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

The Killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: Illegal, Disgusting and Degenerate

Ted Rall • November 1, 2019

• 900 Words • 67 Comments • Reply

As a society degenerates, life cheapens. The rhetoric that follows death coarsens. Respect paid to fallen rivals is replaced by triumphalism. Historians observed this trend in ancient Rome. As republic turned to empire and domain expanded — and so also arrogance and hubris — vanquished chieftains who previously might have been allowed to keep their... Read More

An Imperfect Bit of Statecraft

Trump cancels the pullout from Syria then flip-flops, threatens war with Turkey and gives money to terrorists

Philip Giraldi • October 29, 2019

• 1,800 Words • 206 Comments • Reply

The long nightmare in Syria might finally be coming to an end, but not thanks to the United States and the administration of President Donald Trump. Trump's boast that “this was an outcome created by us, the United States, and nobody else” was as empty as all the other rhetoric coming out of the White... Read More

Caliph Closure: ‘He Died Like A Dog’

Pepe Escobar • October 29, 2019

• 1,400 Words • 4 Comments • Reply

He died like a dog.” President Trump could not have scripted a better one-liner as he got ready for his Obama bin Laden close-up in front of the whole world. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, fake caliph, ISIS/Daesh leader, the most wanted man on the planet, was “brought to justice” under Trump’s watch. The dead dog caliph... 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

Tulsi Gabbard Is Right, and Nancy Pelosi Wrong. It Was US Democrats Who Helped Cultivate the Barbarism of Isis

Jonathan Cook • October 21, 2019

• 2,100 Words • 103 Comments • Reply

There is something profoundly deceitful in the way the Democratic Party and the corporate media are framing Donald Trump’s decision to pull troops out of Syria. One does not need to defend Trump’s actions or ignore the dangers posed to the Kurds, at least in the short term, by the departure of US forces from... Read More

The Vacuum Left by the US in Syria Clears a Breeding Ground for ISIS

Patrick Cockburn • October 11, 2019

• 1,200 Words • 50 Comments • Reply

“Never get into a well with an American rope” goes the saying spreading across the Middle East, as the US abandons its Kurdish allies in Syria to a Turkish invasion force. People in the region are traditionally cynical about the loyalty of great powers to their local friends, but even they are shocked by the... Read More

Communists and Neo-Cons Join Together to Condemn Trump Military Withdrawal from Syria

Eric Striker • October 7, 2019

• 700 Words • Leave a Comment

Self-described socialists, anarchists, Republicans and Zionists have united to condemn Donald Trump's surprising new announcement to withdraw from Syria, a decision that has the support of a majority of Americans. This will be a huge stride towards finally ending the 8-year-old conflict in Syria and bringing the nation back to normalcy. The extreme-left and the... 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

Outrage Grows at Spanish Media Silence on State Complicity in Barcelona Attack

Alejandro López • July 22, 2019

• 1,100 Words • Leave a Comment

The media silence on online newspaper Público’s revelations that Spain’s National Intelligence Center (CNI) intensively followed the Islamic State (IS) terror cell until the day of the Barcelona attacks in August 2017 is provoking growing outrage in Spain. Público’s report provides evidence of criminal behavior at top levels of the Spanish state. It directly contradicts... Read More

Al-Baghdadi Is Alive, But He's Always Been a Poor Strategist

Patrick Cockburn • April 30, 2019

• 700 Words • 7 Comments • Reply

The reappearance of the Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has the same shock effect as that of Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of 9/11. It has all the greater impact because of claims that, with the elimination of the last territory held by Isis in March this year, that group was close to being... Read More

We Can Finish ISIS - But Only if the West Winds Down Its Proxy Wars

Patrick Cockburn • April 26, 2019

• 1,200 Words • 22 Comments • Reply

Western governments have been swift to pledge action to strike at Isis, as it becomes clear that the organisation was behind the suicide bombings that killed 253 people in Sri Lanka. A video released by Isis after the attacks shows Zahran Hashim, an Islamic preacher and alleged leader of the bombers, pledging allegiance together with... Read More

How the Islamic State's Brutal Project Was Finally Overthrown

Patrick Cockburn • March 24, 2019

• 900 Words • 9 Comments • Reply

Up to its dying days the self-declared Islamic State has retained the ability to top the news agenda, even as its fighters were losing their last battle for bomb-shattered villages in the deserts of eastern Syria. When their spokesman promised retaliation for the massacre of Muslims in the Christchurch mosques his threat was taken seriously.... Read More

Forget Our Gaffes Around Brexit. Shamina Is the Real Threat.

Patrick Cockburn • February 23, 2019

• 1,100 Words • 10 Comments • Reply

The decision of home secretary Sajid Javid to strip former Isis mother Shamima Begum of her British citizenship is evidently motivated by his wish to be seen – along with Theresa May – as tough and proactive amid the chaos and uncertainties of Brexit. The decision is probably illegal, given that Begum does not have... Read More

Why Attack Shamima Begum? We Caused the Mess to Begin with

Patrick Cockburn • February 16, 2019

• 1,100 Words • 21 Comments • Reply

A tidal wave of hypocrisy has greeted the discovery of the Bethnal Green schoolgirl and Isis bride Shamima Begum in a refugee camp in eastern Syria. Grandstanding politicians like Sajid Javid, the home secretary, say they will do everything to stop her coming back to the UK and might seek to put her on trial... Read More

Trump Says ISIS Is Defeated. He Is Ignoring the Bigger Picture

Patrick Cockburn • February 8, 2019

• 1,200 Words • 11 Comments • Reply

President Trump says that in the coming week the US and its allies will announce that they have captured all of the land previously controlled by Isis. He claims that US-led forces “have liberated virtually all of the territory previously held by Isis in Syria and Iraq … we will have 100 per cent of... Read More

How We Have Failed to Learn the Lessons of the Rise and Fall of ISIS

Patrick Cockburn • January 27, 2019

• 1,200 Words • 19 Comments • Reply

It is always pleasing for authors to find out that they have readers in far flung places. It was therefore surprising but gratifying to see a picture of a battered copy of a French translation of a book I wrote called The Jihadis Return abandoned by Isis fighters, along with suicide vests and homemade explosive... Read More

Will Trump Hold Firm on Syrian Pullout?

Pat Buchanan • December 21, 2018

• 900 Words • 91 Comments • Reply

"We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there," wrote President Donald Trump, as he ordered the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Syria, stunning the U.S. foreign policy establishment. Trump overruled his secretaries of state and defense, and jolted this city and capitals across NATO Europe and the Middle East. Yet,... Read More

US Withdrawal from Syria Might be Exactly What Isis Is Hoping for

Patrick Cockburn • December 20, 2018

• 1,100 Words • 35 Comments • Reply

American armoured vehicles with their Stars and Stripes flying were patrolling today close to the Turkish-Kurdish frontline west of the Euphrates River in northern Syria. But how long will they go on doing so in the wake of the decision by President Trump to pull 2,000 US troops from Syria, claiming there is no reason... 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

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

US, UK and France 'Inflicted Worst Destruction in Decades on Raqqa'

Patrick Cockburn • June 4, 2018

• 1,100 Words • 10 Comments • Reply

Air and artillery strikes by the US and its allies inflicted devastating loss of life on civilians in the Isis-held city of Raqqa, according to an Amnesty International report. It contradicts claims by the US, along with Britain and France, that they precisely targeted Isis fighters and positions during the four month siege that destroyed... Read More

Isis-Inspired Terrorism Gives Impression It's a Global Force. It's Not

Patrick Cockburn • March 23, 2018

• 500 Words • 2 Comments • Reply

The killing of three people in the south of France by a man claiming allegiance to Isis will make people doubt if this murderous cult is as dead as governments had announced and people had hoped. The answer is that the attack in the Carcassonne region by a single gunman, said to be a Moroccan... Read More

With Its Enemies Distracted, Isis Makes a Swift and Deadly Comeback

Patrick Cockburn • March 5, 2018

• 1,100 Words • 10 Comments • Reply

Suleiman Khalaf, also known as Abu Fadi, was killed 10 days ago in a fight with Isis in eastern Syria when the vehicle he was in was hit by a heat-seeking missile. “He was driving a bulldozer which was building an earth rampart when Isis hit it with a missile we call a ‘fuzia’,” said... Read More

Turkey Accused of Recruiting Ex-Isis Fighters to Attack Kurds in Syria

Patrick Cockburn • February 7, 2018

• 1,000 Words • 5 Comments • Reply

Turkey is recruiting and retraining Isis fighters to lead its invasion of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria, according to an ex-Isis source. “Most of those who are fighting in Afrin against the YPG [People’s Protection Units] are Isis, though Turkey has trained them to change their assault tactics,” said Faraj, a former... Read More

Who Really Defeated ISIS?

David William Pear • December 31, 2017

• 1,600 Words • 79 Comments • Reply

Who defeated the Islamic State In Syria? Before answering that question. What is the ISIS? Can the public overcome its chronic amnesia and think back to the sudden appearance of ISIS dressed in brand new black uniforms, gleaming white NIKE’s and driving Toyota trucks? They seemed to appear out of nowhere in 2014. ISIS looked... Read More

In 2018 the Barbarous Wars in Iraq and Syria Will Come to an End

Patrick Cockburn • December 30, 2017

• 1,200 Words • 11 Comments • Reply

I spent most of the last year reporting two sieges, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, which finally ended with the decisive defeat of Isis. This was the most important event in the Middle East in 2017, though people are already beginning to forget how dangerous the Isis caliphate was at the height of... Read More

Syria – ISIS Is Defeated – the U.S. Is Next In Line

Is the US really a superower or just the biggest collection of stupidity on the planet?

Paul Craig Roberts • December 11, 2017

• 700 Words

Washington has already lost the Syrian war once. Now it is about to lose it a second time. A few days ago the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, declared a “complete victory” in Syria: “Two hours ago, the (Russian) defense minister reported to me that the operations on the eastern and western banks of the... Read More

There's No Such Thing as Precise Air Strikes in Modern Warfare

Patrick Cockburn • December 1, 2017

• 1,200 Words • 15 Comments • Reply

The final elimination of Isis in Iraq and Syria is close, but welcome though the defeat of these monstrous movements may be, it has only been achieved at the cost of great destruction and loss of life. This is the new face of war which governments try to conceal: a limited number of combat troops... Read More

Danny Sjursen: Putting the "War" in the "War on Terror"

Tom Engelhardt • November 26, 2017

• 500 Words • 2 Comments • Reply

Consider the latest news from America's war zones, still spreading across the Greater Middle East and Africa. The U.S. military is now reportedly building up its troop strength (mostly Special Operations forces) in Somalia. Their number has already doubled, reaching 500, while U.S. airstrikes are increasing against al-Shabab, the well-entrenched Islamist terror outfit in that... Read More

ISIS Last Stand; End Times for the Caliphate

Mike Whitney • November 24, 2017

• 2,200 Words • 3 Comments • Reply

Russia and its allies have expelled ISIS from its last urban stronghold in Syria. Now the Syrian coalition will turn its attention to the numerous hotspots around the country where al Qaida-linked groups have dug in waiting for the Syrian Army to make its final push. On Monday, Lebanese media reported that the Syrian Arab... Read More

Boy, Is This Stupid or What?

Did the US allow ISIS to escape to keep the fighting going?

Philip Giraldi • November 21, 2017

• 1,600 Words • 160 Comments • Reply

Americans have been living in a country that has not known peace since 9/11, when President George W. Bush and his posse of neoconservatives delivered the message to the world that “you are either with us or against us.” The threat was coupled with flurry of hastily conceived legislation that opened the door to the... Read More

Iraq Says It Has Infiltrated Isis's Network of 'Sleeper Cells'

Patrick Cockburn • November 17, 2017

• 1,000 Words • 5 Comments • Reply

Violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, as Isis loses its base areas and its bombing attacks are thwarted by informers and double agents. A senior Iraqi security official says that intelligence about potential Isis attacks has improved to the point that government forces can... Read More

Live from Baghdad: the Secret of Iraq’s Renaissance

Pepe Escobar • November 16, 2017

• 2,000 Words • Leave a Comment

Baghdad On a sandstorm-swept morning in Baghdad earlier last week, Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, the legendary deputy leader of Hashd al-Shaabi, a.k.a. People Mobilization Units (PMUs) and the actual mastermind of numerous ground battles against ISIS/Daesh, met a small number of independent foreign journalists and analysts. This was a game-changing moment in more ways than one.... Read More

The ISIS-Daesh Killing Field: A Letter from Iraq – Grief, Forgiveness, and 20 Million Pilgrims

An exclusive, on-the-scene report, with original photography from a region gradually liberating itself from ISIS.

Pepe Escobar • November 10, 2017

• 1,500 Words • Leave a Comment

Nothing, absolutely nothing prepares you to revive, on the spot, the memory of what will go down in history as ISIS / Daesh’s most horrid killing field in Iraq or Syria since the death cult stormed across the border in the summer of 2014; the Speicher massacre of June 12, 2014 – when almost 2,000... Read More

Free at Last from Isis

Millions stage world's greatest pilgrimage

Patrick Cockburn • November 9, 2017

• 1,200 Words • 5 Comments • Reply

Millions of black-clad Shia pilgrims are converging on the holy city of Kerbala for the Arbaeen religious commemoration, the largest annual gathering of people anywhere on earth. Walking in long columns stretching back unbroken for as much as 50 miles, sleeping and eating in tents erected by supporters beside the road, the event has become... Read More

Retracing the Steps of Isis's Worst-Ever Atrocity

Patrick Cockburn • November 7, 2017

• 1,200 Words • 5 Comments • Reply

It is one of the most shocking of many sadistic videos shot and publicised by Isis in which its gunmen are seen executing their victims. It shows scenes from the Camp Speicher massacre on 12 June 2014 when Isis murdered 1,700 army recruits in a former palace compound of Saddam Hussein on the banks of... Read More

Raqqa Destroyed to Liberate It

Eric Margolis • October 21, 2017

• 800 Words • 19 Comments • Reply

The so-called Islamic State organization was primarily a bogeyman encouraged by the western powers. I’ve been saying this for the last four years. I asserted, as a former soldier and war correspondent, that IS would collapse like a wet paper bag if proper western ground forces attacked their strongholds in Syria and Iraq. This week,... Read More

Raqqa Is Liberated from Isis But Civilians Face Months of Hardship

Patrick Cockburn • October 17, 2017

• 900 Words • Leave a Comment

Kurdish and Arab fighters have raised their flag over the last Isis stronghold in Raqqa, bringing to an end the four-month siege of the city which has served as the de facto Isis capital and headquarters in Syria. A small number of Isis fighters holding out in the sports stadium were overrun by the Syrian... Read More

The Defeat of Isis in Raqqa Will Bring Problems for Syria's Kurds

Patrick Cockburn • October 17, 2017

• 700 Words • 8 Comments • Reply

The expected fall of Raqqa will mark the latest defeat for Isis as it loses its last urban strongholds in Syria and Iraq and reverts to being a guerrilla movement launching raids from hideouts in the desert. The siege of Raqqa started on 6 June and Isis fought skilfully against overwhelming odds until it now... Read More

Iraq Takes Kirkuk from Kurds in Move That Destabilises Region Further

Patrick Cockburn • October 16, 2017

• 1,000 Words • Leave a Comment

Elite Iraqi security forces have captured the Kurdish government headquarters buildings in the centre of Kirkuk with the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordering the Iraqi flag to be raised over Kirkuk and other disputed territories. An Iraqi Oil Ministry official said that it would be “a very short time” before the Iraqi military seized... Read More

What Did Washington Achieve in Its Six Year War on Syria?

Ron Paul • October 2, 2017

• 600 Words • 12 Comments • Reply

Now that the defeat of ISIS in Syria appears imminent, with the Syrian army clearing out some of the last ISIS strongholds in the east, Washington’s interventionists are searching for new excuses to maintain the illegal US military presence in the country. Their original rationale for intervention has long been exposed as another lie.Remember that... Read More

The Syrian Outcome Has Departed the Script

The CIA and presstitutes will re-write the history

Paul Craig Roberts • October 1, 2017

• 900 Words • 2 Comments

Stephen Lendman sums up the success of Russian and Syrian militaries against Washington-supported ISIS. Washington claims to be fighting ISIS, but doesn’t. Remember, U.S. General Flynn, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, revealed on television that it was the “willful decision” of the Obama regime to use ISIS to overthrow the Assad government. General... Read More

Uncle Sam vs. Russia in Eastern Syria: the Nightmare Scenario

Mike Whitney • September 22, 2017

• 1,100 Words • 50 Comments • Reply

The impending collapse of ISIS has touched off a race for territory in the oil-rich eastern part of Syria pitting US-backed forces against the Russian-led coalition of Syria, Iran and Hezbollah. This is the nightmare scenario that everyone wanted to avoid. Washington and Moscow’s armies are now converging on the same area at the same... Read More

Why World Powers Fear the Kurdish Referendum Could Derail Isis Fight

Patrick Cockburn • September 20, 2017

• 1,200 Words • 12 Comments • Reply

The Kurdish leadership is coming under intense international pressure to postpone the referendum on independence due to take place in Kurdish-controlled parts of northern Iraq on 25 September. Outside powers see the poll as destabilising Iraq and neighbouring countries at the very moment when Isis and its self-declared caliphate are being defeated. But Kurdish President... Read More

Isis Is Stepping Up Its Atrocities to Counterbalance Its Defeat

Patrick Cockburn • September 16, 2017

• 1,100 Words • 9 Comments • Reply

Isis is the most likely inspiration for the bomb explosion on the tube train at Parsons Green station. The attempted mass killing is similar to the attacks in Barcelona, Manchester and London earlier this year in that it aimed to murder the maximum number of civilians in the most public way possible. Isis is stepping... Read More

William Astore: the Superpower That Fought Itself -- and Lost

Tom Engelhardt • September 12, 2017

• 500 Words • 3 Comments • Reply

After 19 al-Qaeda militants armed only with box-cutters and knives hijacked four American commercial airliners, the U.S. military moved with remarkable efficiency to rectify the problem. In the years since, in its global war on terror, the Pentagon has ensured that America’s enemies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere have regularly been able to arm... Read More

The American Military Uncontained

Out Everywhere and Winning Nowhere

William J. Astore • September 12, 2017

• 2,200 Words • Leave a Comment

When it comes to the “world’s greatest military,” the news has been shocking. Two fast U.S. Navy ships colliding with slow-moving commercial vessels with tragic loss of life. An Air Force that has been in the air continuously for years and yet doesn’t have enough pilots to fly its combat jets. Ground troops who find... Read More

Worth Dying for?

When It Comes to the War in the Greater Middle East, Maybe We’re the Bad Guys

Danny Sjursen • September 7, 2017

• 2,800 Words • 222 Comments • Reply

I used to command soldiers. Over the years, lots of them actually. In Iraq, Colorado, Afghanistan, and Kansas. And I’m still fixated on a few of them like this one private first class (PFC) in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2011. All of 18, he was short, scrawny, and popular. Nine months after graduating from high school,... Read More

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"ISIS" Items Across Entire Archive

Category Classics

China's Rise, America's Fall

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

Ron Unz

• 429 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