The decision by Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud to sack Minister of National Guard Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah, the favorite son of the late King Abdullah, is intended to remove a potential powerful rival of his own favorite son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Mutaib’s ouster is the most crucial part of a large-scale…
Today is the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution of 1917. It caused a lot of death and destruction, which I won’t go into because you can read all about it elsewhere. It also caused a great outpouring of new art, literature, architecture and culture in general, putting the previously somewhat stodgy Russia securely in…
A major goal of this Asia trip, said National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, is to rally allies to achieve the “complete, verifiable and permanent denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.” Yet Kim Jong Un has said he will never give up his nuclear weapons. He believes the survival of his dynastic regime depends upon them….
Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani recently said that he feels betrayed by his American ‘ally’. He was referring to reports that the US had advance knowledge of the Iraqi Army’s liberation operation in Kirkuk but failed to warn the Peshmerga. He was also obliquely referring to the widespread presumption that Washington wanted to see an…
Against the backdrop of US aggression against North Korea, NATO is intensifying its preparations for war with Russia, the world’s second largest nuclear power. A report in the German news magazine Der Spiegel (Issue 43/2017) based on a secret NATO document indicates how far plans for war have progressed. The news magazine concludes: “In plain…
The Justice Department’s probe into a corruption scandal revolving around an Asian defense contractor has expanded to include 60 admirals and hundreds of officers with the US Seventh Fleet, which is going through turmoil after deadly ship collisions. The Navy confirmed it has been reviewing the conduct of 440 active duty and retired personnel for…
