Republican Party

By Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – When George W. Bush and Dick Cheney launched their forever wars — under the banner of a “Global War on Terror” — they unleashed an unholy trinity of tactics. Torture, rendition, and indefinite detention became the order of the day. After a partial suspension of these […]

Donald Trump

Kushner of Arabia: Can Trump’s Son-in-Law Figure out Iraq?

contributors

By Shahram Akbarzadeh | (Informed Comment) | – – Days before President Donald J. Trump ordered cruise missile strikes on Syria, his son-in-law Jared Kushner visited Iraq to learn first-hand how the Iraqi government assesses the security situation, more than a decade after the United States delivered regime change to that country. The issues facing […]

Bashar al-Assad

Washington’s Supreme Hypocrisy on Chemical Weapons and Civilian Deaths

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Army in Idlib is an atrocity and the pictures of dead children tug at the heart. But the outrage of American politicians inside the beltway about it draws on the myths of American exceptionalism and Alzheimer’s of the […]

Donald Trump

Bannon booted from US National Security Council, takes swipe at Susan Rice

contributors

TeleSur | – – “General McMaster has returned the NSC to its proper function,” Bannon said in a statement. U.S. President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has been removed from the National Security Council’s principals committee, replaced by U.S. intelligence officials, according to a new presidential memorandum issued Wednesday. The decision was made by […]

Bill of Rights

As Trump Breaks it, Top Ten Things we need to do to Fix America

contributors

By William R. Polk | (Informed Comment) | – – Let me suggest what seem to me to be the major categories of challenges men who care about the country face, but before I do, let me frankly state my position: I think the Democratic Party leaders had it coming to them. Obama’s rhetoric raised […]

Climate Change

Climate Change Solutions Can’t Wait for Trump

contributors

By Desmond Brown | (Inter Press Service) | – – BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (IPS) – From tourism-dependent nations like Barbados to those rich with natural resources like Guyana, climate change poses one of the biggest challenges for the countries of the Caribbean. Nearly all of these countries are vulnerable to natural events like hurricanes. “Why is […]

Donald Trump

ISIL: Imbecilic Buffoon Trump leading America to Extinction

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Disturbing signs emerged Tuesday that Donald J. Trump’s odd self-presentation and erratic pronouncements could be a serious security threat to . . . all Americans. That is, if the US appears to be led by an incompetent it will encourage attacks. Al-Hayat reports that a spokesman […]

Displaced and Refugees

Trump Ordered 70 Airstrikes in Yemen, Twice as Many as Last Year of Obama

contributors

TeleSur | – – U.S. President Trump also greenlighted a group operation in Yemen in February that killed more than 30 civilians. The young U.S. administration of Donald Trump has carried out at least 70 airstrikes in Yemen, more than twice as many as those carried out in 2016 under the Obama administration, according to […]

Authoritarianism

Strongman: The Bloodstained Rise of Global Populism

contributors

By Alfred W. McCoy | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – In 2016, something extraordinary happened in the politics of diverse countries around the world. With surprising speed and simultaneity, a new generation of populist leaders emerged from the margins of nominally democratic nations to win power. In doing so, they gave voice, often in virulent […]