By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address slighted foreign policy in favor of touting domestic progress and proposing new domestic initiatives. But there were some foreign policy highlights worth underlining. 1. Obama pushed back hard against hawks like Senator John McCain, who want to ramp up a […]
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Democratic Party
Obama wants new Mil. Authority, but Special Ops already on Missions in 105 Countries in 2015
By Nick Turse | (Tomdispatch.com) — In the dead of night, they swept in aboard V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. Landing in a remote region of one of the most volatile countries on the planet, they raided a village and soon found themselves in a life-or-death firefight. It was the second time in two weeks that […]
New Republican Majority Wants to intervene in Obama’s Iran Talks
By Luke Johnson | (RFE/RL) WASHINGTON — Should U.S. President Barack Obama and Western powers reach a nuclear deal with Iran, they could face a new hurdle: a Republican Congress. Republicans are eyeing various Iran-related measures, including legislation to impose fresh sanctions should talks fail and to require congressional review of any deal. The Obama […]
President Obama’s Biggest Mideast Policy Challenges, 2015
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Barack Obama wanted to be the president who got the US out of Afghanistan and Iraq, and turned America’s diplomatic energies to the more promising Pacific Rim. 2014 was the year in which he failed decisively at these objectives. He has had to keep 10,000 US military personnel […]
We have so much to Learn from Cuba
By Robert F. Kennedy Jr In this column, Robert F. Kennedy – son of Robert F. (Bobby) Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy – looks behind the U.S. embargo against Cuba which, he argues, has been a “monumental failure” and is loaded with powerful ironies that make the United States look hypocritical to […]
GOP Figures used racist Ape imagery for Obama before North Korea did
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment)– North Korea lashed out at President Barack Obama on Saturday, blaming him for the Sony film, “The Interview,” and for the North Korean internet outage, adding “”Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest..” Given the long history of racist associations of […]
The *Other* Torture Report: What the USA looks like to the World
(special to Informed Comment) — At long last – despite the attempts at sabotage by, and over the protests of the CIA, and notwithstanding the dilatory efforts of the State Department – the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has finally issued the executive summary of its 6,300-page report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. […]
Pope Francis Backs Obama’s Cuba Opening
By Jim Lobe WASHINGTON, Dec 18 2014 (IPS) – In perhaps his boldest foreign-policy move during his presidency, Barack Obama Wednesday announced that he intends to establish full diplomatic relations with Cuba. While the president noted that he lacked the authority to lift the 54-year-old trade embargo against Havana, he issued directives that will permit […]
The Nukes are Back, and Obama’s Pentagon is the Cause
By James Carroll | (Tomdispatch.com) — Mark these days. A long-dreaded transformation from hope to doom is taking place as the United States of America ushers the world onto the no-turning-back road of nuclear perdition. Once, we could believe there was another way to go. Indeed, we were invited to take that path by the […]