Quick scan #8

On TomDispatch, Tom Engelhardt writes about the USA’s covert military activities against Iran, prefacing an article by Juan Cole warning that Washington’s policy of blockading Iran could lead to a global disaster. Also, an article by Michael Klare explains why oil extraction is becoming much tougher, and more expensive. Campaign Against Arms Trade is protesting the visit to Indonesia by David Cameron, British Prime Minister, which has a stated mission to sell more arms, despite past and continuing human rights abuses. In The Nation, Jonathan Schell traces the progression of US policy on nuclear weapons from one of non-proliferation by diplomacy to one of non-proliferation by coercion; and argues for a return to the former, with the goal of achieving the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.