August 26, 2018 – Astute News

August 26, 2018

Crunch Time in Pakistan

It’s crunch time in Pakistan. Resolving Pakistan’s financial crisis is likely to require newly appointed prime minister Imran Khan to not only accept an International Monetary Fund (IMF) straightjacket but tackle his and Pakistan’s convoluted relationship to militancy. With the breeding ground for militancy built into the country’s DNA and Mr. Khan owing his electoral victory in part to the...

Opinion Comment: 1

August 26, 2018

After a Long While, China’s Cavalry Is Finally Coming to Syria

The relationship between China and Syria goes a long way back. Until the moment when the Syrian war broke out in 2011, Beijing was trying to tap into Syrian markets by becoming its largest importer. Chinese companies took part in a great many energy projects in the Syrian Arab Republic. China’s economic plans in Syria have always been more ambitious...

Opinion Comment: 1

August 26, 2018

Bolton Calls on Al-Qaeda to Stage More Chemical Attacks in Syria

In a move that was entirely predictable, the US administration is once again threatening to bomb Syria if there is a “chemical weapons attack”. This was entirely predictable because that chemical attack script has been read out, with salty crocodile tears, fake concern, and mocked indignation by US talking heads over the years – since 2012, in fact, when former...

Opinion Comments: 7

August 26, 2018

Why Today’s Britain Is a Gangster State

Max Weber defined a key attribute of a state as holding the monopoly on the legitimate exercise of violence within a given territory. For anybody other than the state to use substantive physical force against you or to imprison you is regarded as an extremely serious crime. The state itself may however constrain you, beat you, imprison you and even kill...

Opinion Comments: 0

August 26, 2018

How America’s Wars Have Created Piles of Debt (And Little Strategic Benefit)

When Defense Secretary James N. Mattis spoke at the 2018 Center for the National Interest Distinguished Service Award dinner in late July, he outlined a foreign policy strategy for the United States that focused on the resurgence of great-power competition. Mattis also warned that the United States could endanger itself from within. Specifically, he stated that the growing national debt...

Opinion Comment: 1

August 26, 2018

The Lion of Judah’s Last Roar

“If you don’t get my weekly column, it means I am dead,” wrote Israeli writer Uri Avnery to a friend. As I eagerly awaited Uri’s column each week, I feared that each new column might be his last. And so it finally came to be. The renowned 94-year old writer and peace advocate finally succumbed to old age after a...

Opinion Comments: 0

August 26, 2018

Stabilizing Ethiopia’s Somali Region Is a Step Towards a National Renaissance

Federal forces intervened in this geographically expansive but sparsely populated region last week in order to restore law and order there after the state’s government challenged the central authorities by provocatively deploying their Liyu counter-insurgency forces to the federal city of Dire Dawa. Former Somali Regional President Abdi Mohamoud Omar’s heavy-handed tactics against the previously banned Ogadan National Liberation Front...

Opinion Comments: 0

August 26, 2018

Do Democrats Want an Impeachment Fight?

“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer,” said President Donald Trump ruefully, “I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen.” Michael Cohen is no Roy Cohn. Tuesday, Trump’s ex-lawyer, staring at five years in prison, pled guilty to a campaign violation that may not even be a crime. Cohen had fronted the cash, $130,000,...

Opinion Comments: 0

Daily Archive: August 26, 2018

Crunch Time in Pakistan

After a Long While, China’s Cavalry Is Finally Coming to Syria

Bolton Calls on Al-Qaeda to Stage More Chemical Attacks in Syria

Why Today’s Britain Is a Gangster State

How America’s Wars Have Created Piles of Debt (And Little Strategic Benefit)

The Lion of Judah’s Last Roar

Stabilizing Ethiopia’s Somali Region Is a Step Towards a National Renaissance

Do Democrats Want an Impeachment Fight?