War

TeleSur | – – The criminalization of truth when it comes to Israel’s nuclear capabilities means that its arsenal has been converted into a gigantic elephant in the room. The online version of a recent Economist magazine article comes equipped with the tantalizing headline “Israel’s atomic angst: A textile factory with a difference.” The summary […]

Barack Obama

Obama in Hiroshima, Memorial Day and the Iran Deal

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – President Obama in Hiroshima gave an anti-war speech. He said, ” But among those nations like my own that hold nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them. We may not realize this goal in […]

War

Globally, deaths from explosive weapons rise 54%, & 3/4s are Civilians

contributors

TeleSur | – – Civilian casualties from explosive weapons rose by 54 percent in 2015 compared to 2011. More than three-quarters of those harmed by explosive weapons in 2015— bombs, missiles and mortars— were civilians, with 30 of them killed on average every day, according to a new study from Action on Armed Violence or […]

Nuclear weapons

Do Donald Trump’s ‘Terrifying’ Nuclear Threats endanger You?

contributors

By Michelle Bentley | (The Conversation) | – – Donald Trump has once again violated all mainstream thinking to advance a dangerous and deviant policy, this time on nuclear weapons. The wannabe Republican presidential nominee recently said the US needs a policy of “unpredictability”. This means the US would be able to use nuclear weapons […]

Afghanistan

In an Age of Global Terror, do Failed States endanger you, too?

contributors

By Joseph Chamie and Barry Mirkin | (Inter Press Service) | – – NEW YORK, Apr 9 2016 (IPS) – Regardless of whether they are called fragile, failed, or failing states, scores of countries around the globe are plagued by overwhelming problems with few solutions in sight. Moreover, the instability and dire straits of these […]

Bill of Rights

How Bush-Cheneyism made Mideast in its Image: Wars, WOT, With us or Against Us

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Thirteen years after the illegal US invasion of Iraq, it is worth considering its full impact on this country and on the region. Bush-Cheneyism had a number of key pillars, among which these were prominent: 1. Aggressive unilateral warfare, with the domestic advantage of making the […]

Middle East

Will the Mideast’s Civil Wars Partition it into small Warring States?

contributors

By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – As civil wars and cross-border military conflicts continue to escalate in the Middle East, Syria, Iraq and Libya are in danger of breaking up —even as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) continues to make territorial gains in the […]

Children

Thousands of Children Under Siege in War-Torn Syria

contributors

By Valentina Ieri | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – Seeing children dying due to a lack of doctors and medicines, and seeing them grow up in a society with no food, schools or text books, is the reality of the daily life of more than 250,000 Syrian children currently under […]

Displaced and Refugees

Not just Madaya: A million people under Food Sieges in Mideast

contributors

By Nadia Prupis, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org) | – – Despite international laws prohibiting the use of starvation against civilians, forces on all sides preventing aid from reaching blockaded towns in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq As crises in the Middle East escalate, food has become a weapon of war. A new Associated Press analysis […]