TFF Blog

Introduction An interview with Daniel Falcone on the future of NATO that considers Trump’s brazen challenges and the tepid responses of European political leaders, and what this interplay signifies for the future of world order. At least, Trump’s approach has so far avoided the drift toward Cold War 2 that might have happened had Hillary Clinton become president, but Trump’s trade war mentality may hasten the advent of a different kind of second Cold War, with China and Europe at its epicenter, that is, if the Trump presidency is not undermined in the November elections or otherwise. We should be puzzled by the seeming passivity of the deep state in the U.S. Does it not exist after all? Q1: What are the reasons for Trump’s insistence that NATO is just another extension of corruption and an institutional burden for the United States? RF: It is difficult to evaluate Trump’s particular...

Det er en gammel floskel at kalde sommerferien for agurketid. Der er ingen historier at skrive om for de danske journalister, når erhvervslivets ledere, debattørerne og politikerne på Christiansborg er på sommerferie. Agurketid kunne dog også ses som en mulighed for at skue udover landegrænsen, og måske man vil opdage en verden fyldt af historier, som mangler at blive fortalt. Hvis man generelt følger danske mediers dækning af de mest presserende konflikter, som foregår udenfor landets grænser, er det et stofområde, som jeg vil påstå er i en nedadgående kurve. Når det drejer sig om internationale konflikter og krige virker det faktisk som om det er blandt de lavest prioriteret samtaleemner på landets redaktioner. Det står i skarp kontrast til det faktum at Yemen er udpeget af Unicef som den største humanitære krise siden 2. verdenskrig.* Medierne har stort set ikke bragt artikler i juli måned om krisen i Yemen...

    By Jan Oberg August 9, 2018 Let’s not use these days as if they were only history. These two cities do have museum that everyone on earth should visit – but the issue is not history. It’s is reality today, 73 years later. While we must commemorate the victims and the destruction and never forget – because it must never happen again – the perspective must be updated. This what this short video is about – and it also signals that TFF will do more videos as part of its educational and outreach work. We’re grateful if you share!    

  By Gunnar Westberg TFF Board member June 24, 2018     • At last, the leader of North Korea, DPRK, has been “allowed” to meet in person with the US president! Since the time of the grandfather of the present leader of North Korean leader that country has had three major objectives in its foreign policy: 1. A peace agreement; 2. A recognition of the leader of the country with respect, or, concretely, a meeting with the US president; 3. Guarantees of peace and security. In recent years there is also a demand for a nuclear weapons-free Korean peninsula. These demands were repeated to us at our two visits to to Pyongyang, DPRK, as representatives of IPPNW, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and in discussions with North Korean representatives when we have met them in other countries. • • In 1972 President Nixon went to Beijing....

  By Gunnar Westberg TFF Board member August 8, 2018 • Oh, my dear USA – the country where I spent six of the best years of my life, where I have paid so many visits, where I have so many friends – are you still alive, behind the Trump Curtain, or are you hiding in despair and disbelief? Two weeks I spent there. Two weeks is an ideal time to confirm your prejudices and to reach premature conclusions. If you stay longer, you will understand that you have understood very little. I went to places I know well: to rural Minnesota, to the civilized big city of Minneapolis and to the Capital of the World, New York. And yes, you are still there, the real USA, the real Americans! Trump does not reign over your hearts. Everyone talks of him, tries to understand who he is, and how he...

Re-posted from TFF’s earlier website on November 1, 2016 with links to later materials being added at the bottom. TFF PressInfo # 392: Just how grey are the White Helmets and their backers? Added at the bottom of the article on November 23, 2016: The – bizarre – White Helmet Mannequin Challenge video; The Swedish Institute of International Affairs’s event with the White Helmets on November 24; The Right Livelihood Award Foundation’s Award Ceremony to take place on November 25. • • While thousands of humanitarian organisations around the world are struggling fiercely with diminishing support from governments and the public, one has achieved a surprising amount of support from Western governments in a surprisingly short period of time and gained a surprising attention from mainstream media and ditto political elites: The Syrian Civil Defence or White Helmets. Their name of course makes you think of the UN’s Blue Helmets...

  Comment by Jan Oberg RT offers the background and, towards the end, Oberg deals with what it means politically. The U.S. has upheld sanctions on Iran since 1979. When is enough enough? With what right does the country suffocate the 85 million Iranian citizens? Perhaps it is time that you boycott these two companies since they have now decided to contribute more to war than to peace, to support the U.S. in its gross violations of international law (by withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal which is under a UN Security Council resolution) and in its human rights violations – not to speak of threatening sanctions on everybody else who continue to do business with Iran. Watch the show… Some “parameters” may prevent you from using the arrow below. If so click “Watch the show…”    

  Recall Shakespeare’s great work of dramatic art, the Merchant of Venice, where Shylock was treated as an unpleasant Jew (with a lovely, self-effacing daughter) who dealt mainly in shady usury. His speech to the court is one of Shakespeare’s most remembered: “Hath not a Jew eyes? / Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? /If you prick us, do we not bleed? /If you tickle us do we not laugh? /If you poison us, do we not die? /And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?” But what if we substitute Palestinian for Jew? Viz: “Hath not a Palestinian eyes?” and so on…… Do the Israelis treat the Palestinians as human beings like themselves? Or are the Palestinians just an anonymous threat, to be knocked down every time they push themselves up from behind the parapet? If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to make out...

  • Iran’s foreign minister says the US is addicted to imposing sanctions on other countries but the Iranian nation, through its unity and resistance, can force Washington to give up such habit. The comments by Mohammad Javad Zarif come as the US is set to restore sanctions on Iran after pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May. Zarif said the world has also come to the understanding that Washington needs to stop using sanctions to pressurize others. He said the US economic pressure has been unable to hamper Iran’s progress in the past and that the new sanctions would prove futile as well. The top diplomat urged the Iranian people to stand united in the face of the United States in order to preserve the country’s dignity. I was asked to comment on Zavad Zarif’s statement and added that it could be seen as the start of...

  TFF PressInfo # 470 Lund, Sweden – July 27, 2018 Forgive us for saying it but the coverage of the Putin-Trump meeting in the mainstream press has been painful to witness – the US media in particular. Navel-gazing in the extreme and turning the Presidential Summit meeting about their relations and international affairs into a US domestic policy affair. The Western media questions -also the so-called respected media – matched the rest in their narrow-minded tabloid attitude – one super fool believing he could get Putin to talk about what he “has” on Trump concerning alleged prostitute hiring in Moscow years ago – prestitutes about prostitutes! Write to tff@transnational.live and get TFF PressInfo from now on – it’s free because TFF is free And – which your free press has hardly mentioned – one journalist, Sam Husseini, who intended to ask about nuclear disarmament was forcefully ejected from the...

A personal pledge provoked by the debates about Syria   By Jan Oberg   Summary About 95% of all debates about conflicts and war that we see in politics, mainstream media, the Internet and social media focus on the violence, who uses more or less of it and who is, therefore, the evil party. This approach places direct violence – such as human rights violations, killings, bombings etc. – in the centre of the attention and that is unfortunate because violence is always only a symptom. I call this the simplifying or reductionist approach; invariably it has populist connotations too and usually ends up in mud-slinging. I argue in this analysis that this reductionist approach is counterproductive and that – because of the defining characteristics of these debates – the underlying conflicts/problems that cause the violence are never in focus and that no international complex conflict can be explained even...

Video interview with Miko Peled of July 20, 2018 We strongly recommend that you go to Peled’s excellent blog, see his articles and video and read about his now classical book, “The General’s Son. Journey of an Israeli in Palestine.” You’ll also find an interesting one on his recent visit to Iran and how people react to his going to Iran. And why not subscribe to his blog? Here is civil courage, analytical mind, passion and truth in one, a man who knows – compare that with the mainstream media’s coverage of the issue that are his.