Terrorism

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Brown University Watson Institute Costs of War Project has put out a report concluding that the US-led “War on Terror” has displaced 37 million people. While there are parts of the report I agree with, some of the argument seems to me flawed. Let me explain why that is, […]

al-Qaeda

Did he Win? Osama Bin Laden wanted America Effed up with Loathing and Forever Wars

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – It’s July 2020 and I’m about to turn 76, which, as far as I’m concerned, officially makes me an old man. So put up with my aging, wandering brain here, since (I swear) I wasn’t going to start this piece with Donald J. Trump, no matter his latest wild claims or bizarre […]

al-Qaeda

How the Justice Department Accidentally Released the Name of Saudi Official Suspected of Helping the 9/11 Hijackers

ProPublica

By Tim Golden and Sebastian Rotella | – (ProPublica) – After an extraordinary, two-year battle to keep secret the name of a Saudi diplomat suspected of ties to the 9/11 plot, the Justice Department accidentally disclosed the man’s name in a court filing. The revelation of the Saudi official’s identity, in a federal court filing […]

Climate Crisis

After Trillions invested in Security after 9/11, Coronavirus Shows we’re not Up to Security Threat of Climate Emergency

The Conversation

By Kate Guy | – How might a single threat, even one deemed unlikely, spiral into an evolving global crisis which challenges the foundations of global security, economic stability and democratic governance, all in the matter of a few weeks? My research on threats to national security, governance and geopolitics has focused on exactly this […]

Climate Crisis

US Nat’l Security State Tilted at War on Terror Windmills when Real Threats — Climate and Pandemic — were at Home

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com) – Americans are facing “A Spring Unlike Any Before.” So warned a front-page headline in the March 13th New York Times. That headline, however hyperbolic, was all too apt. The coming of spring has always promised relief from the discomforts of winter. Yet, far too often, it also brings its own calamities and […]

Afghanistan

Trump boasted he “Obliterated” ISIS in Afghanistan; Then ISIS Massacred a Shiite Wedding Party

Brian Glyn Williams

By Brian Glyn Williams and Javed Rezayee | – Williams, Boston/Bamiyan. On November 13th yet another suicide bombing shredded the lives of people across the globe in a land whose seemingly endless conflict has once again been forgotten by many, if not most Americans. But, as devastating as that blast that took the lives of […]

Bashar al-Assad

Trump Supports Turkey against Putin-backed Russo-Syrian Campaign to Finish off Rebels in Idlib

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump called Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday and appeared to back Turkey against Russia and Syria with regard to the current Syrian Arab Army campaign in west Aleppo province and the province of Idlib. The Turkish press said that Trump thanked Erdogan for his efforts to avert a humanitarian […]

Counter-Terrorism

Gatsbyed Half to Death: Is America’s Trump Gilded Age another 9/11?

Tom Engelhardt

(Tomdispatch.com) – Here’s the question at hand — and I guarantee you that you’ll read it here first: Is Donald Trump the second or even possibly the third 9/11? Because truly, he has to be one or the other. Let me explain, and while I do, keep this in mind: as 2019 ends, thanks to […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan War and ‘War on terror’ rage on because the West won’t learn from 20 yrs. failure

Open Democracy

By Paul Rogers | – Eighteen years ago the head of the UK’s military warned against relying on military solutions alone. But governments still aren’t listening. Things are not going as well in Afghanistan as the US government would have you believe. Not from a US point of view, anyway. This week The Washington Post […]