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Russia and Ukraine: Know and understand US objectives
Standard media reportage of recent events has become so dogmatic and simplistic, there is no longer even a vague distinction between journalism and propaganda. Dissent and attempts to contextualize such events are treated as seditious inhumanity, ignorance of history, and even foreign agency or espionage as one has experienced. Therefore, in the few short paragraphs ahead, I will attempt to “shed light”, as it were, as an observer and critic of US foreign policy, on how standard narratives and media fare of late have been grotesquely disingenuous.
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Why is China fanning the flames of ethnic politics in the Balkans?
The fragile geopolitical nature of the Balkans has allowed Russia to consistently undermine Western integration attempts in the region. While foreign interference is nothing new in Europe’s underbelly, it has historically been limited to regional powers and the U.S. But China’s recent collaboration with Russia in supporting ethnic separatism in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) reveals that Beijing is happy to challenge the West and to highlight EU and NATO vulnerabilities within Europe. If Western pressure over China’s policies in Xinjiang and Taiwan increases, China’s enhanced coordination with Russia will further erode the West’s delicate balancing act in the Balkans. Continue reading
Elections in Colombia: Prospects for change and lack of guarantees
With legislative and presidential elections coming up in Colombia, the supposedly “oldest democracy in Latin America” will see if it can consolidate the most precarious and recent peace on the continent.
The Latin American and Caribbean electoral calendar for 2022 promises to be no less hectic than that of the previous year. Among the upcoming elections and referendums that are slated for this year—Costa Rica, Mexico, Chile, Peru, perhaps Haiti—two contests that are expected to attract the most attention, due to the specific geopolitical weight of these respective countries, are the general elections in Brazil, which are supposed to take place in October, and the Colombian parliamentary and presidential elections, slated for the first half of 2022. Continue reading
The Western allied nations bully the world while warning of threats from China and Russia
On January 21, 2022, Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach attended a talk in New Delhi, India, organized by the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses. Schönbach was speaking as the chief of Germany’s navy during his visit to the institute. “What he really wants is respect,” Schönbach said, referring to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. “And my god, giving someone respect is low cost, even no cost.” Furthermore, Schönbach said that in his opinion, “It is easy to even give him the respect he really demands and probably also deserves.” Continue reading
Scenario for a war in Eastern Ukraine: The United States views Russians just as the Nazis did in World War II
As President Joe Biden announced the transfer of 2000 US troops to Poland and Germany on February 3, 2022, and the movement of an additional 1000 troops from Western Europe to Romania, I shook my head and looked to the sky thinking, “the United States and its elites really want a war with Russia, both economic and military. US generals want to use tanks, missiles, and aircraft against a near-peer competitor. They can’t beat sandal wearing insurgents in Afghanistan, so they want to mix it up with the A-Team, i.e., Russia.” Continue reading
The Russians are coming: Are Beijing and Moscow at the cusp of a formal alliance?
It should matter little to the Chinese that American diplomats and a handful of their western allies will not be attending the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. What truly matters is that the Russians are coming. Continue reading
Morocco drives a war in Western Sahara for its phosphates
In November 2020, the Moroccan government sent its military to the Guerguerat area, a buffer zone between the territory claimed by the Kingdom of Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). The Guerguerat border post is at the very southern edge of Western Sahara along the road that goes to Mauritania. The presence of Moroccan troops “in the Buffer Strip in the Guerguerat area” violated the 1991 ceasefire agreed upon by the Moroccan monarchy and the Polisario Front of the Sahrawi. That ceasefire deal was crafted with the assumption that the United Nations would hold a referendum in Western Sahara to decide on its fate; no such referendum has been held, and the region has existed in stasis for three decades now. Continue reading
Erdogan triumphs as Putin stabs his best ally in the back
President Putin has been making some astonishing demands, including: NATO mustn’t admit additional countries near Russia, such as Ukraine and Georgia; NATO must cease military activity in non-NATO territories: Georgia, Ukraine, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and parts of eastern Europe. Continue reading
Historical differences will not erode an advantageous 21st-century Chinese-Russian partnership
Cautious cooperation, lingering distrust, and outright conflict have characterized the Sino-Russian relationship for hundreds of years. But alongside natural reasons to collaborate, a shared animosity toward the United States ensures positive relations will endure.
The 21st century has seen the forging of “cooperative” relations between China and Russia, with the benefits of this new partnership outweighing the historical differences between these two countries that share a mutual goal to diminish the dominance of the United States in world affairs. Continue reading
As Israel plots endgame in occupied Golan, Bennett must remember lessons of the past
With Syria still embroiled in its own war, Israel has been actively rewriting the rule book regarding its conduct in this Arab country. Gone are the days of a potential return of the illegally occupied Golan Heights to Syrian sovereignty in exchange for peace, per the language of yesteryears. Now, Israel is set to double its illegal Jewish settler population in the Golan, while Israeli bombs continue to drop with a much higher frequency on various Syrian targets. Continue reading
Denying the inevitable: Why the West refuses to accept China’s superpower status
An article by Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times last July is a prime example of Western intelligentsia’s limited understanding of China’s unhindered rise as a superpower. “Becoming a superpower is a complicated business. It poses a series of connected questions about capabilities, intentions and will,” Rachman wrote. Continue reading
Nicaragua in the multipolar world
The U.S. regime change effort in Nicaragua has failed. The people are determined to assert their rights of self-determination and the U.S. is not the only player on the world stage.
The United States and the European Union announced new sanctions on the day that Daniel Ortega was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua. The move was not surprising, given that the United States congress passed the RENACER Act one week before elections which were held on November 7. Continue reading
How do we stop the neocons from starting another disaster in Ukraine?
If anything, Washington’s neoconservatives have an unerring instinct for survival. Having brought about multiple disasters in the two decades since 9/11—from the Iraq War to the twin debacles in Libya and Syria—the neoconservatives seem to have perfected the art of failing up. Continue reading
How Congress loots the Treasury for the military-industrial-congressional complex
Despite a disagreement over some amendments in the Senate, the United States Congress is poised to pass a $778 billion military budget bill for 2022. As they have been doing year after year, our elected officials are preparing to hand the lion’s share—over 65%—of federal discretionary spending to the U.S. war machine, even as they wring their hands over spending a mere quarter of that amount on the Build Back Better Act. Continue reading
US President Joe Biden: Representing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
President Joe Biden will soon regurgitate the public words George W. Bush uttered in 2002. Words that ushered in a global war on terrorism, a 20-year was in Afghanistan, a second invasion of Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, thousands of Americans killed/wounded, US “Black Sites” for torture and trillions in resources/dollars squandered away: “Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” Simply replace terrorists with Russia, China, and Iran and you’ve got the war cry for 2022 onward. It likely will not be long until those exact words will be used when war breaks out on the Ukrainian border and, perhaps, the South China Sea. Israel may get the green light from the USA to start a bombing campaign on Iran. It’s not likely that the USA wants anything to do with a ground campaign in Iran or China or Russia. But US military advisors will be active on the front in Ukraine if the Russians do invade. Continue reading
UNGA’s latest resolution illustrates the international community’s complicity with Israel’s colonial expansion
Yet another non-binding UN General Assembly has passed, granting Palestinians permanent sovereignty over their natural resources, even as Israel has absolute dominion over their territory. The draft resolution, titled “Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources,” is a perfect example of how the UN glosses over Israel’s colonial violence by refusing to take action, preferring to enact non-binding resolutions which do nothing to protect the Palestinian people’s political rights and their territory. Continue reading
The high stakes of the U.S.-Russia confrontation over Ukraine
A report in Covert Action Magazine from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine describes grave fears of a new offensive by Ukrainian government forces, after increased shelling, a drone strike by a Turkish-built drone and an attack on Staromaryevka, a village inside the buffer zone established by the 2014-15 Minsk Accords. Continue reading
Israel to attack Iran? Washington gives the green light to the ‘military option’
Some might recall candidate Joe Biden’s pledge to work to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which was a multilateral agreement intended to limit Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. The JCPOA was signed by President Barack Obama in 2015, when Biden was vice president, and was considered one of the only foreign policy successes of his eight years in office. Other signatories to it were Britain, China, Germany, France, and Russia and it was endorsed by the United Nations. The agreement included unannounced inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities by the IAEA and, by all accounts, it was working and was a non-proliferation success story. In return for its cooperation Iran was to receive its considerable assets frozen in banks in the United States and was also to be relieved of the sanctions that had been placed on it by Washington and other governments. Continue reading
The new American leadership: Biden tells the world what he wants it to know
It is sometimes difficult to absorb how much the United States has changed in the past twenty years, and not for the better. When I was in grade school in the 1950s there was a favorite somewhat simplistic saying much employed by teachers to illustrate the success of the American way of life that prevailed at that time. It went “What’s good for General Motors is good for America” and it meant that the U.S. version of a robust and assertive capitalist economy generated opportunity and prosperity for the entire nation. Today, having witnessed the devastation and offshoring of the domestic manufacturing economy by those very same corporate managers, such an expression would be rightly sneered at and considered risible. Continue reading
Heroes or parasites: Europe’s self-serving politics on refugees
Language is politics and politics is power. This is why the misuse of language is particularly disturbing, especially when the innocent and vulnerable pay the price. Continue reading
On Afghanistan and legitimate resistance
Should Hamas & Hezbollah learn from the Taliban?
An urgent task is awaiting us: considering the progression of events, we must quickly liberate ourselves from the limits and confines placed on the Afghanistan discourse, which have been imposed by US-centered Western propaganda for over 20 years, and counting. A first step is that we must not allow the future political discourse pertaining to this very subject to remain hostage to American priorities—successes, failures and geostrategic interests. Continue reading
Angela Merkel governed Germany to the left of Bernie Sanders: Why don’t Americans know?
The headline at Fox “News” blares: “German Elections: Big Setback for Merkel’s Conservatives as Center-Left Party Comes Out on Top.” In a single sentence, it summarizes everything wrong with how American media and the American public understand what “conservative” means. Continue reading
The China cold war will unstick America’s glue
Can an America that off-shored much of its manufacturing capacity to China, for short-term profit, afford the de-coupling?
Washington isn’t quite sure what to do after the chaotic end to America’s ‘forever’ war. Some in Washington bitterly regret exiting from Afghanistan at all, and advocate for an immediate return; some just want to move on—to the China ‘Cold War’, that is. The cries from the initial Establishment ‘melt down’ and its articulation of pain over the Kabul withdrawal débacle, however, indicates the extent to which the almost obsessive focus on ‘Hobbling China’ nevertheless seems like an humiliating retreat to U.S. hawks, habituated to more global, and unlimited interventions. Continue reading
Iran’s future is looking dark
Washington considers that Iran is and always will be hostile to the U.S. and there is no indication whatever of desire to initiate discussions
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, Najat Rochdi, is concerned about the crisis in the country and reports that “Extreme poverty rose threefold during the past two years. More and more Lebanese households are unable to afford basic services like food, health, electricity, water, internet, and child education.” One development, mentioned in the media on September 16, was that Iran had provided desperately-needed fuel oil to that stricken country. Continue reading
Hashtag ‘Untie_Our_Hands’: How many more Palestinians must die for Israel’s ‘security’?
A large Israeli army campaign is taking social media by storm. The unstated aim of what is known as the “#Untie_Our_Hands” initiative is the desire to kill, with no accountability, more Palestinian protesters at the Gaza fence. The campaign was motivated by the killing of an Israeli sniper, Barel Hadaria Shmueli, who was reportedly shot from the Palestinian side of the fence on August 21. Continue reading
20 years ago on the morning of September 11 . . .
An excerpt from Jenna Orkin’s memoir ‘Ground Zero Wars: The Fight to Reveal the Lies of the EPA in the Wake of 9/11 and Clean Up Lower Manhattan.’
Tues. 11 Sept. 11:50 am: If any of you hears news of how the kids at Stuyvesant are doing subsequent to this morning’s attacks on the World Trade Center, please phone or email me by any of the methods below. Continue reading
How can America wake up from its post-9/11 nightmare?
Looking back on it now, the 1990s were an age of innocence for America. The Cold War was over and our leaders promised us a “peace dividend.” There was no TSA to make us take off our shoes at airports (how many bombs have they found in those billions of shoes?). The government could not tap a U.S. phone or read private emails without a warrant from a judge. And the national debt was only $5 trillion—compared with over $28 trillion today. Continue reading
Disorderly retreat from Afghanistan: The U.S. has become an overextended military empire posing a serious threat to its long-term security
In 1987, British historian Paul Kennedy (1945- ) wrote a geopolitical book about how great powers rise and fall, in which he studied how economic and military factors can accompany or cause previously dominant nations to lose their great power status. His main conclusion is that sooner or later a great hegemonic power will become overextended and its economy will struggle to keep its big military machine going. Indeed, an empire can increase its resources by launching wars abroad, at least for a while. However, sooner or later, a situation of permanent war and the military occupation of foreign lands result in more costs than benefits. Continue reading
Bring all the troops home: Stop policing the globe and put an end to endless wars
It’s time to bring all our troops home. Continue reading
The Afghan crisis, Turkey, and Washington’s global war on terrorism
As America’s presence in Afghanistan draws to a close and the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, it’s worthwhile to consider the countries that sponsor global terrorism and Washington’s response to them. Continue reading
The US endgame in Afghanistan was mineral extraction, not democracy
The American departure from Afghanistan was inevitable. We shouldn't ask what went wrong? We need to ask: what could possibly have gone right?
Since the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan, there has been no shortage of solidarity statements to mourn the demise of democracy and support the rule of law in Afghanistan. I appreciate the sentiment, but I am also concerned about the loss of lives and the violations of international law that occurred during the decades of U.S. military occupation in Afghanistan and the failure of the international community to protect the sovereignty of countries. Continue reading
Ukraine exposes white supremacist foreign policy
White supremacy is at the heart of US war propaganda. The exhortation to "stand with Ukraine" is no exception to this rule.
Posted on March 7, 2022 by Margaret Kimberley
By now everyone knows that Ukraine’s flag is blue and yellow. It is impossible to miss as the Empire State Building in New York, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris have all been bathed in those colors. Nearly every city and town across the United States has followed suit and politicians ranging from local legislators to members of congress shout “Stand with Ukraine!” at every opportunity. Continue reading →