INSTITUTE FOR HISTORICAL REVIEW

IHR News and Comment A Free Public Service of   INSTITUTE FOR HISTORICAL REVIEW September 24, 2014 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Young Americans Have 'Historically Low' Levels Of Trust In Government, Harvard Poll Shows Business Insider http://www.businessinsider.com/poll-millenials-have-historically-low-levels-of-trust-in-government-2014-4 A new poll surveying young Americans' political attitudes released by Harvard University's Institute of Politics Tuesday found millennials have less trust in government than ever before. Harvard's poll showed millennials, which the pollsters defined as peopled aged 18 to 29, have lost trust in a variety of different major public institutions including the President, the military, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the federal government as a whole ... Overall, the pollsters said the level of trust millennials have in "most American institutions tested in our survey" had dropped below even "last year's historically low numbers."

Afghanistan's Pres. Karzai Sharply Criticizes U.S. in Farewell Speech Reuters http://news.yahoo.com/afghanistans-karzai-slams-u-pakistan-farewell-speech-083042336.html Outgoing President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday blamed the United States for Afghanistan's long war in a final swipe at the country that helped bring him to power 13 years ago but towards which he has become increasingly bitter ... Karzai blamed both the United States and neighboring Pakistan for the continuing war with the Taliban-led insurgency, and warned the new government to be "extra cautious in relations with the U.S. and the West." The conflict kills thousands of Afghans each year ... "One of the reasons was that the Americans did not want peace because they had their own agenda and objectives," Karzai said. He did not elaborate, but in the past has suggested continued violence has been an excuse for the United States to keep bases in the country.

Here's Another Force of Evil to be 'Vanquished' Robert Fisk - The Independent (Britain) http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/robert-fisk-on-isis-campaign-bingo-heres-another-force-of-evil-to-be-vanquished-9727423.html Resurrection, reinvention and linguistics. Barack Obama did the lot. And now he's taking America to war in Syria as well as Iraq. Oh yes, and he's going to defeat Isis, its "barbarism", "genocide", its "warped ideology" - until the bad guys are "vanquished from the earth" ... One can see, of course, how difficult these lessons in Middle East history must be for the average American. All these forces of evil being vanquished over and over again, and then - bingo - there's another force of evil to vanquish ... It's the same old US policy: confronting the greatest crisis in the Middle East since the last greatest crisis in the Middle East.

Retired Head Of US Marine Corps: Obama's ISIS Strategy Doesn't Have 'A Snowball's Chance In Hell Of Succeeding' Daily Caller (Washington, DC) http://dailycaller.com/2014/09/19/retired-head-of-marine-corps-obamas-isis-strategy-doesnt-have-a-snowballs-chance-in-hell-of-succeeding/ The man who was the top Marine general from 2006 until his retirement in 2010 says President Barack Obama's strategy to defeat the terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is doomed to fail. "I don't think the president's plan has a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding," retired Marine General James Conway, who served as the 34th Commandant of the Marine Corps during the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration, said at the Maverick PAC Conference in Washington, D.C. Friday, according to a source in attendance.

What Obama Didn't Say Philip Gourevitch - The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/obama-didnt-say Every American President in the past quarter century has now gone on television during prime time to tell the nation and the world that he has decided to bomb Iraq. Last night [Sept. 10] was Barack Obama's turn, and it was a vexing performance. This is a President who has been stubbornly dedicated to extricating the United States as much as possible from its post-9/11 wars ... [but who is now] effectively declaring a new war of staggering scope and complexity ... Obama said flat out that ISIS poses no immediate threat to our national security. But then he sowed confusion, saying that he would not hesitate to order strikes against ISIS in Syria, as well as Iraq ...

A Tale of Two Speeches: Emboldened Obama Moves From Dove to Hawk Paul Lewis - The Guardian (Britain) http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/11/two-speeches-iraq-obama-syria-isis ... Obama, the president who twelve months ago pulled the US back from the cusp of a war - and who just three months ago was promising the US would not get "dragged back" into a military conflict in Iraq - now appears to be preparing the country for a long-haul campaign. "[It] will take time to eradicate a cancer like Isil," he said on Wednesday [Sept. 10] ... This time, Obama's position has shifted. Even though there is no direct or imminent threat to US national security posed by Isis, the White House does not believe congressional approval is a prerequisite for strikes.

In Hungary, Government Condemns Radical Conference Planned for Budapest MTI (Hungary) http://www.politics.hu/20140923/govt-condemns-radical-conference-planned-for-budapest/ Plans by a racist US organisation to hold in cooperation with Russian radicals a conference in Hungary are unacceptable for the country's government, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday. The Hungarian government firmly distances itself from any xenophobic or discriminative events or ones that are offensive for religious or ethnic minorities, the statement said. Radical circles would use this initiative to undermine Hungary's international reputation, which is unacceptable, the statement added. The conference, initiated by the US-based National Policy Institute, would be held in Budapest between October 3-5 ...

Syria, Russia and Iran Condemn Obama's Plans for Air Strikes The Guardian (Britain) http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/11/assad-moscow-tehran-condemn-obama-isis-air-strike-plan The Syrian government and its close allies in Moscow and Tehran warned Barack Obama that an offensive against Islamic State (Isis) within Syria would violate international law yesterday, hours after the US president announced [Sept. 10] that he was authorising an open-ended campaign of air strikes against militants on both sides of the border with Iraq ... "The US president has spoken directly about the possibility of strikes by the US armed forces against Isil positions in Syria without the consent of the legitimate government," said a spokesman. "This step, in the absence of a UN security council decision, would be an act of aggression, a gross violation of international law."

The IHR is an independent educational, research and publishing center that works to promote peace, understanding and justice through greater public awareness of the past. It is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public interest, not-for-profit, tax exempt enterprise. Donations to the IHR are tax-deductible. What we accomplish -- through meetings, interviews, lectures, online outreach, websites, distribution of books, discs and flyers -- depends on support from men and women like you. To make a secure online donation, click here. Visit us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ihrpage To subscribe to this newsletter, send an e-mail message to news@ihr.org, with SUBSCRIBE ME in the subject line

email: news@ihr.org web: http://www.ihr.org/