Year-end Message to Our Readers

Dear World War 4 Readers:

When we began publication in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, we pledged we would publish "until peace." Today, we almost dare to hope we can cease publication sometime over the next four years. But this is not the time to let our guard down. We will be watching the transition to the Obama administration closely. We note with alarm that the Bush White House in its endgame has been bombing Pakistan almost weekly—to little media outcry. And while the leaders of Iran, Venezuela and Bolivia have hailed Obama's election as a new era, the cabinet he is assembling does not seem to indicate a real break with the ultra-interventionist status quo.

So we will endeavor to continue our exacting daily news digest and commentary, as well as our monthly reprints and original journalism. Among the exclusives you've received from us over the past 12 months are Nava Thakuria's on-the-scene reports from violence-torn Northeast India [1], Sarkis Pogossian's detailed deconstruction of the Eritrea-Djibouti war [2], Gwendolyn Albert's first-hand accounts of persecution of the Roma [3] in the supposedly "post-totalitarian" Czech Republic, Nikolas Kozloff's provocative analyses of Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution [4], and my own reportage on Iraq's civil resistance [5]. We hope to bring more coverage of such forgotten stories in the months to come.

But we've met some unexpected expenses this year. We forfeited our summer fund-drive because we were experiencing technical difficulties, including bugs with our mailing list, and were in the midst of switching to a new server. Now the transition is complete, and we are in the middle of a long-overdue site redesign. (Refresh the page if you don't see the changes.) So we really need our readers' support at this moment.

Your donations will sustain our work—and, if we are successful enough, facilitate on-the-scenes reportage from South America by yours truly in the coming months.

Those of you who gave $25 or more last year are already on the list to receive the new addition in our pamphlet series, Petro-Imperialism: the Global War on Terrorism and the Struggle for the Planet's Oil, which is now in production, and will include an analysis of the Obama cabinet. If you didn't give $25 last year, this is your opportunity to get it hot off the presses.

We understand that times are tough. For this reason, we'd rather meet our necessary $2,000 goal in small donations from each one our readers rather than a few fat checks from sugar daddies. We also prefer this because it meets our ethical philosophy. Just like we don't take corporate advertising, we feel that having a broad base of small supporters keeps us honest. We don't have endorsement blurbs from leftist celebrities like Noam Chomsky because we want to be free to criticize them too.

So please do your part and help us out today. No donation is too small. It is more important that you send what you can today than send something big. We'd really like to reach our goal by year's end and not have to go into extra innings in 2009.

Make sure our critical voice is around to keep you informed and provoked at this critical moment in history.