I met John Lennon and Yoko Ono on Christmas Eve in 1969. I joined them and a small group of local peace activists in a Christmas fast for world peace in front of Rochester Cathedral in England, a short walk from where I lived with my family in Chatham Dockyard. I was 15 years old,…
I spent most of the last year reporting two sieges, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, which finally ended with the decisive defeat of ISIS. This was the most important event in the Middle East in 2017, though people are already beginning to forget how dangerous the ISIS caliphate was at the height of…
2017 presented the world with a number of crises, among which were the continued wars in the Middle Ease and the spread of terrorism, the humanitarian crises in Africa and Asia, the rising military tensions over North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, and the militarization of both the South China Sea and eastern Europe. Throughout…
U.S. president Donald Trump ran his presidential campaign on a strict platform of anti-interventionism (with the exception of his campaign pledge to bomb the sh*t out of ISIS’ oil fields). In reality, Trump hasn’t just bombed the sh*t out of ISIS – he has bombed the sh*t out of the entire region, making former President Obama’s warmongering legacy pale…
The case against Iraqing Iran includes the following points: Threatening war is a violation of the U.N. Charter. Waging war is a violation of the U.N. Charter and of the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Waging war without Congress is a violation of the U.S. Constitution. Have you seen Iraq lately? Have you seen the entire region? Have…
Mainstream media in 2013: “Conspiracy Theorists!” Mainstream media in 2017: “ISIS Got a Powerful Missile the CIA Bought!” Years late to the party, mainstream media outlets like USA Today, Reuters, and Buzzfeed are just out with “breaking” and “exclusive” stories detailing how a vast arsenal of weapons sent to Syria by the CIA in cooperation with…
