War

( Tomdispatch.com ) – From Syria to Yemen in the Middle East, Libya to Somalia in Africa, Afghanistan to Pakistan in South Asia, an American aerial curtain has descended across a huge swath of the planet. Its stated purpose: combatting terrorism. Its primary method: constant surveillance and bombing — and yet more bombing. Its political […]

War

US Army Tweeted ‘How has Serving Impacted You?’ It didn’t Go Well.

Common Dreams

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer | – (Commondreams.org) – “How has serving impacted you?” the Army asked. The responses poured in. The U.S. Army may have gotten more than it bargained for when it recently asked on Twitter, “How has serving impacted you?” The question, posed just before the nation officially marks Memorial Day, brought […]

Donald Trump

Why did the Trump Admin. Obstruct UN Resolution against War Rape that Amal Clooney Supported?

The Conversation

By J.M. Opal| – Last week, the U.S. used the threat of its veto power and generalized clout to weaken a United Nations Security Council resolution against rape in war zones. The watered-down version, which passed on April 23, excludes all references to sexual and reproductive health. The issue, apparently, was that the resolution mentioned […]

astronomy and outer space

The Coming Great Satellite Space War between Nuclear-Armed India and Pakistan

Dilip Hiro

It’s still the most dangerous border on Earth. Yet compared to the recent tweets of President Donald Trump, it remains a marginal news story. That doesn’t for a moment diminish the chance that the globe’s first (and possibly ultimate) nuclear conflagration could break out along that 480-mile border known as the Line of Control (and, […]

nuclear weapons

Nuclear Brinkmanship is Back: Why We need a New Peace Movement

John Buell

(Informed Comment) – MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) is truly mad. At the height of the Cold War some military analysts and planners maintained that parity in weapons that would destroy civilization prevented either side from resort to those weapons. Parity, however, is a slippery concept, especially in an environment where science and engineering are continually […]

nuclear weapons

Why Proposal to Sell Saudis Nuclear Technology without Safeguards is Terrifying

The Conversation

By Chen Kane | – According to a congressional report, a group that includes former senior U.S. government officials is lobbying to sell nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia. As an expert focusing on the Middle East and the spread of nuclear weapons, I believe these efforts raise important legal, economic and strategic concerns. It […]

Featured

How Kushner and other Key Trump Officials Plotted to Give Saudis the Atom Bomb in Return for Billions

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Reform has issued a Report on a plot to make billions of dollars by selling Saudi Arabia sensitive American nuclear technology that could allow the Kingdom to develop nuclear weapons. The scheme required breaking US law, which forbids technology transfers that might […]

nuclear weapons

Resetting the Nuclear Doomsday Clock

John Buell

(Informed Comment) – Earlier this year the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reset its famous doomsday clock to 2 minutes to midnight. Though the journal’s concerns about nuclear war and/or climate catastrophe were well taken, they received little media attention beyond some discussion of the perils of pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. And […]

nuclear weapons

“Strategic” Atomic Weapons rolled out in Preparation for a Thinkable Nuclear War

James Carroll

(Tomdispatch.com) – Last month, the National Nuclear Security Administration (formerly the Atomic Energy Commission) announced that the first of a new generation of strategic nuclear weapons had rolled off the assembly line at its Pantex nuclear weapons plant in the panhandle of Texas. That warhead, the W76-2, is designed to be fitted to a submarine-launched […]