By Saber Azam* GENEVA, Mar 16 2020 (IPS) – The fourth and last presidential election in Afghanistan on 28 September 2019 was yet another setback to the democratic process. Not only did it take months for the Independent Election Commission… Continue Reading
By Sam Hill* – Newsweek On February 29 in Doha, Qatar, the U.S. signed a peace agreement with the Taliban. Each side gets what it wants most. The US gets to bring home the 12,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan,… Continue Reading
Barry R. Posen* – Boston Review Despite claims to the contrary, the Trump administration wants regime change in Iran and is risking a full-scale war in order to get it The Prussian strategic theorist Carl von Clausewitz once observed that… Continue Reading
By M.K. Bhadrakumar* – Independent Media Institute The chasm between illusion and reality in politics remains perennial. Wars seldom ended according to the script of peace agreements. The fall of Saigon in April 1975 ending the Vietnam War, with defeated Americans hastily… Continue Reading
John Nichols*- The Nation Eight Republican senators join Democrats to declare that Trump has no authority to attack Iran without congressional approval. If senators took their oaths seriously, votes to assert Congress’s authority in matters of war and peace would… Continue Reading
By Cora Weiss* NEW YORK, Feb 12 2020 (IPS) – 75 years ago following the end of the Second World War and the first time any state has dropped an atomic bomb, not once, but twice, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,… Continue Reading
BY NETA C. CRAWFORD* – THE CONVERSATION The figure includes $838 billion in “emergency” and “overseas contingency operation” funding and $59 billion spent by the State Department and USAID on Iraq and Syria Even if the U.S. administration decided to leave — or was evicted… Continue Reading
By Thalif Deen* UNITED NATIONS, Feb 6 2020 (IPS) – The world’s young activists, numbering over 3.8 billion, are on the war path. The rising new socialist movements—which originated with “Black Lives Matter” and “Occupy Wall Street” (one protester’s slogan… Continue Reading
By Prabir Purkayastha*- Independent Media Institute With the United States walking out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—more commonly known as the Iran accord—we all enter into a heightened zone of danger. Trump is threatening a war on Iran through… Continue Reading
By Ishaan Tharoor* – The Washington Post President Trump called his plan for Middle East “peace” an “unprecedented” development that swept past “even the most well-intentioned plans” of his predecessors. It is in keeping with the guiding animus of his… Continue Reading
Galip Dalay – Newsweek It’s been less than two weeks since the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Quds force, and he already looks set to reshape regional politics in death as much he had in life—if not… Continue Reading
By George Friedman* – Geopolitical Futures There are moments when the entire world seems to be coming apart, as if Armageddon itself were upon us. Public attention tends to be able to handle just one Armageddon at a time, and… Continue Reading
By Samira Sadeque UNITED NATIONS, Jan 2020 (IPS) – While the United States is busy with foreign operations such as killing Qasem Soleimani, a key figure in Middle East Politics, behind the scenes it is reportedly considering a change that… Continue Reading
Tyler Durden – Zero Hedge (*) There’s been a number of theories to emerge surrounding President Trump’s incredibly risky decision to assassinate IRGC Guds Force chief Qasem Soleimani, including that it was all the brainchild of hawkish Secretary of State… Continue Reading
By Bonnie Honig* – Boston Review In linking the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, Trump invokes a fantasy of poetic justice—positioning himself as Rambo, the avenger of American humiliation abroad. Last week, after ordering… Continue Reading
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN – Democracy Now! (*) NERMEEN SHAIKH: President Trump vowed on Wednesday to hit Iran with new sanctions but appeared to pull back from taking any… Continue Reading
By Kelsey Davenport Julia Masterson (*) WASHINGTON DC, Jan 10 2020 (IPS) – Iran announced its fifth breach of the 2015 nuclear deal Jan. 5, stating that it “discards the last key component of its operational limitations” put in place… Continue Reading
By James W. Carden* – The Nation The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’ militaristic influence on US policy toward Iran is working. Suleimani’s assassination is evidence of that. Consider the following scenario: A Washington, DC–based, tax-exempt organization that bills… Continue Reading
Robert Reich * – Newsweek Trump’s killing of Qassem Suleimani brings America to the brink of a war with Iran without any congressional approval, in direct violation of Congress’ war making authority under the Constitution. Other presidents have started wars… Continue Reading
By George Friedman* – Geopolitical Futures In order to understand the current confrontation between Iran and the United States, we might begin with the Persian-Babylonian wars. Alternatively, we could begin with the decision of the United States to withdraw U.S.… Continue Reading
