Foreign Policy Category Archive

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Will Trump Really Start Two Wars Instead of "Just" One?

The Saker • May 20, 2020

• 2,400 Words • 228 Comments • Reply

Amidst the worldwide pandemic induced scare most of us have probably lost track of all the other potential dangers which still threaten international peace and stability. Allow me to list just a few headlines which, I strongly believe, deserve much more attention than what they got so far. Here we go: Military Times: "5 Iran... Read More

Toothless Congress Fails to Limit Presidential War Powers

Philip Giraldi • May 14, 2020

• 1,100 Words • 12 Comments • Reply

Some weeks ago, the world woke up to the fact that World War III had just started without anyone being invaded or shots fired. It began when American President Donald J. Trump declared himself to be a “war president” in the fight against the coronavirus, an assertion that now has been followed by a claim... Read More

BLITZED! In Which I Am Viciously Attacked by "An Irishman from Bangladesh"

Kevin Barrett • May 3, 2020

• 1,600 Words • 106 Comments • Reply

A certain "Hugh Fitzgerald," writing for the Bangladesh-based Weekly Blitz, recently called me "semi-demented"—which I suppose is better than being completely demented, but still is not a very nice thing to say about someone you don't even know. Mr. "Fitzgerald" also called me "a bizarre figure" and "cretinous." He can't wait for me to be... Read More

U.S. President Donald Trump leads a coronavirus response news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 27, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria - RC2ADG9PPF26

America the Victim

Are Enemies Lining Up for Revenge in the Wake of the Coronavirus?

Philip Giraldi • April 30, 2020

• 1,000 Words • 195 Comments • Reply

When in trouble politically, governments have traditionally conjured up a foreign enemy to explain why things are going wrong. Whatever one chooses to believe about the coronavirus, the fact is that it has resulted in considerable political backlash against a number of governments whose behavior has been perceived as either too extreme or too dilatory.... Read More

A Teleological Response to the Crash of the Price of West Texas Intermediate Oil as a Consequence of the Corona Virus

Blake Archer Williams • April 24, 2020

• 1,200 Words • 6 Comments • Reply

“God damn America, not God bless America!” “If we can’t sell our oil,” the Iranians said, “you won’t be able to sell your oil [either]!” This turned out to be more of a prayer than a threat that was actually implemented. The same prayer could be extrapolated for the economy: “If you want to destroy... Read More

The AngloZionists Are Launching a Strategic PSYOP Against China

The Saker • April 22, 2020

• 2,700 Words • 333 Comments • Reply

Maybe the "the Russians did it" narrative is getting stale. Or maybe the leaders of the Empire have finally figured out that China is even more dangerous to the Empire than Russia. But my personal gut feeling is simply that the AngloZionists are freaking out about the "full-spectrum" loss of face they suffered with their... Read More

Buying Punishment for “Terrorists”: Washington’s Reward Program Is Largely Ineffective

Philip Giraldi • April 15, 2020

• 1,600 Words • 8 Comments • Reply

Many people worldwide are aware of the fact that the United States government offers cash rewards to informants who provide information on individuals and groups that it chooses to define as terrorists. The program is referred to as the Rewards for Justice Program (RFJ). It was established in 1984 as part of the Act to... Read More

Targeting Iran While America Locks Down

A national health crisis does not stop the beat of the war drums

Philip Giraldi • April 7, 2020

• 1,500 Words • 162 Comments • Reply

The United States has just declared war against the coronavirus, with President Donald Trump self-proclaiming that he is now a “wartime president.” Whether one believes that the virus must be confronted with maximum aggression by effectively shutting down the country or that the measures already in place are already an overreaction hardly seems to matter... Read More

Punishing America's Enemies

Denying medicines to Iran and Venezuela is a crime against humanity

Philip Giraldi • March 24, 2020

• 1,500 Words • 311 Comments • Reply

Much remains to be learned about the coronavirus, though it is quite possible that it will not be possible to determine how it developed if the various governments that might be involved prove to be uncooperative. The Chinese carefully controlled the information on the virus in its early stages, though they eventually adopted a complete... Read More

Our "War President" Goes to Battle

Eric Margolis • March 20, 2020

• 700 Words • 14 Comments • Reply

This is one of the most important maxims of military history. Every young officer should have it drilled into his head. Yet the confused administration of President Donald Trump has been doing just this as it fights an invisible foe no one expected. Trump, who dodged US military service using phony doctor certificated about his... Read More

Modern Weapons Make War No Longer an Option and Critics No Longer Produce Reforms

he World Was Insane to Produce Nuclear Weapons, the Use of Which Destroys Us, and Bioweapons, the Use of Which Destroys Us

Paul Craig Roberts • March 20, 2020

• 200 Words • 15 Comments • Reply

In the midst of the coronavirus assault on humanity, the US still has sanctions affecting medical supplies to Iran. What kind of friends does this make for the US which needs masks and medical information concerning treatment from China and medicines from China and India? The US has been the bully for so long that... Read More

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A Tale of Two Foreign Policies: the Train-Wreck Abroad Is Bipartisan

Philip Giraldi • March 19, 2020

• 1,200 Words • 194 Comments • Reply

Now that the Democratic Party has apparently succeeded in getting rid of the only two voices among its presidential candidates that actually deviated from the establishment consensus, it appears that Joe Biden will be running against Donald Trump in November. To be sure, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard are still hanging on, but the fix... Read More

The World Can't Forget the Fight for the Saudi Crown Amid Virus Panic

Patrick Cockburn • March 14, 2020

• 1,200 Words • 8 Comments • Reply

The fear caused by the coronavirus outbreak is greater than that provoked by a serious war because everybody is in the front line and everybody knows that they are a potential casualty. The best parallel is the terror felt by people facing occupation by a hostile foreign army; even if, in the present case, the... Read More

Empires of the Steppes Fuel Erdogan Khan’s Dreams

Pepe Escobar • March 4, 2020

• 1,300 Words • 23 Comments • Reply

The latest installment of the interminable Syria tragedy could be interpreted as Greece barely blocking a European “invasion” by Syrian refugees. The invasion was threatened by President Erdogan even as he refused the EU’s puny “offer you can refuse” bribe of only one billion euros. Well, it’s more complicated than that. What Erdogan is in... Read More

Are Russia and Turkey on a Collision Course?

The Saker • February 28, 2020

• 3,400 Words • 407 Comments • Reply

The murder of the Iranian hero-martyr General Soleimani created a situation in which a war between Iran and the Axis of Kindness (USA/Israel/KSA) became a real possibility but, at the very last minute, Uncle Shmuel decided that he had no stomach for a full-scale war against Iran. Wise decision. This, however, does not at all... Read More

Musical Chairs in the White House

On the job training in the intelligence community

Philip Giraldi • February 25, 2020

• 2,000 Words • 186 Comments • Reply

Here in the Land of Oz, otherwise known as Washington, one continues to run into people who should know better who insist that they have a friend in the White House who confirms that President Donald Trump is really a man of peace being obstructed as he seeks to withdraw the United States from senseless... Read More

Explaining Syria

It's everyone's fault except the U.S. and Israel

Philip Giraldi • February 18, 2020

• 1,700 Words • 341 Comments • Reply

The first week in February was memorable for the failed impeachment of President Donald Trump, the “re-elect me” State of the Union address and the marketing of a new line of underwear by Kim Kardashian. Given all of the excitement, it was easy to miss a special State Department press briefing by Ambassador James Jeffrey... Read More

Wake Up Senators!

Eric Margolis • February 15, 2020

• 700 Words • 15 Comments • Reply

The US Senate, long the lap dog of the man who would be king, President Donald Trump, appears to have finally remembered its proper constitutional role. Last week, the Senate voted 55/45 for a new bipartisan War Powers Act to constrain military action against Iran. The Congress voted a similar act. Both are designed to... Read More

More Lies on Iran: the White House Just Can’t Help Itself as New Facts Emerge

Philip Giraldi • February 13, 2020

• 1,100 Words • 181 Comments • Reply

Admittedly the news cycle in the United States seldom runs longer than twenty-four hours, but that should not serve as an excuse when a major story that contradicts what the Trump Administration has been claiming appears and suddenly dies. The public that actually follows the news might recall a little more than one month ago... Read More

Understanding Why They Lie and Why They Get Away with It

In lieu of an normal introduction: the eternally evolving BDA

The Saker • February 13, 2020

• 2,000 Words • 135 Comments • Reply

Friends, the Pentagon did it again. Through CNN, of course. Here is this "latest news": On his website, Colonel Cassad offered this, shall we say, "evolution" of the truth as reported by the United States: X stands for "surviving casualties" Y stands for "dead" X = 0, Y = 0 X = 11, Y =... Read More

Democrats Ignore Trump’s Real Violations

Ron Paul • February 10, 2020

• 500 Words • 23 Comments • Reply

This week the latest Democratic Party attempt to remove President Trump from office – impeachment over Trump allegedly holding up an arms deal to Ukraine – flopped. Just like “Russiagate” and the Mueller investigation, and a number of other attempts to overturn the 2016 election. We’ve had three years of accusations and investigations with untold... Read More

The Siren Call of a ‘system Leader’

The United States may be destined for a shorter historical existence than the Mongol era established by Genghis Khan

Pepe Escobar • February 9, 2020

• 1,600 Words • 14 Comments • Reply

A considerable spectrum of the liberal West takes the American interpretation of what civilization consists of to be something like an immutable law of nature. But what if this interpretation is on the verge of an irreparable breakdown? Michael Vlahos has argued that the US is not a mere nation-state but a “system leader” –... Read More

Is the Draft Coming Back?

Ron Paul • February 3, 2020

• 600 Words • 28 Comments • Reply

During recent increased US-Iran confrontation, so many people viewed the Selective Service website to find out about the draft that the website crashed. People were right to be concerned about a return of the draft. With the ongoing military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan unlikely to end any time soon, and the possibly of the... Read More

The Mysterious Michael D’Andrea: Was the C.I.A.’s Iran Mission Center Chief Shot Down?

Philip Giraldi • February 2, 2020

• 1,000 Words • 80 Comments • Reply

Last Monday a United States Air Force Bombardier E11A communications and intelligence gathering jet was either shot down or crashed in a remote mountainous region of Afghanistan. Almost immediately a story sourcing Taliban officials ran on Iranian State television claiming that the dead had included Michael D’Andrea, the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.)’s... Read More

How Is the Murder of General Soleimani Connected to Hong Kong?

Andre Vltchek • January 30, 2020

• 1,200 Words • 15 Comments • Reply

Hong Kong rioters would like to believe that they are unique, and that the West has handpicked them - them alone – for what it identifies as the “noble fight for democracy”, and for “Western values”. The problem is that Hong Kong, which likes to promote itself as “Asia’s World City” (at least that is... Read More

U.S in the Middle-East: Preparing for Disaster

The Saker • January 30, 2020

• 3,200 Words • 275 Comments • Reply

Lies, damn lies and statistics Turns out that Trump and the Pentagon were lying. Again. This time about the true impact of the Iranian counter-strike on US forces in Syria. First they claimed that there were no injured U.S. personnel, only to eventually have to fess up that 34 soldiers had suffered traumatic brain injury... Read More

A Million Iraqis Asked Us to Leave. We Should Listen.

Ron Paul • January 27, 2020

• 500 Words • 18 Comments • Reply

You wouldn’t know it from US mainstream media reporting, but on Friday an estimated million Iraqis took to the streets to protest the continued US military presence in their country. What little mainstream media coverage the protest received all reported the number of protesters as far less than actually turned out. The Beltway elites are... Read More

A New Definition of Warfare

Sanctions can be more deadly than bullets

Philip Giraldi • January 21, 2020

• 1,600 Words • 141 Comments • Reply

Supporters of Donald Trump often make the point that he has not started any new wars. One might observe that it has not been for lack of trying, as his cruise missile attacks on Syria based on fabricated evidence and his recent assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani have been indisputably acts of war. Trump... Read More

Ike Was Right

Eric Margolis • January 18, 2020

• 700 Words • 25 Comments • Reply

Congress just passed a near trillion dollar military budget at a time when the United States faces no evident state threats at home or abroad. Ike was right. Illustrating Ike’s prescient warning, Brown University’s respected Watson Institute just released a major study which found that the so-called ‘wars on terror’ in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and... Read More

How a Hidden Parliamentary Session Revealed Trump’s True Motives in Iraq

Whitney Webb • January 17, 2020

• 4,600 Words • 157 Comments • Reply

The U.S. is adamant that its assassination of Qassem Soleimani and refusal to leave Iraq is about protecting Americans, but a little known Iraqi parliamentary session reveals how China increasingly strong ties to Baghdad may be shaping America’s new Mideast strategy. Since the U.S. killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi... Read More

Pompeo Says Gangland-Style Hit on Soleimani Was "Restoration of Deterrence"

Mike Whitney • January 17, 2020

• 1,200 Words • 197 Comments • Reply

America's "shadow president", Mike Pompeo, has acknowledged that the assassination of Iran's highest-ranking military general, Qassem Soleimani, was part of a broader strategy to restore "real deterrence" by eliminating presumed enemies of the United States. Pompeo's comments at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute on January 13, put to rest earlier claims that the Iranian general had... Read More

The Roots of American Demonization of Shi’a Islam

Pepe Escobar • January 17, 2020

• 2,300 Words • 224 Comments • Reply

The US targeted assassination, via drone strike, of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, apart from a torrent of crucial geopolitical ramifications, once again propels to center stage a quite inconvenient truth: the congenital incapacity of so-called US elites to even attempt to understand Shi’ism - thus 24/7 demonization, demeaning not only Shi’as by also Shi’a-led governments.... Read More

The US and Iran’s Perpetual Almost-war Is Unsustainable

Patrick Cockburn • January 17, 2020

• 1,000 Words • 34 Comments • Reply

Today Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei gave his first Friday sermon in Tehran for eight years to an audience of thousands, as he tried to calm down the furious public reaction to the Revolutionary Guards mistakenly shooting down a Ukrainian plane carrying 176 passengers, then proceeding to lie about their responsibility for three days. Khameinei... Read More

Who Targeted Ukraine Airlines Flight 752? Iran Shot It Down But There May be More to the Story

Philip Giraldi • January 15, 2020

• 1,000 Words • 416 Comments • Reply

The claim that Major General Qassem Soleimani was a “terrorist” on a mission to carry out an “imminent” attack that would kill hundreds of Americans turned out to be a lie, so why should one believe anything else relating to recent developments in Iran and Iraq? To be sure, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 departing... Read More

Battle of the Ages to Stop Eurasian Integration

Coming decade could see the US take on Russia, China and Iran over the New Silk Road connection

Pepe Escobar • January 15, 2020

• 1,600 Words • 41 Comments • Reply

The Raging Twenties started with a bang with the targeted assassination of Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani. Yet a bigger bang awaits us throughout the decade: the myriad declinations of the New Great Game in Eurasia, which pits the US against Russia, China and Iran, the three major nodes of Eurasia integration. Every game-changing act in... Read More

Trump and Congress Double Down on Demonizing Iran

Will the national security nightmare ever end?

Philip Giraldi • January 14, 2020

• 1,600 Words • 259 Comments • Reply

If one seriously seeks to understand how delusional policymakers in Washington are it is only necessary to examine the responses by the president and Congress to the assassination of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani. The first response came in the form of a Donald Trump largely incoherent nine-minute self-applauding speech explaining what he had done... Read More

Trump's In-Kind Contribution to Bernie

Pat Buchanan • January 14, 2020

• 800 Words • 37 Comments • Reply

The directed killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran's blood-soaked field marshal in the "forever war" of the Middle East, has begun to roil the politics of both the region and the USA. A stunned and shaken Iran retaliated by firing a dozen missiles at two U.S. bases in Iraq. Yet, before launching the attack, Iran... Read More

The Iranian Protests Are a Washington Orchestration

Paul Craig Roberts • January 13, 2020

• 300 Words

It is difficult to know who is the most stupid, the protesting Iranian students or the Iranian government. The Iranian government, like the governments of Russia and China, permits NGOs financed by their Washington and British enemies, to operate in Iran. Insouciant, indeed stupid, Iranian students receive money, encouragement, organization, and protest power from the... Read More

World War III

C.J. Hopkins • January 13, 2020

• 1,900 Words • 105 Comments • Reply

So, 2020 is off to an exciting start. It’s barely the middle of January, and we’ve already made it through World War III, which was slightly less apocalyptic than expected. Forensic teams are still sifting through the ashes, but preliminary reports suggest that the global capitalist empire has emerged from the carnage largely intact. It... Read More

US to Iraq: ‘Vote All You Want, We’re Not Leaving!’

Ron Paul • January 13, 2020

• 600 Words • 6 Comments • Reply

President Trump’s decision earlier this month to assassinate Iran’s top military general on Iraqi soil – over the objection of the Iraqi government – has damaged the US relationship with its “ally” Iraq and set the region on the brink of war. Iran’s measured response – a few missiles fired on an Iraqi base after... Read More

Trump’s Killing of Soleimani: New “Worst Mistake in US History”

Kevin Barrett • January 12, 2020

• 2,000 Words • 245 Comments • Reply

Donald Trump occasionally utters unspeakable truths. In March 2018 he called Bush Jr.’s decision to invade Iraq “the worst single mistake in US history.” Earlier, Trump had said that Bush should have been impeached for launching that disastrous war. Yet on January 2 2020 Trump made a much bigger mistake: He launched all-out war with... Read More

Of Aircraft, Horses and Zebras

The Saker • January 12, 2020

• 1,300 Words • Leave a Comment

When you go to vet school, they teach you a simple principle: if you are under a bridge and you hear hooves, think of horses first, but don’t forget there are also zebras out there. This is exactly what comes to my mind when I hear all the speculation about the shooting down of the... Read More

The Iranian Aftermath

Israel Shamir • January 12, 2020

• 2,000 Words • 17 Comments • Reply

Trump was panting heavily, like Darth Vader on the Death Star. The mike was too close to his mouth. His laboured speech and strange look did not match the comforting words as he spoke to the American people. But the meaning was clear: the world sheriff had received a ringing slap in the face. First... Read More

Code-Panic: A Controlled Opposition Spectacle

Gilad Atzmon • January 12, 2020

• 300 Words • 62 Comments • Reply

Ariel Gold is the national co-director of CODEPINK, an American female “grassroots peace and social justice movement” that claims to work “to end U.S.-funded wars and occupations.” Ariel claims to support the Palestinians and oppose Israel. She has published articles in Jewish progressive outlets such as the Forward, Tikkun Magazine and Mondoweiss. On January 3rd,... Read More

Iran’s Accidental Downing of a Ukrainian Plane Is Already Being Used to Smear MH-17 Skeptics

Max Parry • January 11, 2020

• 2,300 Words • 107 Comments • Reply

When the Pentagon confirmed the assassination of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, U.S. President Donald Trump took to social media to post a single image of the American flag to the adulation of his followers. Unfortunately, most Americans are ignorant of the other flag synonymous with U.S. foreign policy, that of the ‘false flag’ utilized... Read More

The Danger In Threats

Paul Craig Roberts • January 11, 2020

• 200 Words

The high tensions caused by Washington between the US and Iran are to blame for the Ukrainian airliner that was shot down. “Human error at a time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster.” Just as the Iranian commander misinterpreted the airliner’s maneuver as a strike on a military base, an American or... Read More

Did Pompeo Dupe Trump Into the Soleimani Hit??

Mike Whitney • January 10, 2020

• 1,800 Words • 228 Comments • Reply

Donald Trump is under the illusion that the fracas with Iran is over. He thinks that Iran's pinprick missile strikes on US bases in Iraq have assuaged Tehran's thirst for revenge. But he's wrong. The missile strikes were merely the first salvo in an epic cage match between Iran's Axis of Resistance and its 70... Read More

Iran Is Not What You Think

Ted Rall • January 10, 2020

• 1,200 Words • 11 Comments • Reply

War, many people believe, often results from cultural differences and misunderstandings. President Donald Trump's assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani has Americans considering the possibility that we may soon add Iran to our list of unwinnable wars in the Middle East. As that calculus unfolds, no one questions the assumption that there are irreconcilable differences between... Read More

The West Is Still Buying Into Nonsense About Iran’s Regional Influence

Patrick Cockburn • January 10, 2020

• 1,000 Words • 15 Comments • Reply

I was in Iraq in April 1991 when government security forces crushed the Shia uprising against Saddam Hussein’s regime, killing tens of thousands and burying their bodies in pits. I had been expelled from Iraq to Jordan at the start of the rebellion in March and then, to my surprise, allowed to return, because Saddam... Read More

America the Repugnant. Assassinating Foreign Leaders Is an Act of War

Philip Giraldi • January 9, 2020

• 1,000 Words • 56 Comments • Reply

Once upon a time there was a Constitution of the United States. In Article II, Section 2 it stipulated that only the U.S. Congress has the power to declare war, which means the American president has to go to the legislative body and make a case for going to war against an enemy or enemies.... Read More

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"Iran" Items Across Entire Archive

Category Classics

China's Rise, America's Fall

Which superpower is more threatened by its “extractive elites”?

Ron Unz

• 431 Comments • Reply

9/11 Was an Israeli Job

How America was neoconned into World War IV

Laurent Guyénot

• 390 Comments • Reply

John McCain and the POW Cover-Up