De-politicized, sanitized and hyper-commercialized sport is epitimized by the 2012 Olympics with its strict rule that participants can only represent their country or their corporate sponsor.

Whatever else is true, it's impossible to evade the fact that a country that wages endless war will be a country filled with citizens convinced of the virtues and nobility of aggression.

The sharp increase in arms supplies, funding and technical support from the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and others has dramatically boosted the rebels' fortunes, as well as the death toll.

As Saudi Arabia steps up its support for the insurgents in Syria, the tensions with Iran rise and there's growing dissent from the Shiite minority at home.

Obama’s shameful timidity in forthrightly condemning the Sikh temple killings is hardly surprising. After all, this is a president with a “kill list” for Muslims including Americans.

The aim is to bankrupt the country and cause economic collapse, provoking mass suffering -- ordinary people in Iran are no longer collateral damage, but the intended targets of sanctions.

There have been innumerable cases when human intervention aborted nuclear attack only moments before launch after false reports by automated systems.

As the US national anthem began to play, Smith and Carlos raised their arms in a gesture of solidarity with the victims of racism, violence, and injustice at home and across the world.

As Assange waits to hear if he will be granted asylum by Ecuador, what evidence exists to suggest he is right to consider himself a political target and not a common criminal?

Who in their right mind would give a powerful unmanned air force to the CIA -- a covert organisation with such a track record for unaccountable and illegal killing?