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This week on Uprising:

* Soldier Refuses Deployment to Afghanistan
* Black Agenda Report on General Motors
* The Dark Side of Dubai
* Empire Notes on Obama’s Speech in Cairo
* Conspiracy Theories Obscure Real Political Analysis

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Soldier Refuses Deployment to Afghanistan

Defense Secretary Robert Gates revealed new optimism for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. He stated before the Senate Appropriations Committee that Taliban forces will be met with heavy offenses in Pakistan’s Swat Valley and the southern region of Afghanistan, by both Pakistani and Afghan forces. However, in the last couple of days at least 7 American soldiers have been killed by roadside bombings in eastern Afghanistan. The increased troop presence pis likely to produce more troop deaths, as well as civilian casualties. President Obama has pledged to send 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, and Congress is wrangling over a $92 billion supplemental spending bill on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A growing number of anti-war groups including Iraq Veterans Against the War, have lobbied against passing the bill. IVAW passed a resolution earlier this year calling for an end to the occupation of Afghanistan and reparations for the Afghan people. One member of IVAW, Victor Agosto, was recently ordered to serve a tour of duty in Afghanistan after spending 13 months in Iraq. Agosto refused to deploy, writing on his counseling papers from the Army, “The occupation is immoral and unjust. It does not make the American people any safer. It has the opposite effect.” He has demanded a court martial so that he can make his case publicly. As of now, no case has been made, and the vote on the Supplemental Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2009 is expected to go to the House of Representatives today.

Black Agenda Report on General Motors

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is called “GM Could Have Become a “Green” Industrial Machine.”

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

The Dark Side of Dubai

Few places in the world manage to visually represent the current failure of global neo-liberal capitalism as starkly as the Gulf Emirate of Dubai. This glittering cosmopolitan metropolis, known as the liberal mecca of the Muslim world, is home to countless air-conditioned shopping malls and an imported work-force that comprises over 90% of the population. Up until a year ago Dubai, one of seven states in the United Arab Emirates, was the epitome of corporate globalization – companies like Halliburton flocked to the tax-free haven to set up headquarters, educated young expats enjoyed an easy lifestyle, glass-walled high-rises sprouted almost overnight. But today, with thousands of foreign workers laid off and escaping debt prison, work sites are abandoned and the project of hyper-expansion is on hold. The crashing market has not only brought Dubai to its knees in a matter of months, it has also exposed the dark underbelly of how this Arabic Disneyland was built – on the backs of modern-day slaves, according to a new expose by journalist Johann Hari of the Independent in London.

Sonali: Dubai is incidentally my birthplace. My parents, like thousands of young Indians searching for a better life, migrated there decades ago. I’ve been back many times since I left for the US nearly 18 years ago, most recently this January. Each time I returned, there were grander malls, more futuristic buildings, and worse traffic. But now, the malls lie empty and old friends complain bitterly about unemployment.

GUEST: Johann Hari, writer for the Independent of UK

Read Johann Hari’s article about Dubai here: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

Empire Notes on Obama’s Speech in Cairo

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on Obama’s Speech in Cairo.

GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade.

Visit www.empirenotes.org for more information.

Conspiracy Theories Obscure Real Political Analysis

President Barack Obama yesterday was sent a letter urging him to invite to the White House a man named Richard Gage. Gage is an architect who claims to be able to prove that the World Trade Center towers were destroyed by timed controlled explosive demolitions. He is promoting a video called Blueprint for 9/11 Truth and is part of a large movement of Americans who believe that something other than planes hijacked by Al Qaeda members were responsible for the 9/11 tragedy. They call themselves the 9/11 Truth movement, and large numbers of blogs, as well as many hours of airtime on this station, are devoted to mountains of information questioning the official story. This week on a popular online political magazine, Alternet featured a commentary by senior writer and editor Joshua Holland critiquing conspiracy theorists. Holland has himself questioned the official 9/11 storyu before. But, in his new piece, he contends that “Conspiracy theories often pre-empt substantive analysis of the real political structures that shape our society.”

GUEST: Joshua Holland, Senior Writer and Editor at www.Alternet.org

Read Holland’s article at http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/140066/3_good_reasons_(and_1_bad_one)_why_i_don%27t_buy_into_your_conspiracy_theories/

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.” — Thomas Paine