By Jan Oberg We’ve witnessed a sustained Western media attention to the alleged interference by Russia (Putin) in American politics in favour of President Trump’s election. The same media seem to find it less interesting to write about US meddling in the political affairs, including elections, in other countries. But scattered articles – […]
The United States spent at least $12 billion in Syria-related military and civilian expenses in the four years from 2014 through 2017, according to former U.S. ambassador Robert Ford, Ben Norton reports. By Ben Norton The United States spent at least $12 billion in Syria-related military and civilian expenses in the four years from […]
By Jonathan Power February 14, 2018 How rude can you get? The US vice-president, Mike Pence, sitting one row in front of the sister of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un refused to turn round and say hi. She was one outstretched arm away from him. For the whole of the opening ceremony […]
By Gunnar Westberg February 16, 2018 This is how I would summarize the new US Nuclear Posture Review, issued last week by the Trump administration: • We can fight and win a nuclear exchange • We are prepared to use nuclear weapons against a conventional attack, e.g. a cyberattack • We may consider […]
By Uri Friedman The next phase of a seven-year conflict has begun. Consider the stunning events that have occurred in the last three weeks alone: Last month, Turkey, with Russian approval, launched a military offensive in northwestern Syria against Kurdish fighters it views as terrorists and America views as counterterrorism allies. From The Atlantic here […]
By Jan Oberg February 3, 2018 No it didn’t. The mainstream media are totally irresponsible in their priorities. At the moment of writing, five hours after the world’s most dangerous document was presented, no major Western media has featured it prominently. This means it won’t be. No chance it would go viral. The increasing […]
By Jonathan Power January 30, 2018 President Donald Trump said it would never happen. Now it is. During the election he said he did not want more interventions – no more Iraqs, no more Afghanistans, Libyas or Syrias. A year into his presidency the American military is involved in all these places and […]
By Jan Oberg January 26, 2018 Excerpts from Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy of the United States of America: “For decades the United States has enjoyed uncontested or dominant superiority in every operating domain. We could generally deploy our forces when we wanted, assemble them where we wanted, and operate how […]
By Javad Heirannia, The Tehran Times January 24, 2018 TEHRAN – Professor Farhang Jahanpour, part-time tutor on the Middle East in the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Oxford, tells the Tehran Times that “President Trump’s recent speech on Iran was the most belligerent speech by any U.S. president about Iran since […]