Pentagon

TeleSur | – – Countries opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will meet on Friday for the first time since Donald Trump’s U.S. administration took office. The U.S. Defense Department may recommend that the United States deploy regular combat troops to Syria to fight Islamic State group militants, CNN reported on Wednesday. The idea is […]

China

Could Trump’s War of Words with China turn Hot?

contributors

By Rajan Menon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Forget those “bad hombres down there” in Mexico that U.S. troops might take out. Ignore the way National Security Adviser Michael Flynn put Iran “on notice” and the new president insisted, that, when it comes to that country, “nothing is off the table.” Instead, focus for […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

Yemen withdraws blanket approval for US action after Trump’s botched Raid

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The the Arab press, reports that that government has withdrawn blanket permission from the Trump administration to conduct raids and drone strikes on al-Qaeda and other targets. It is sourcing one of the two Yemeni governments (that of Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi). Mansour Hadi’s diplomat expressed to […]

Authoritarianism

Trump’s 5th Bankruptcy: Budget-Busting Trillions to US Department of War

Juan Cole

By William D. Hartung | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – At over $600 billion a year and counting, the Pentagon already receives significantly more than its fair share of federal funds. If President Donald Trump has his way, though, that will prove a sum for pikers and misers. He and his team are now […]

Arms Sales

From Ugly American to American Bully

contributors

By William J. Astore | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – I came of age during America’s Cold War with the Soviet Union, witnessing its denouement while serving in the U.S. military. In those days, the USSR led the world’s weapons trade, providing arms to the Warsaw Pact (the military alliance it dominated) as well […]

Arab Spring

Along with pardoning Manning, Obama should have repealed 1917 Espionage Act

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In a daring and bold move that showed his profound humanitarian side, President Obama has commuted the 35-year sentence of Chelsea Manning, a transgender woman and former military intelligence analyst who in 2010 leaked hundreds of thousands of State Department cables and also some Iraq and […]

Health

US Iraq-Afghanistan ‘Burn Pits’ – Poisoning America’s Soldiers

contributors

Reviewed by H. Patricia Hynes | (Truthdig) | – – “The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers” A book by Joseph Hickman They are called “this generation’s Agent Orange”—the open fire pits operated on over 230 US military bases across Iraq and Afghanistan during our wars there. Every kind of waste—plastics, batteries, old ordnance, […]

National Security State

Last Year the US Dropped 26,171 Bombs on 7 Muslim-Majority Countries

contributors

TeleSur | – – The countries include Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. In the waning days of the Obama administration, new research by the Council on Foreign Relations, CFR, has confirmed the militaristic legacy it leaves behind: the United States dropped at least 26,171 bombs in seven Muslim-majority countries in 2016. According […]

Donald Trump

Mr. Trump: Government and War are too Serious to be entrusted to the Generals

contributors

By William J. Astore | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – America has always had a love affair with its generals. It started at the founding of the republic with George Washington and continued with (among others) Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. These military men shared something in common: […]