US President Donald Trump could not possibly have predicted the game-changing after-effects of his triumphal sword dance in Riyadh. Or could he? The fact is the House of Saud went amok, in a flash, going after Qatar and bombing from the inside that glorious Arab NATO project – call it NATOGCC — sworn with pomp over a glowing orb. An excited Trump tweeted …
Continue reading Trump’s Sword Dance Sets Off the War of the Wahhabis
Backed by Egypt and its closest Gulf State allies, Saudi Arabia has launched a diplomatic and economic offensive against Qatar, a tiny, energy-rich neighbor. This offensive is aimed at forcing the emirate to fall fully in line with the Saudis’ belligerent stand against Iran and other of its predatory policies, including unstinting support for Egypt’s …
In what has emerged as the most significant escalation to result from the Qatar diplomatic crisis – which pits two of OPEC’s largest oil producers, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, against the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas and further disrupts stability in the region – the biggest Middle East oil and container ports …
America's public neutrality over the Gulf crisis was shattered on Tuesday as President Donald Trump effectively backed the Gulf blockade of its ally Qatar. In a series of tweets, Trump said that his trip to the Middle East in May was "already paying off" as Gulf leaders followed through on their promise to take a …
Continue reading Trump Accuses Qatar of Supporting Terrorism as Gulf Crisis Grows
Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that President Trump’s National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster will soon be proposing yet another troop increase in Afghanistan. According to the Times, “The White House shelved the deliberations over Afghanistan three weeks ago, after an initial Pentagon proposal to deploy up to 5,000 additional American troops ran into fierce resistance” from …
Iraqi and US crimes against humanity in and around Mosul threaten the fragile unity of the broken Iraqi nation. Contrary to Iraqi state propaganda and the statements of those hoping against hope that Iraq might at some point recover from decades of war and chaos, the sectarianism unleashed by George W. Bush and Tony Blair’s …
Continue reading Disturbing Images Emerge of Torture in ‘Liberated’ Iraq
A trail of imperialist militarism and super exploitation Note: This paper was prepared and presented in part for a panel at the Left Forum held at John Jay College of the City University of New York (CUNY) on Sat. June 3, 2017. The panel was hosted by the United National Antiwar Coalition where the author …
Continue reading United States Foreign Policy Toward Africa Since World War II
President Trump’s ignorant, oafish and crude foreign policy style rivets our attention, arouses our indignation. But the drama of the diplomatic mayhem he wreaks while traveling abroad also distracts from recognizing more serious underlying problems of U.S. policy — deep negative trends that predate Trump. Focusing on Trump’s latest crude pronouncements encourages the soothing belief …
The US-led coalition inside Syria says that it has destroyed pro-government forces that entered the deconfliction zone established around a coalition training facility. The coalition last struck a pro-government convoy in the area on May 18. UPDATE: On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected the US’ justification for the attack, saying Moscow does not …
