Colin Patrick Barth's Comments

Antiwar.com Blog : Alan Bock, RIP

Thu, 19 May 2011 05:56:09 +0000

RIP Alan.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : It's All About Independence

Sat, 4 Jul 2009 03:50:27 +0000

Not particularly lazy, at least any more than most political writing. Admittedly the terms left and right are very sloppy to begin with. But, since Wilson is well-known as a so-called Progressive from the time, it's certainly not wrong. Debs was a very different type of "leftist" of course—Wilson being a crusading statist and interventionist with an endless supply of "causes."

Antiwar.com Original Articles : It's All About Independence

Sat, 4 Jul 2009 03:41:23 +0000

"He claims that, at that time, an unidentified Iranian-American businessman, who is close to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, met with Mousavi’s campaign manager, Mehdi Khazali, in Dubai." Wow, that is one iron clad third-hand speculative report. Case closed.

News From Antiwar.com : Odierno Still Blaming Iran for Iraq Attacks

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 19:41:19 +0000

Is there any US general left who isn't a joke, a jerk, a maniac, a toady or an imbecile?

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iran's Do-It-Yourself Revolution

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 19:35:34 +0000

This is the best article on the subject I've read so far. Great summary. Sadly, some will "read" this article very selectively and decide it's written by a blind pawn of US imperialism, despite clear criticism of US foreign policy, and a nuanced historical argument.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iran's Do-It-Yourself Revolution

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 19:32:52 +0000

Conspiracy theories, like all theories, should require evidence. Otherwise they are rightly dismissed. The fact is, you can find far more evidence of UFOs than exogenous puppetry to organize the Iranian mass protests.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:42:28 +0000

"Firstly, opposition to US aggression against Iran does not equal support for Ahmadinejad. Ditto for Serbia and Milosevic. This is Bushian groupthink and scarcely warrants a response." Justin is talking about the people who do equate these things. I think his column was perfectly clear. And perfectly relevant, given the number of people (commenting on this very website) who make excuses for tyranny because it's not American tyranny. "they have not offered a shred of reasonably convincing proof that election fraud occurred" The fact that many millions of ballots were supposedly accounted in a few hours doesn't count? Magical. Now that was a "divinely inspired result" without an electronic vote-counting system. "the simple fact is hundreds of thousands of Mousavi supporters took to the streets on nothing more than the mere assertion of election fraud" And a history of anger against a tyrannical government, which hasn't gone away just because there are fewer political killings than there were in the late 80s. That anger includes suspicion of prior vote-tampering a few years back. As well as reform candidates being barred from running in a previous election. All polls agree the majority of Iranians want significant reforms, and the regime has been blocking this from happening for many years in several different ways. They elected M. Khatami in a landslide, twice, to see reform happen and the hardline clerics just vetoed what they didn't like.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:27:33 +0000

Welcome to the internet, an international self-organizing complex system. Do you think some plot induces people to circulate LOL cats too? 1) Americans aren't the only people who know English, and furthermore people often try to get noticed abroad by using English. 2) Ahmadinejad supporters will hardly be smuggling information about crackdowns out, or need to organize via twitter. Their side has official organs to communicate with. If the press wants to hear their version, they can watch Iranian state TV. 3) They self-organized by responding to circulated messages. Same way Ron Paul supporters decided to show up at rallies, and collect many millions of dollars. What's they mystery here? 4) MEK and Jundallah, in part. Are we supposed to think Iranian reformers are especially disloyal and easily bought off in large numbers to do something they wouldn't do otherwise? Iranians have one of the proudest traditions of national feeling on earth.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:12:49 +0000

People who are "accountable" to people don't murder and terrorize their critics or imprison dissidents, like some of those you mention. They give them a free choice between their idea and someone else's, and if it goes against them they accept that.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:06:18 +0000

Suppressing individual freedom in many ways. Same "beef" I have with the rulers of every nation-state. The problem is more considerable there than in many other places, though.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:01:59 +0000

I didn't rig any elections. I have no control over them. Nor have I ever had any influence with the US military. How are the US government's faults mine, again? Because I was born in America? What an absurdly brainwashed collectivist point of view. Listen, I will feel free to lecture anyone, anytime who suppresses the free exercise of human life anywhere on this earth, which certainly includes Iran; I can see the suppression of protests on tapes, and hear eyewitness accounts. It certainly is useful to the status quo if people stay mentally confined within state borders, but I refuse to play into that.

Antiwar.com Blog : You and Whose Army?

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:40:36 +0000

When I first read about it, coup didn't sound like the correct word. I suppose removing an unconstitutional president only counts as a coup in a country without constitutional means to do so, but it's hard to complain about a military that refuses an illegal order. I wish the US had that.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:44:01 +0000

Once again, it is stunning how many people comment exclusively based on the way they already thought before they even visited the page. Here, without any indication they understand the article they're criticizing. Half the commenters on some of these articles could literally be commenting without seeing more than a few words, judging from their disassociation. Apparently, a link to Orwell's essay on nationalism should preface every single article. http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/e... Justin, this article reminds me again why I contribute, which I suspect the gaggle of catcallers do not. Keep it up!

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:31:55 +0000

So, are you suggesting terrorists who kill Iranians like the MEK and Jundallah are the same as Mousavi's campaign or the protesters? If so, the Iranian regime propagandists should be quite pleased, because that's already been their absurd slur against the protesters, and you're helping them to erase distinctions between any and all critics of the state—all supposed "terrorists," you know.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:24:13 +0000

What? It helps to actually read the argument. The point is that reflexive bipolarity doesn't describe the real world.

News From Antiwar.com : Iran Arrests British Embassy Staff

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:04:04 +0000

Is there actually any evidence for this? Or does history count as evidence now? If no evidence aside from the prejudices of history is necessary, Russia could also be blamed. The only evidence of violence I have seen has shown Iranian authorities clashing with Iranian protesters. Some embassies have received wounded, but that is all the "interference" I know of. Thus it is not clear how the British can be blamed for instigating the protests without evidence, while it is certain that the Basij has introduced brutal violence to the situation. Whether this allegation of the Iranian government has any truth to it or not, it's amazing to me how uncritically one government's propaganda is received here while another's is automatically rejected. It reminds me of Orwell's essay on nationalism.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iran's Election Drama More Elaborate Than You Think

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:56 +0000

Excellent article, thanks very much.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iran's Election Drama More Elaborate Than You Think

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:59:41 +0000

Speaking of blase...

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iran's Election Drama More Elaborate Than You Think

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:58:49 +0000

Presumably most or all of that money went to Western-oriented dissidents, or to armed rebel groups like Mujahedin-e Khalq or Jundallah who commit terrorist attacks on Iranian civilians, rather than patriotic revolutionary Islamic Iranians, such as Mousavi, who supervised the defense of Iran during the war against Saddam.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iranâs Green Revolution: Made in America?

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:35:34 +0000

"there is a difference between "caring" about the freedom (or lack of it) in a country seven thousand miles away and organizing a U.S.-government-backed attempt to overthrow a sovereign government." Thank you for saying this, Justin. Statistics aside, I feel your article made some points that have sorely needed to be said. There is a real danger that American libertarians, having trained themselves to say "hold on!" to imperialist emotional exuberance and to be habitually suspicious of the plots of would-be world rulers, become desensitized and closed-minded, evidencing the "gramophone mind" Orwell warned about, in favor of conspiracy theory and xenophobia, unwittingly reflecting the very same collective nationalist identities that jingoism also attempts to mobilize to parrot "it's none of OUR business." That's true isolationism, covering eyes and ears. "We" should remember that we are human beings first, not "our" borders or national policy—people with far more common cause with anyone in Iran who wants to live more freely and safely than with our tyrannical government in DC or theirs in Tehran. Occasions like this point out how important it is to maintain a sense of individualism, and see through collective myths.

Colin Patrick Barth's Comments

Antiwar.com Blog : Alan Bock, RIP

Antiwar.com Original Articles : It's All About Independence

Antiwar.com Original Articles : It's All About Independence

News From Antiwar.com : Odierno Still Blaming Iran for Iraq Attacks

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iran's Do-It-Yourself Revolution

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iran's Do-It-Yourself Revolution

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Antiwar.com Blog : You and Whose Army?

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Liberty and the Tehran Spring

News From Antiwar.com : Iran Arrests British Embassy Staff

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iran's Election Drama More Elaborate Than You Think

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iran's Election Drama More Elaborate Than You Think

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iran's Election Drama More Elaborate Than You Think

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iranâs Green Revolution: Made in America?

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iranâs Green Revolution: Made in America?