William J. Burns, President Biden’s nominee to run the CIA, speaks at his confirmation hearing on February 23rd. [Source: nytimes.com] March 30, 2021 Jeremy Kuzmarov William J. Burns’ appointment offers little more than an image makeover for the agency. As a diplomat, Burns supported U.S. military interventions in Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria and is […]
U.S. bombs and bullets have claimed at least hundreds of thousands of civilian lives this century. Here, a U.S. airstrike against Islamic State militants in densely-populated Mosul, Iraq on July 9, 2017 is shown. (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images) March 29, 2021 Medea Benjamin, Nicolas J.S. Davies Unbeknownst to many Americans, the U.S. military and its allies […]
Image: Adobe Stock / XY March 23, 2021 Jedediah Britton-Purdy, Amy Kapczynski, David Singh Grewal If we are to emerge from this era of crisis, we need legal thinking that operates on fundamentally different presumptions. We live in an era of intersecting crises—some new, some old but newly visible. At the time of writing, the […]
It’s no coincidence that, after years of fighting abroad, the United States is beset with paranoia, loss of trust, and increasingly bitter divisions Stephen M. Walt March 16, 2021 “Fortress America” is a derogatory term that usually refers to extreme forms of isolationism. Last week, however, CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria gave the idea a new […]
Photo by Daniel Huizinga | CC BY 2.0 Gabriel Rockhill March 16, 2021 One of the most steadfast beliefs regarding the United States is that it is a democracy. Whenever this conviction waivers slightly, it is almost always to point out detrimental exceptions to core American values or foundational principles. For instance, aspiring critics frequently bemoan […]
Whaam! 1963 is a large, two-canvas painting by the American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein that takes its composition from a comic book strip. What would the world be like if the U.S. lost control globally? Chalmers Johnson (1931-2010) March 17, 2021 In 1962, the historian Barbara Tuchman published a book about the start of World […]
Natylie Baldwin March 15, 2021 February 22nd marks 75 years since George F. Kennan sent his famous “Long Telegram” to the State Department in which he provided an assessment of the Soviet Union that led to the U.S. containment policy of the Cold War. The Cold War, in turn, saw various conflicts, scores of covert […]
Negar Mortazavi and Sina Toossi February 25, 2020 Iranians’ stories reflect the devastating human costs of US economic sanctions that are often ignored by Washington’s foreign policy elite Originally posted on Global Research on December 8th, 2020 “My young cousin passed away last week,” an Iranian Twitter user recently lamented. “She needed medication for her cancer that doctors […]
Kennedy delivers the famous speech in West Berlin in June 1963, five months before his assassination. [Source: 20minutos.es] James DiEugenio February 10, 2021 When Oliver Stone’s blockbuster film JFK premiered in 1991, it delivered a hugely embarrassing shock to academic historians, Democratic Party grandees, corporate media pundits and other respected purveyors of conventional wisdom. That’s because, for the […]
Dr. Gary G. Kohls February 9, 2021 A half-century ago, The New York Times accused Martin Luther King Jr. of “slander” for decrying the Vietnam War and The Washington Post detected “unsupported fantasies” in his speech, recalled more favourably by Gary G. Kohls. Originally published on Jan. 19, 2014; slightly edited for the time element. […]