Now, seven years later, with the American military finally gone, the same ruling alliance (which is still in power, despite some internal shifts) is clamping down to cement its rule? You don’t say. But please don’t try to tell me it’s any kind of sudden development.

In the summer of 2011, 14 million Americans were unemployed and 16% of the country was officially poor. Student loan debt eclipsed credit card with over $1 trillion outstanding. One in five mortgages was underwater. Our leaders said the economy was recovering from the recession caused by the financial crisis, but their soothing pronouncements seemed to mock the evidence of our senses. On September 17, a group of activists converged on a small concrete plaza in lower Manhattan, determined to Occupy Wall Street.

Like a lot of you, I felt an odd combination of déjà vu and whiplash earlier today at the revival of President Obama’s 2008 election rhetoric about “ending the war” in announcing the formal withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq. And similarly, I’m aware of the widely noted doubts about whether this really is [...]

The fourth week of Occupy Wall Street begins today. It has grown so big that it can no longer contain the ten thousand or more people that come to the park regularly each evening. The “people’s mic” or “human mic” has become much more difficult as lines of speeches have to be echoed three and four times so all in the park can hear what people have said. The occupation also needs to keep raising the stakes and escalating the situation to keep up the energy and momentum. And so, today at 3 pm ET part of the encampment will relocate to Washington Square Park.

Support for Occupy Wall Street is growing by the hour. Solidarity actions in Chicago, Phoenix and Paris, France, are all getting off the ground. In Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Atlanta, actions are in the works. Each of these may become occupations. There”s also an indication the International Workers of the World will have members at the site supporting the occupation, and it appears Sojourner’s, a Christian Left organization, is taking an interest in the action.

Despite the obvious touchiness of extending the presence (however limited) of an occupying army whose invasion eight years ago devastated the country, it’s not surprising that Maliki is siding with the most pro-American elements in Iraq’s politics (Allawi and the Kurdish parties) to keep us around… and it’s for the same reason that his on-again, off-again ally Sadr is objecting.

Answer: Zero. The military shouldn’t even be involved in Afghanistan. If we want to achieve our objectives in Afghanistan, we need sustainable, civilian-only solutions.

In a town hall meeting with troops in Afghanistan, McChrystal said, “We’ve shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force.” But as Michael Cohen notes, this is mainly a reminder that a country engaging in occupation cannot possibly sanitize it to the level of perfectly avoiding civilian deaths. In fact, in the case of a counter-insurgency, with the proximity of troops closer to the people, it’s arguably a more hazardous environment for civilians.

More than sixty nations will gather in London tomorrow for an important series of talks on the future of Afghanistan. General Stanley McChrystal, who heads US forces in Afghanistan, sat for an extended interview with the Financial Times in advance of the conference. His comments, when taken in total, amount to an admission that US strategy in Afghanistan has failed and yet he insists that we must re-commit to this same failed strategy.

The New York Times has obtained full copies of two cables Ambassador Karl Eikenberry sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the most recent review of Afghanistan strategy. Although it was known at the time that Eikenberry opposed McChyrstal’s strategy based primarily on counterinsurgency, having access to the full text of the cables provides more detail on Eikenberry’s reasoning.