War

David M. Faris | (Informed Comment) | – – Last month’s horrific attacks in Paris and last week’s massacre in California – which was at most loosely connected to Daesh (ISIS/ISIL)– have renewed calls for more robust U.S. intervention in Syria. The momentum toward escalation is hardly limited to the political right: Opinion polling suggests […]

Featured

41% of Trump Supporters want to bomb Aladdin and Jasmine

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Public Policy Polling asked US voters if they favored bombing “Agraba.” Some 30% of Republicans said “Yes!” Obviously, this is a a little bit of a trick, since voters being asked such a question assume it is a real policy issue. But wouldn’t you want to […]

Iraq

Is the US Suddenly entering a Major new War in Iraq & Syria?

contributors

Paul Rogers | ( OpenDemocracy) | – – The spreading influence of ISIS is forcing Washington into a strategic decision: escalate. Suddenly, and without almost anyone noticing, the war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq is developing and growing rapidly. Some elements are already clear enough: they include the expansion of ISIS-controlled territory in Libya, […]

Israel

US think tank says Israel has around 115 nuclear weapons

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A Washington-based think tank published a study Friday reporting Israel’s possession of around 115 nuclear weapons, despite the country’s ongoing policy of ambiguity regarding its nuclear capacities. According to the report by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), Israel has produced 660 Kg of […]

France

Paris attacks: how effective has the military response been?

contributors

By Scott Lucas | (The Conversation) | – – Even as Parisians were trying to assess the scale of the attacks by Islamic State (IS) which killed 132 people on November 13, politicians were promising a decisive and effective military response. French President Francois Hollande assured, “We will be merciless toward the barbarians of Islamic […]

Drones

How Syria is becoming a test bed for high-tech weapons of electronic warfare

contributors

David Stupples | (The Conversation) | – – The relationship between Russia and the West is becoming increasingly dangerous with potential flashpoints developing in both eastern Europe and Syria. After repeated incursions into Turkish airspace by Russian warplanes on bombing raids over Syria, NATO’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg warned Moscow that it stands ready to […]

Nuclear weapons

Making money off Nuclear Apocalypse while obsessing about Non-Nuclear Iran

contributors

By Richard Krushnic & Jonathan Alan King | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – Imagine for a moment a genuine absurdity: somewhere in the United States, the highly profitable operations of a set of corporations were based on the possibility that sooner or later your neighborhood would be destroyed and you and all your neighbors annihilated. And […]

Chemical Weapons

ISIL’s campaign may be going chemical – why no international outcry?

contributors

Michelle Bentley | (The Conversation) | – – Evidence is mounting that [so-called] Islamic State (IS) [group] is using chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria – and yet this egregious crime, which once used to be a “red line” for the rest of the world, has yet to provoke a proportionate response. One the most […]

Bashar al-Assad

UN: al-Assad, ISIL, al-Qaeda committing Mass Atrocities, Endangering Int’l Security

contributors

UN News Centre | ( Office of the High Commission for Human Rights) – – Mass atrocities by Government forces and non-State armed groups continue to take place in Syria, causing immeasurable suffering to civilians and contributing to a spillover of violence affecting international peace and stability, a United Nations-appointed panel said today. The Independent […]