The once united Arab world is more divided today than at anytime since the implementation of the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 whereby the French and British imperial governments decided to split the majority of the Arab world into spheres of influence to be shared by western Europe’s foremost colonial aggressors. In the middle of the…
Relevant in relation to the US-led ongoing wars, this article was originally published on June 29, 2015. The most expensive social science program in history–the US Army’s Human Terrain System (HTS)–has quietly come to an end (2015). During its eight years of existence, the controversial program cost tax payers more than $725 million. The Pentagon…
“I once rescued a friend from drowning when he was swept away by the force of the current as we were swimming in the Diyala river,” says Qasim Sabti, a painter and gallery owner in Baghdad. “That was 50 years ago,” he recalls. “I went back there recently and the water in the Diyala is…
Now that the DPRK, a former signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) which later withdrew has agreed to a full de-nuclearisation process, it is time to focus on other nations that possess nuclear weapons that have yet to sign the NPT. Of all the world’s nuclear powers only “Israel”, India…
April 24 marks the 15th anniversary of my initial entry into Baghdad as the senior oil advisor to retired Lieutenant General Jay Garner, our US government civilian leader in Iraq. It was the beginning of my six plus years in Iraq working on the oil sector and denying the allegation that the Iraq war had…
Erik Prince, the brain behind the infamous private military firm Blackwater, is now in China training security forces. Prince is partially responsible for modernizing the private army for the post 9/11 world, outsourcing militaries to cheap, specialized labor pools and skirting traditional regulations meant to ensure accountability for armed forces. His journey from hiring mercenaries…
