Foreign Policy Category Archive

These buttons register your public Agreement, Disagreement, Thanks, LOL, or Troll with the selected comment. They are ONLY available to recent, frequent commenters who have saved their Name+Email using the 'Remember My Information' checkbox, and may also ONLY be used three times during any eight hour period.

Email Comment Ignore Commenter Follow Commenter

The Saker Interviews Michael Hudson

The Saker and Michael Hudson • January 9, 2020

• 2,400 Words • 71 Comments • Reply

The Saker: Trump has been accused of not thinking forward, of not having a long-term strategy regarding the consequences of assassinating General Soleimani. Does the United States in fact have a strategy in the Near East, or is it only ad hoc? Michael Hudson: Of course American strategists will deny that the recent actions do... 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 • 250 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

American Leadership Is Discredited — Will a New Leader Step Forward?

Paul Craig Roberts • January 7, 2020

• 500 Words

This morning (January 7) Pompeo, the embarrassment we suffer as our Secretary of State, was on TV promising to “confront and contain” Iran. A political general was featured declaring that he had seen the intelligence reports and was certain that the murder of Soleimani had stopped an attack. If the general saw any such “intelligence”... Read More

Putin Should Take Control of the Iranian Situation Out of Israel’s Hands

Paul Craig Roberts • January 6, 2020

• 400 Words

At this time, it is up to Israel whether or not war occurs between the US and Iran. Israel very much wants this war as a means of putting Iran and Syria into chaos, thus leaving Hezbollah isolated and unsupplied. Then Israel can succeed in occupying southern Lebanon. The American neoconservatives want Iran in chaos,... Read More

Lies, the Bethlehem Doctrine, and the Illegal Murder of Soleimani

Craig Murray • January 4, 2020

• 2,300 Words • 123 Comments • Reply

In one of the series of blatant lies the USA has told to justify the assassination of Soleimani, Mike Pompeo said that Soleimani was killed because he was planning “Imminent attacks” on US citizens. It is a careful choice of word. Pompeo is specifically referring to the Bethlehem Doctrine of Pre-Emptive Self Defence. Developed by... Read More

The Line in the Sand

Eric Striker • January 3, 2020

• 1,100 Words • 426 Comments • Reply

Most Americans did not know Qasem Soleimani until the Israelis found the perfect opportunity to have him assassinated. They gave the Pentagon the orders and kindly handed Donald Trump all the credit while he ate his ice cream and watched it on TV. So far, Trump's post-hoc rational for murdering the most important military official... Read More

Who Is Making US Foreign Policy?

An anti-neocon president appears to have been surrounded by neocons in his own administration.

Stephen F. Cohen • December 5, 2019

• 400 Words • 180 Comments • Reply

President Trump campaigned and was elected on an anti-neocon platform: he promised to reduce direct US involvement in areas where, he believed, America had no vital strategic interest, including in Ukraine. He also promised a new détente (“cooperation”) with Moscow. And yet, as we have learned from their recent congressional testimony, key members of his... Read More

Pearl Harbor Debate: Conspiracy? Cover-Up? Who Was Really to Blame?

Thomas Kimmel vs. Webster Tarpley

Kevin Barrett • December 5, 2019

• 18,100 Words • 200 Comments • Reply

Introduction It has been roughly one human lifetime since the United States of America underwent a cataclysmic transformation. December 7, 2019 marks the 78th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—the event that turned the United States from a constitutional republic into a globe-straddling empire, which today deploys more than 900 military bases in... Read More

Book Review: Andrei Martyanov's The (Real) Revolution in Military Affairs

The Saker • December 5, 2019

• 2,400 Words • 288 Comments • Reply

Last year I reviewed Andrei Martyanov's book "Losing Military Supremacy: the Myopia of American Strategic Planning" for the Unz Review. In that book, Martyanov explained why the era of easy US victories over pretty much defenseless countries was over and what that meant for US force planners. This year it is my immense pleasure to... Read More

Venezuela's Counter-Attack

Eric Striker • December 2, 2019

• 900 Words • 3 Comments • Reply

When the Trump administration revived Reagan-relic Zionist Elliot Abrams early this year to orchestrate regime change in Venezuela, a new era of instability was born in the Western Hemisphere. Approaching a year into this project, the domestic flames have mostly been put out by the willful Nicolas Maduro, while Washington-backed liberals in Chile, Colombia, Bolivia... Read More

Telling the Truth Has Become an Anti-American Act

Paul Craig Roberts • October 30, 2019

• 1,100 Words

Stephen Cohen and I emphasize that the state of tension today between the United States and Russia is more dangerous than during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. For calling needed attention to the risk of nuclear war heightened by the current state of tension, both Cohen and I have been... Read More

Trump Flip-Flops on Syria Withdrawal. Again.

Ron Paul • October 28, 2019

• 500 Words • 10 Comments • Reply

President Trump is reversing his foreign policy decisions so quickly these days that it almost seems like he overturns himself before making the decision in the first place. Last week he was very clear that the US was pulling its troops out of Syria. “Bringing soldiers home,” he said. “Let someone else fight over this... Read More

Imperial Capital But America-First Nation

Pat Buchanan • October 25, 2019

• 900 Words • 54 Comments • Reply

"Let someone else fight over this long blood-stained sand," said President Donald Trump in an impassioned defense of his decision to cut ties to the Syrian Kurds, withdraw and end these "endless wars." Are our troops in Syria, then, on their way home? Well, not exactly. Those leaving northern Syria went into Iraq. Other U.S.... Read More

Better Relations Between the US and Russia Are Not In the Cards

Paul Craig Roberts • October 23, 2019

• 1,100 Words

By now Russians must wonder if the better relations they desire with the US are ever to be. US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Democrat from Hawaii is the latest peacemaker to be declared “a Russian asset” by Hillary, the DNC, and the presstitutes. The way the Democrats, the presstitutes, and their Puppet Master—the military/security complex—have it... Read More

Steve Bannon - A Profile of a U.S. Appartchik. from China to the Pope

Andre Vltchek • October 23, 2019

• 1,900 Words • 17 Comments • Reply

Almost all of the prominent U.S. neocons have been madly snapping at everything and everybody who opposes the Western right-wing dogmas, be they Chinese or Russian leaders, local opposition figures, or, lately, even the Pope. Individuals like Steve Bannon, often greatly influence leaders like President Donald Trump. Then they fall out of grace, sometimes because... Read More

President Trump Is Right on Syria

Let’s Hope He Follows Through this Time

Boyd D. Cathey • October 14, 2019

• 1,500 Words • 111 Comments • Reply

The unified foreign policy establishment in Washington, the Deep State politicos—from Lindsey Graham and Lynne Cheney in Congress, to the inveterate Never Trumpers like Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal, [“he’s (Trump) all impulse, blithely operating out of his depth”], to the near totality of the progressivist Left (e.g. Chuck Schumer, Diane Feinstein, and... Read More

Are You Ready to Die?

Washington’s Provocations of Russia and Russia’s Passivity Are Scheduling the Death of the Earth

Paul Craig Roberts • October 11, 2019

• 1,000 Words

The Zionist Neoconservatives who run US foreign policy are now herding the US out of the remaining arms limitations agreements. It appears that Washington intends to withdraw from the Open Skies agreement with Russia. The Open Skies Treaty allowed the US and Russia to overfly each other’s territory in order that there could be mutual... 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

Credit: Strategic Culture Foundation, Flickr/statephotos

Trump Frees Himself from Bolton – But Robert O’Brien Will be Just as Bad

Philip Giraldi • September 26, 2019

• 1,400 Words • 64 Comments • Reply

After months of rumors, John Bolton was finally fired from the White House but the post mortem on why it took so long to remove him continues, with the punditry and media trying to understand exactly what happened and why. Perhaps the most complete explanation for what occurred came from President Donald Trump himself shortly... Read More

Will More US Troops in Saudi Arabia Make America Great?

Ron Paul • September 23, 2019

• 600 Words • 11 Comments • Reply

President Trump deserves credit for resisting the war cries from neocons like Sen. Lindsey Graham and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after last week’s attack on two Saudi oil facilities. Pompeo was eager to blame Iran because he wants war with Iran and anything that can trigger such a war is fine with him. So... Read More

Will Russia be Driven from the West?

American opponents of readmitting Moscow to the former G8 fail to understand the consequences

Stephen F. Cohen • September 18, 2019

• 600 Words • 206 Comments • Reply

Two years ago, I asked, “Will Russia Leave the West?” The world’s largest territorial country—sprawling from its major European city St. Petersburg to its vast Far Eastern territories and long border with China—Russia cannot, of course, depart the West geographically. But it can do so politically, economically, and strategically. Indeed, where Russia belongs, where it... Read More

'Locked and Loaded' for War on Iran?

Pat Buchanan • September 17, 2019

• 800 Words • 111 Comments • Reply

"Iran has launched an unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply," declared Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Putting America's credibility on the line, Pompeo accused Iran of carrying out the devastating attack on Saudi oil facilities that halted half of the kingdom's oil production, 5.7 million barrels a day. On Sunday, President Donald Trump did... Read More

Will Trump Take Neocon Bait and Attack Iran Over Saudi Strike?

Ron Paul • September 16, 2019

• 600 Words • 32 Comments • Reply

The recent attacks on Saudi oil facilities by Yemeni Houthi forces demonstrate once again that an aggressive foreign policy often brings unintended consequences and can result in blowback. In 2015 Saudi Arabia attacked its neighbor, Yemen, because a coup in that country ousted the Saudi-backed dictator. Four years later Yemen is in ruins, with nearly... Read More

The 9/11 Deception Remains In Control of America’s Destiny

Paul Craig Roberts • September 13, 2019

• 300 Words

The 18th anniversary of 9/11 is over, but 9/11 isn’t. September 11, 2001, is the defining event of America’s 21st century. The neoconservatives used their false flag event to destroy the Bill of Rights and turn the American people over to a police state, and they used the New Pearl Harbor that they orchestrated to... Read More

Unused Militaries

Fred Reed • September 10, 2019

• 2,400 Words • 408 Comments • Reply

For a couple of decades I covered the military for various publications, as for example the Washington Times and Harper's, and wrote a military column for Universal Press Syndicate. I was following the time-honored principle of sensible reporters: “Ask not what you can do for journalism, but what journalism can do for you.” The military... Read More

Kidnapping as a Tool of Imperial Statecraft?

The Saker • September 7, 2019

• 2,300 Words • 111 Comments • Reply

There is nothing new about empires taking hostages and using them to put pressure on whatever rebel group needs to reminded “who is boss”. The recent arrest in Italy of Alexander Korshunov, the director for business development at Russia’s United Engine Corporation (UEC), is really nothing new but just the latest in a long string... Read More

The Revolution in Military Affairs

Paul Craig Roberts • September 6, 2019

• 400 Words

Clarity Press has just published a new book by Andrei Martyanov, The (Real) Revolution in Military Affairs ( ). Martyanov’s book is, in a way, two books. One is about the revolution in military affairs that has left the United States behind. The other is about the self-medicating and propagandistic version of reality that Americans... Read More

The Newest US Anti-Iran Sanctions: Null Effect in Political-Economic Terms, But Revealing Hidden Messages

Ivan Kesić • August 29, 2019

• 1,400 Words • 52 Comments • Reply

The US anti-Iran sanctions strike again. Not counting the renewed sanctions that came back in force following the US withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA), US officials have also imposed a number of new ones in recent weeks. In late 2018, the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered the United States to stop the... Read More

The Irresponsibility of Small Nations

Paul Craig Roberts • August 23, 2019

• 800 Words

After falsely accusing Russia of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), Washington unilaterally repudiated the treaty. Thus did the US military/security complex rid itself of the landmark agreement achieved by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev that defused the Cold War. The INF Treaty was perhaps the most important of all of the arms control... Read More

The Last Western Empire?

The Saker • August 1, 2019

• 2,900 Words • 317 Comments • Reply

"Missing the forest for the trees" is an apt metaphor if we take a look at most commentary describing the past twenty years or so. This period has been remarkable in the number of genuinely tectonic changes the international system has undergone. It all began during what I think of as the “Kristallnacht of international... Read More

Israel's Agents of Influence

Trips to Israel, a “Nationalism Conference,” Epstein and more

Philip Giraldi • July 23, 2019

• 1,700 Words • 552 Comments • Reply

Some journalists in the Jewish media are starting to complain that President Donald Trump is “loving Israel” just a little too much since he keeps citing his concern for the Jewish state as the driving force behind some of his erratic behavior. It is a viewpoint that I most definitely share, though I would describe... Read More

Will Persian Gulf 'Tanker War' Become a Shooting War?

Ron Paul • July 22, 2019

• 600 Words • 6 Comments • Reply

The UK got a taste of its own medicine this week as Iran seized a British tanker, the Stena Impero, just two weeks after UK Royal Marines seized a tanker near Gibraltar carrying two million barrels of Iranian oil. As could be predicted, the US and UK media are reporting Iran’s seizure of the Stena... Read More

Trump Is Back Under Bolton’s Thumb

Paul Craig Roberts • July 19, 2019

• 300 Words

President Trump might be his own man, but not when it comes to John Bolton and Israel. Trump is their man and is again being manipulated into starting a fisticuffs with Iran. Someone in Washington, most likely Ziocon warmonger Bolton, got the UK to commit an act of piracy on the high seas and seize... Read More

Frog-Marching Trump Toward War on Iran

Ron Paul • July 8, 2019

• 500 Words • 17 Comments • Reply

Hypocrisy seems to have become a defining characteristic of US foreign policy, especially when it comes to Iran. After breaking the Iran deal last year and, de facto, forcing the Europeans to violate the deal in May, the US Administration is now complaining that Iran is no longer abiding by its obligations under the deal!... Read More

Liberalism Is Over

Russia, America, and Iran

Israel Shamir • July 6, 2019

• 2,700 Words • 110 Comments • Reply

Russia enjoys its glorious short summer. The global warming phobia couldn’t penetrate its chilly limits. While the South of France suffers a heat wave, California burns, and the progressive forces demonstrate against the climate, the Russians shrug their shoulders in disbelief. They wouldn’t mind some global warming. Here temperatures rarely go above a comfortable 22°C,... Read More

tulsi_gabbard_official_portrait_113th_congress

Memo to Trump: Trade Bolton for Tulsi

Pat Buchanan • June 28, 2019

• 800 Words • 415 Comments • Reply

"For too long our leaders have failed us, taking us into one regime change war after the next, leading us into a new Cold War and arms race, costing us trillions of our hard-earned tax payer dollars and countless lives. This insanity must end." Donald Trump, circa 2016? Nope. That denunciation of John Bolton interventionism... Read More

How to Start an Unnecessary War

Targeting Iran started before 2016

Philip Giraldi • June 25, 2019

• 1,800 Words • 650 Comments • Reply

I confess to being mystified by those Americans who lean conservative, like myself, who continue to think that President Donald J. Trump is somehow doing a good job. To be sure, the economy continues to add mostly low paying jobs but claims that the new tax law benefits the middle class are a bit hard... Read More

Boxed in by Neocons and the Media, Will Trump Launch Iran War?

Ron Paul • June 24, 2019

• 600 Words • 12 Comments • Reply

President Trump did the smart thing last week by calling off a US airstrike on Iran over the downing of an American spy drone near or within Iranian territorial waters. According to press reports, the president over-ruled virtually all his top advisors – Bolton, Pompeo, and Haspel – who all wanted another undeclared and unauthorized... Read More

Bolton Is In Israel Conferring with Netanyahu How to Provoke US Attack On Iran

Paul Craig Roberts • June 23, 2019

• 300 Words

As I posted on June 22 ( ), the world still faces the danger of an attack on Iran by Washington acting as an agent of Netanyahu. Israeli agent John Bolton is already in Israel conferring with Netanyahu. It is a safe bet that a more serious false flag attack is being planned that will... Read More

As We Face Armageddon the Western World Is Leaderless

Paul Craig Roberts • June 22, 2019

• 900 Words

According to news reports, the validity of which cannot be ascertained by the general public, a crazed US government came within ten minutes of igniting a general conflagration in the Middle East, the consequences of which could have been catastrophic for all. The moronic warmongers in high office—Bolton, Pompeo, and Pence—and their Israel Lobby masters... Read More

Trump Claims He Canceled an Airstrike Against Iran at the Very Last Minute

The Saker • June 21, 2019

• 1,400 Words • 349 Comments • Reply

The first thing to say here is that we have no means to know what really happened. At the very least, there are two possible hypotheses which could explain what took place: 1) a US provocation: it is quite possible that somebody in the US chain of command decided that Iran should be put under... Read More

War with Iran Would Become 'Trump's War'

Pat Buchanan • June 18, 2019

• 900 Words • 19 Comments • Reply

President Donald Trump cannot want war with Iran. Such a war, no matter how long, would be fought in and around the Persian Gulf, through which a third of the world's seaborne oil travels. It could trigger a worldwide recession and imperil Trump's reelection. It would widen the "forever war," which Trump said he would... Read More

Pence Goes to War: America Will be Fighting Forever

Philip Giraldi • June 13, 2019

• 1,100 Words • 21 Comments • Reply

On May 25th Vice President Mike Pence was the featured speaker at the United States Military Academy commencement. His speech was predictably an encomium celebrating both the diversity and the success of the newly commissioned officers as well as of the system at West Point that had produced them, but it also included interesting insights... Read More

Sovereignists of All Countries – Unite!

The Saker • June 7, 2019

• 2,500 Words • 161 Comments • Reply

We all know that the Neocons are by far the largest and most influential group of sponsors of US wars of aggression. They are the ones who lobbied the hardest for the invasion of Iraq, and they are the ones which for decades have tried every possible dirty trick to lure the US into acts... Read More

Tulsi Gabbard Pushes No War Agenda – and the Media Is Out to Kill Her Chances

Philip Giraldi • June 6, 2019

• 1,300 Words • 493 Comments • Reply

Voters looking ahead to 2020 are being bombarded with soundbites from the twenty plus Democratic would-be candidates. That Joe Biden is apparently leading the pack according to opinion polls should come as no surprise as he stands for nothing apart from being the Establishment favorite who will tirelessly work to support the status quo. The... Read More

Do Trump's Hawks Speak for Trump?

Pat Buchanan • June 4, 2019

• 900 Words • 70 Comments • Reply

For a president who won his office by denouncing the Middle East wars into which George W. Bush and Barack Obama plunged the nation, Donald Trump has assembled the most unabashedly hawkish conclave of foreign policy advisers in memory. And he himself seems to concede the point. If foreign policy were decided by my security... Read More

The War On Truth

Paul Craig Roberts • June 3, 2019

• 1,900 Words

“The ability of the owners of the political/media class to discredit and neutralize anyone who poses a threat to their interests simply by rearranging the narratives about them is one of the most destructive psychological weapons in their arsenal. The main reason it’s so hard to convince the public that they have been taken in... Read More

Two Contrasting Commencement Addresses a Half Century Apart

Paul Craig Roberts • June 2, 2019

• 900 Words

On June 1, 2019, American vice president Mike Pence gave the commencement address at West Point. He told the graduates that it was a certainty that they will “be on a battlefield for America” and “will move to the sound of guns.” Pence did not say for whose agenda they would be fighting, whether it... Read More

Prospects for the Emergence of a Real Opposition in Russia

The Saker • May 30, 2019

• 2,500 Words • 178 Comments • Reply

As predicted, Putin's popularity takes a nosedive. This fact is not often discussed in the West, but the popularity of Vladimir Putin is in decline and has been so ever since, following his reelection, he kept more or less the same (already unpopular) government while that government very clumsily attempted to "sneak by" undetected a... Read More

Fire the Nutcases Leading Us to War

Eric Margolis • May 18, 2019

• 600 Words • 23 Comments • Reply

President Donald Trump claimed this week that he does not want war with Iran. If he really believes this, the president ought to look into what his subordinates are doing. Among their bellicose actions are deployment of the ‘Abraham Lincoln CVN-72’ carrier task force to the coast of Iran, massing a strike package of B-52... Read More

« Earlier Items

"Neocons" Items Across Entire Archive

Category Classics

9/11 Was an Israeli Job

How America was neoconned into World War IV

Laurent Guyénot

• 381 Comments • Reply

John McCain and the POW Cover-Up

The “war hero” candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam.

Sydney Schanberg

• 148 Comments • Reply

America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars