Foreign Policy Category Archive

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Iraq Will be Hit Harder by the Oil Price Drop Than by Covid-19 or Isis

Patrick Cockburn • May 10, 2020

• 1,000 Words • 1 Comment • Reply

The shadowy figures of well-armed Isis gunmen can be seen making an attack in the plains of northern Iraq on an outpost held by paramilitary fighters loyal to the Iraqi government. Some four of the latter are killed by a roadside bomb. Isis specialises in publicising its successful military actions online to show that it... 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

Pompeo to Iraq: If You Kick Us Out, We Will Bury You

Mike Whitney • January 20, 2020

• 1,700 Words • 15 Comments • Reply

The Trump administration is threatening to destroy Iraq's economy by withholding a critical source of money that is controlled by the Federal Reserve. The threat is a response to the Iraqi parliament's unanimous decision to end Washington's 17 year-long military occupation. The Iraqi people and their representatives in parliament are incensed by the recent assassination... 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

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

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

How the US Runs Iraq

Eric Margolis • January 11, 2020

• 700 Words • 12 Comments • Reply

What ever happened to Iraq? Is it not an independent country with a democratic government thanks to the 2003 US invasion? So says Washington. The murder of senior Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani suddenly shone a strobe light on ‘independent’ Iraq, and what we saw was not pretty. Welcome to the new Imperialism 101. Iraq’s... Read More

Joe Biden Was Right—Partition Iraq! But That Was Back In 2006

John Derbyshire • January 10, 2020

• 900 Words • 32 Comments • Reply

See, earlier, by Steve Sailer: The Partition Possibility, November 30, 2003 Adapted from the latest Radio Derb, available exclusively at VDARE.com Big news of the week: the arm-wrestling bout with Iran. Again, as I said last week, there is no market here for Great Game strategizing. I'd like for us to tip over the chess-board... 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

Iranians carried the coffins of top general Qassem Soleimani and his allies in Kerman, Iran,...

The Donald’s Assassination of General Soleimani—As Stupid As It Gets

David Stockman • January 7, 2020

• 3,100 Words • 251 Comments • Reply

During more than a half-century of Washington watching we have seen stupidity rise from one height to yet another. But nothing—just plain nothing—compares to the the blithering stupidity of the Donald’s Iran “policy”, culminating in the mindless assassination of its top military leader and hero of the so-called Islamic Revolution, Major General Qassem Soleimani. To... Read More

If Baghdad Wants Us Out, Let's Go!

Pat Buchanan • January 7, 2020

• 900 Words • 88 Comments • Reply

Fifteen years after the U.S. invaded Iraq to turn Saddam Hussein's dictatorship into a beacon of democracy, Iraq's Parliament, amid shouts of "Death to America!" voted to expel all U.S. troops from the country. Though nonbinding, the expulsion vote came after mobs trashed the U.S. embassy in an assault that recalled Tehran 1979. What provoked... Read More

US Actions in Iraq Could Plunge the Country Into Crisis Once Again

Patrick Cockburn • January 6, 2020

• 1,000 Words • 5 Comments • Reply

The assassination of Qassem Soleimani has capsized Iraqi politics in the most dangerous of ways, making it possible that the country will be plunged once again into a state of permanent crisis and war from which it has escaped in the last two years. President Trump is threatening sanctions against Iraq if it expels the... Read More

Financial N-Option Will Settle Trump’s Oil War

Pepe Escobar • January 6, 2020

• 1,300 Words • 18 Comments • Reply

The bombshell facts were delivered by caretaker Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, during an extraordinary, historic parliamentary session in Baghdad on Sunday. Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani had flown into Baghdad on a normal carrier flight, carrying a diplomatic passport. He had been sent by Tehran to deliver, in person, a reply to a message from... Read More

The US Is Now at War, de-Facto and de-Jure, with BOTH Iraq and Iran

The Saker • January 5, 2020

• 1,700 Words • 32 Comments • Reply

The blowback has begun First, let’s begin by a quick summary of what has taken place (note: this info is still coming in, so there might be corrections once the official sources make their official statements). Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdl Mahdi has now officially revealed that the US had asked him to mediate between... Read More

A spiritual father kisses his beloved son

Soleimani Murder: What Could Happen Next?

The Saker • January 3, 2020

• 2,900 Words • 368 Comments • Reply

First, a quick recap of the situation We need to begin by quickly summarizing what just happened: General Soleimani was in Baghdad on an official visit to attend the funeral of the Iraqis murdered by the US on the 29th The US has now officially claimed responsibility for this murder The Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah... Read More

Iraq’s Worst Fears Have Come True – a Proxy War Is on Its Doorstep

Patrick Cockburn • January 3, 2020

• 1,000 Words • 24 Comments • Reply

Iraqis have a well-honed instinct about approaching danger which stems from their grim experience during 40 years of crisis and war. Three months ago, I asked a friend in Baghdad how she and her friends viewed the future, adding Iraq seemed to me to be more peaceful than at any time since the US and... Read More

EXTREMELY Dangerous Development in the Middle East

The Saker • January 2, 2020

• 800 Words • 337 Comments • Reply

I just got home and saw the news that General Qasem Soleimani has been murdered along with another 5-8 people by what was initially reported as a MRL strike (Russian sources say it was a drone attack). This was bad enough. Then this: The Telegram channel of RIA News reports that the US has claimed... Read More

Feature photo | Graphic by Claudio Cabrera

The Israel Lobby’s Hidden Hand in the Theft of Iraqi and Syrian Oil

Agha Hussain and Whitney Webb • December 10, 2019

• 4,100 Words • 71 Comments • Reply

The outsized role of U.S. Israel lobby operatives in abetting the theft of Syrian and Iraqi oil reveals how this powerful lobby also facilitates more covert aspects of U.S.-Israeli cooperation and the implementation of policies that favor Israel. Kirkuk, Iraq — “We want to bring our soldiers home. But we did leave soldiers because we’re... Read More

Is It Jaw-Jaw or War with Iran?

Pat Buchanan • December 10, 2019

• 900 Words • 94 Comments • Reply

"Jaw-jaw is better than war-war," is attributed, wrongly, say some historians, to Winston Churchill. Still, the words lately came to mind. While last week ended with a hopeful U.S.-Iranian prisoner exchange that was hailed by President Donald Trump -- "Thank you to Iran for a very fair negotiation. See, we can make a deal together"... Read More

What Really Happened in Iran?

A fuel tax hike set the country ablaze and triggered a social backlash

Pepe Escobar • December 6, 2019

• 1,100 Words • 5 Comments • Reply

On November 15, a wave of protests engulfed over 100 Iranian cities as the government resorted to an extremely unpopular measure: a fuel tax hike of as much as 300%, without a semblance of a PR campaign to explain the reasons. Iranians, after all, have reflexively condemned subsidy removals for years now – especially related... Read More

The Resignation of the Iraqi Prime Minister May Not Halt the Protests

Patrick Cockburn • November 29, 2019

• 1,100 Words • 11 Comments • Reply

Protesters in Iraq have won their first big success by forcing the resignation of the Iraqi prime minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, after the killing of 45 unarmed protesters by the Iraqi security forces in a single day. As the news spread, the crack of celebratory fireworks replaced that of gunshots in Baghdad's Tahrir Square, which has... Read More

Iran May be the Only Winner in Iraq

Intelligence documents reveal how Tehran took advantage of US blundering

Philip Giraldi • November 28, 2019

• 1,300 Words • 11 Comments • Reply

The American invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of that nation’s government in 2003 has rightly been described as the greatest foreign policy disaster in the history of the United States. Eight thousand one hundred and seventy five American soldiers, contractors and civilians have died in Iraq since 2003 as well as an estimated 300,000... Read More

Iraqi Demonstrators Torch Consulate and Death Toll Soars

Patrick Cockburn • November 28, 2019

• 900 Words • 10 Comments • Reply

Iran has condemned the burning of its consulate in the Shia holy city of Najaf as Iraqi security forces escalate violence against protesters, who increasingly see the Iranian authorities as responsible for the repression. Anti-government protests that started on 1 October now in large part resemble a general uprising by the Shia majority in southern... Read More

Plundering Iraq

Eric Margolis • November 16, 2019

• 700 Words • 19 Comments • Reply

Victor Hugo said of the devastated Balkans in the 19th century: ‘The Turks have passed by here. All is in ruins or mourning.’ Welcome to modern Iraq. The British were always masters of efficient imperialism. In the 19th century, they managed to rule a quarter of the Earth’s surface with only a relatively small army... Read More

How Tehran-Backed Forces Are Taking Over in Iraq

Patrick Cockburn • November 11, 2019

• 1,100 Words • 60 Comments • Reply

Iraqi security and pro-Iranian paramilitary forces are shooting into crowds of protesters in a bid to drive them from the centre of Baghdad and end six weeks of demonstrations that have challenged the political system to an extent not seen since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Police retook three bridges across the Tigris... Read More

The Killing of ISIS Leader Baghdadi Does Not Solve All Problems.

Patrick Cockburn • October 28, 2019

• 900 Words • 27 Comments • Reply

At the height of the al-Qaeda-led insurgency in Iraq in 2006-07, US commanders, whose troops were suffering serious casualties from roadside bombs, developed a strategy. They sought to identify, kill or capture the leaders of the cells planting the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in the belief that this would cripple the bombing campaign. Many such... Read More

Baghdadi Had No Real Answer to the Crumbling of His Caliphate

Patrick Cockburn • October 27, 2019

• 1,000 Words • 48 Comments • Reply

The death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis and the self-declared caliph of Islamic State, will be a serious, though not terminal, blow to the ferocious jihadi movement he has headed since 2010. The place where he was finally located – in the Barisha area north of Idlib city in northwest Syria, close... Read More

The Final Outcome of the Multiple Syrian Wars Is Now in Sight

Patrick Cockburn • October 25, 2019

• 1,200 Words • 21 Comments • Reply

The sectarian and ethnic civil wars that have ravaged a large part of the Middle East over the past 40 years are coming to an end. Replacing them is a new type of conflict in which protests akin to popular uprisings rock kleptocratic elites that justify their power by claiming to be the defenders of... Read More

Is Trump At Last Ending Our 'Endless Wars'?

Pat Buchanan • October 8, 2019

• 800 Words • 82 Comments • Reply

The backstage struggle between the Bush interventionists and the America-firsters who first backed Donald Trump for president just exploded into open warfare, which could sunder the Republican Party. At issue is Trump's decision to let the Turkish army enter Northern Syria, to create a corridor between Syrian Kurds and the Turkish Kurds of the PKK,... Read More

Death Toll in Iraq Soars as Pro-Iran Gunmen 'Shooting Protesters'

Patrick Cockburn • October 7, 2019

• 1,000 Words • 30 Comments • Reply

Iraqi paramilitary groups close to Iran are suspected of joining attacks on protesters in Baghdad and other cities, leading to heavy loss of life among demonstrators. Some 107 people have been killed and over 6,000 wounded in the last six days, though hospital doctors say the government is understating the true number of fatalities. “The... Read More

The Post-Saddam Hussein Settlement in Iraq Is on the Brink of Collapse

Patrick Cockburn • October 4, 2019

• 1,100 Words • 46 Comments • Reply

Iraq is poised at a turning point in its modern history as its people wait to see if the government curfew and close down of the internet will end the ongoing demonstrations. I am staying in the Baghdad Hotel, off Sadoon Street in central Baghdad, not far from Tahrir Square, the focus of most protest... Read More

Iraq on Brink of Mass Uprising as Internet Cut Off and Curfew Imposed

Patrick Cockburn • October 4, 2019

• 600 Words • 4 Comments • Reply

Iraq is on the edge of a mass popular uprising which the government is seeking to stifle through a strictly imposed open-ended curfew and an enforced internet blackout. Protests, met with a fierce response from the authorities, have gripped Baghdad and spread since Tuesday to southern Iraqi provinces. So far, 19 people have been reported... Read More

Deadly Army Crackdown on Protests Risks Turmoil in Iraq

Patrick Cockburn • October 3, 2019

• 800 Words • 3 Comments • Reply

A man is lying dead or injured on the pavement beside a road leading into Tahrir Square in the centre of Baghdad. Soldiers and police are running towards him, while Iraqi soldiers on the other side of the square are penning into a corner a group of a hundred or so protesters, some holding Iraqi... Read More

'Ten Dead and Over 200 Injured' as Police Fire on Iraqi Protesters

Patrick Cockburn • October 2, 2019

• 600 Words • 3 Comments • Reply

Security forces opened fire on protesters in central Baghdad on Tuesday evening, with some witnesses saying more than 10 people had been killed and some 286 wounded. Riot police used live rounds as well as stun grenades and rubber bullets to stop demonstrators from crossing a bridge over the Tigris River to the Green Zone... Read More

Iran-US Tensions Threaten Fragile Iraqi Stability, Amid Army Dismissal

Patrick Cockburn • September 30, 2019

• 1,000 Words • 1 Comment • Reply

Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab al-Saadi was the great Iraqi military hero of the war against Isis, leading the assault on Mosul which recaptured the de facto Isis capital after a nine-month siege in 2017. But at the weekend he was suddenly removed as the commander of the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) shock troops, the elite... Read More

Inside the Shia City Where Isis Are Trying to Make Themselves Known

Patrick Cockburn • September 29, 2019

• 1,000 Words • 3 Comments • Reply

It about midnight on 20 September, a young man got off a white minibus at the entrance to the Shia shrine city and pilgrimage centre of Karbala, southwest of Baghdad. A few minutes later, he pressed a remote control, detonating the explosives he had left in a bag under his seat on the bus. The... Read More

Iraq Is Once Again the Battleground for an American Proxy War

Patrick Cockburn • September 28, 2019

• 1,200 Words • 1 Comment • Reply

People in Baghdad are fearful that the next war between the US and Iran will take place in Iraq, which is only just returning to peace after the defeat of Isis. Alarm that Iraq will be sucked into such a conflict has increased here because of recent Israeli drone attacks on the bases of the... Read More

I've Seen for Myself How Sanctions Only Hurt the Poor

Patrick Cockburn • July 5, 2019

• 1,200 Words • 9 Comments • Reply

The seizure of an Iranian oil tanker allegedly bound for Syriaby British Royal Marine commandos off Gibraltar is the latest episode in the long and disastrous history of economic sanctions in the Middle East. The UK claims that it is implementing EU sanctions on Syria, but the act will be seen by Tehran – and... Read More

The Geography of War: No Iraq…? No Iran!

Brett Redmayne-Titley • May 23, 2019

• 2,600 Words • 114 Comments • Reply

No other country in the Middle East is as important in countering America’s rush to provide Israel with another war than Iraq. Fortunately for Iran, the winds of change in Iraq and the many other local countries under similar threat, thus, make up an unbroken chain of border to border support. This support is only... Read More

New Iraqi Leadership Is a Sign the Country Is Finally Stabilising

Patrick Cockburn • October 7, 2018

• 1,000 Words • 3 Comments • Reply

Changes of government in Iraq are often fiercely disputed and frequently violent. When the monarchy was overthrown in 1958, the young King Faisal II was machine gunned in the courtyard of his palace in Baghdad and his body later strung up from a lamp post. Few of his successors met peaceful ends up to the... Read More

Haider al-Abadi Is Losing His Grip on Power, But It Will Mean Little

Patrick Cockburn • September 20, 2018

• 900 Words • Leave a Comment

An Iraqi joke says that their country must have the most environmental government in the world since the same political leaders are always recycled, however dismal their past performance and low expectations that they will do any better in future. The biggest change in the next Iraqi government will be that Haider al-Abadi, appointed prime... Read More

The World Should be Worried About the Uprisings in Basra

Patrick Cockburn • September 7, 2018

• 1,100 Words • 22 Comments • Reply

The current protests in Iraq are the most serious seen in the country for years, and are taking place at the heart of some of the world’s largest oilfields. The Iraqi government headquarters in Basra was set ablaze, as were the offices of those parties and militias blamed by local people for their wretched living... Read More

Britain Shows Its Weakness by Not Putting the Isis 'Beatles' on Trial

Patrick Cockburn • July 27, 2018

• 1,100 Words • 18 Comments • Reply

The British government purports to be re-establishing the UK as an independent nation state by leaving the EU, but British power and ability to decide its own policies are continuing to ebb in the real world. The latest evidence of this is the decision by the Home Secretary Sajid Javid to give precedence to the... Read More

Iraqi Protesters Blame ‘bad Government, Bad Roads, Bad People'

Patrick Cockburn • July 17, 2018

• 1,200 Words • 6 Comments • Reply

“The people want an end to the parties,” chanted protesters, adapting a famous slogan of the Arab Spring, as they stormed the governor’s office and the international airport in the Shia holy city of Najaf. Part of the wave of demonstrations sweeping across central and southern Iraq, they demanded jobs, electricity, water and an end... Read More

After Isis Is Gone, Iraq Will Continue to be a Deeply Corrupt Country

Patrick Cockburn • July 6, 2018

• 1,200 Words • 6 Comments • Reply

Iraqis disagree about many things but on one topic they are united: they believe they live in the most corrupt country in the world, barring a few where there is nothing much to steal. They see themselves as victims of a kleptomaniac state where hundreds of billions of dollars have disappeared into the pockets of... Read More

For This Iraqi Tribe Massacred by Isis, Fear of the Group's Return Is a Constant Reality

Patrick Cockburn • July 5, 2018

• 1,200 Words • 4 Comments • Reply

“We are very much scared,” says Hamid Aftan al-Hammad, an Albu Nimr tribesman from the city of Hit in western Iraq. “At night we lie on the roofs of our houses with our weapons waiting to be attacked again.” He fears the return of Isis, which massacred at least 864 members of his tribe when... Read More

Man-Made Drought Threatens to Ravage Iraq

Patrick Cockburn • July 2, 2018

• 1,200 Words • 7 Comments • Reply

“I once rescued a friend from drowning when he was swept away by the force of the current as we were swimming in the Diyala river,” says Qasim Sabti, a painter and gallery owner in Baghdad. “That was 50 years ago,” he recalls. “I went back there recently and the water in the Diyala is... Read More

Iraq Executes 13 and Orders Hanging of Hundreds More

Patrick Cockburn • June 29, 2018

• 800 Words • 5 Comments • Reply

Iraq has put to death 13 people convicted of terrorism offences hours after the prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, ordered the execution of hundreds of prisoners on death row in retaliation for the killing by Isis of eight members of the security forces. The hangings are aimed at quelling public anger over signs that Isis is... Read More

Iraq Isn't as Dangerous as It Was – But Many Still Live in Fear

Patrick Cockburn • June 28, 2018

• 1,100 Words • 1 Comment • Reply

Iraq was until recently the most dangerous country in the world. When sectarian killings were at their height 12 years ago, a hundred people were being slaughtered every day. Young men were particularly vulnerable and would sometimes have a small symbol, such as an olive tree, tattooed on their skin so that their bodies could... Read More

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• 429 Comments • Reply

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