Gareth Porter | Robert McNamara Misled LBJ on Gulf of Tonkin Attacks During the Vietnam War

From the Real News:

In spite of dubious reports that U.S. Navy ships were attacked by North Vietnamese fleet, “[McNamara] went ahead with drafting the strike order for the retaliation that night and actually [sent] that strike order without having basically consulted further with President Johnson about the situation that he now understood of real doubt on the part of the commander on the scene that they had been attacked.”

ZNet| Recent Leo Panitch Interview

Sasha Lilley: So the bad debt would be socialized, but the public would not be left with any control over the banks.

Leo Panitch: Exactly. The proposal is to give the banks back to the private sector on the thesis that we can't have a properly democratized state. I agree the existing state is very problematic, once we start thinking about how we would want to have banking as a public utility, we immediate need then to start thinking about how we would change the Fed, how we would democratize it so it wasn't run by regional bankers. What we're talking about is a massive, hopefully peaceful, change. But that's what needs to be on the agenda is light of the tremendous crisis that we're facing.

See also the ILR review of the new edition of Panitch’s Renewing Socialism.

Marxism 2009, London

Here are some of the speakers at the recent Marxism 2009 conference hosted by SWP.

David Harvey at Marxism 2009, London: “THE CRISIS TODAY”

Tariq Ali: OBAMA, PAKISTAN AND THE US EMPIRE, MARXISM 2009

Here’s an ILR review of Tariq Ali’s recent book The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power

SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK - WHAT DOES IT MEANS TO BE REVOLUTIONARY TODAY? - MARXISM 2009

Democracy Derailed in Honduras | The Nation

Greg Grandin on the need for the US to avoid the "Haiti Option" which linked US support for Aristide to the forced implementation of IMF and WB policies in Haiti. Support for Zelaya to return him to office should be provided without conditions. "It seems like what the United States might be angling for in Honduras could be the "Haiti Option." In 1994 Bill Clinton worked to restore Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide after he was deposed in a coup, but only on the condition that Aristide would support IMF and World Bank policies. The result was a disaster, leading to deepening poverty, escalating polarization and, in 2004, a second coup against Aristide, this one fully backed by the Bush White House."

The Dublin Consensus

Sli Eile of Progressive Economy responds to Sarah Carey’s article today in the Irish Times and talks about the dominance of the Dublin Consensus (following the notion of the Washington Consensus). Carey says the debate is over - ICTU should choose ‘patriotism and pragmatism’, sell ’spending cuts and tax increases’ to their members and get it over with. Sli Eile says that we have to move away from marginal issues - such as Carey’s focus on job subsidies - and confront the real issues:

1. Domestic fiscal stimulus versus profound fiscal deflation for 2009-2012/13
2. Skills, innovation and growing the indigenous economy on world markets versus business as usual depending on FDI and a relatively protected and cosseted non-traded sector (as in price controls, costs and rigid work practices in the case of the public and civil service)
3. Corporate governance change versus cosmetic name change
4. Finding another way of dealing with banking rather than bleeding the whole country with a blanket cheque to recapitalise the failed (with the bail-out of Anglo-Irish ultimately costing more than an entire year’s education budget)

This is where the real debate needs to be reclaimed and the Dublin Consensus challenged.”

Honduras Photoshow

Some photos of how the new Honduras government likes to protect its constitution against a 'survey'.

Barack Obama’s Recent 55 Minute Speech to the American Medical Association

As mentioned in Gerry Burke’s piece published today on Irish Left Review.

Annals of Medicine: The Cost Conundrum: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

The explosive trend in American medical costs seems to have occurred here in an especially intense form. Our country’s health care is by far the most expensive in the world. In Washington, the aim of health-care reform is not just to extend medical coverage to everybody but also to bring costs under control. Spending on doctors, hospitals, drugs, and the like now consumes more than one of every six dollars we earn.

The Real News | The Military Coup in Honduras

See also Hugh Green on the Leader of opposition, President of the Congress (and now interim President) Roberto Micheletti’s resistance to sign the Bolivarian Alliance of The Americas (ALBA) treaty which would strengthen economic links with ’socialist’ countries in Latin America. The IMF has problems with this because of the “economic repercussions which the aforementioned incorporation will have and its consequences with its old partner the United States”.