -- ostensibly backed by India and Pakistan -- and the fear of a region-wide conflict has put the volatility of disputed Kashmir back in the spotlight...

Islam and the West are inadequate banners by Edward Said
The United States may too often have failed to look outside but it is depressing how little time is spent trying to understand America...

A Vision to Lift the Spirit: A Way Out of the Middle East Impasse by Edward Said
With the bombs and missiles falling on Afghanistan in the high-altitude US destruction that is Operation Enduring Freedom, the Palestine question may seem tangential to the altogether more urgent events in Central Asia. It would be a mistake to think so...

Interview with Noam Chomsky by Radio B92 in Belgrade, 9/18/01
Q: Why do you think these attacks happened...

Black Tuesday: The view from Islamabad by Pervez Hoodbhoy
Samuel Huntington's evil desire for a clash between civilisations may well come true after Tuesday's terror attacks. The crack that divided Muslims everywhere from the rest of the world is no longer a crack. It is a gulf, that if not bridged, will surely destroy both...

Ten things you should know about US Policy. The Middle East is the destination of the majority of American arms exports, creating enormous profits for weapons manufacturers and contributing greatly to the militarization of this already overly-militarized region...

In Focus: Humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan (United Nations)
http://www.un.org/News/dh/latest/afghan/afghan2.htm

Act Now: Prevent further human rights violations in Afghanistan (Amnesty International)
http://web.amnesty.org/web/content.nsf/pages/gbrsep11crisis3_afghan

Right now, 2.5 million people in Afghanistan are in desperate need of food. (Oxfam International) There is now very little time left to help these people. They have already endured severe drought and 20 years of war. If vital aid does not arrive by mid-November, many families could die this winter.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/atwork/emerg/afghanistan.htm

President Bush's Address on Terrorism Before a Joint Meeting of Congress 9/21/01
Transcript recorded by the New York Times