Foreign Policy Category Archive

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Is Syria’s Idlib the Next Gaza Strip?

Patrick Cockburn • October 7, 2020

• 1,400 Words • 10 Comments • Reply

“Many relatives of mine were living in camps near the border with Turkey,” says Huda Husein, a 25-year-old teacher living in the rebel-held enclave of Idlib in northwest Syria. “But last month they returned home [to the cities and villages] because they prefer dying under an airstrike to dying in the camps.” A cousin told... Read More

America’s War on Terror Is the True Cause of Europe’s Refugee Crisis

Patrick Cockburn • September 13, 2020

• 1,200 Words • 36 Comments • Reply

Desperate refugees crammed into cockle-shell boats landing on the shingle beaches of the south Kent coast are easily portrayed as invaders. Anti-immigrant demonstrators were exploiting such fears last weekend as they blockaded the main highway into Dover Port in order “to protect Britain’s borders”. Meanwhile, the home secretary, Priti Patel, blames the French for not... Read More

Syrian Coronavirus Crisis ‘10 Times Worse’ Than Regime Claims

Patrick Cockburn • August 26, 2020

• 1,100 Words • 12 Comments • Reply

“I cannot tell my true name,” says Ramiz Halawani, a 37-year-old teacher in Damascus. “You know how bad and violent our security intelligence are. They have spies everywhere. So, I am using another name.” Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Independent, Mr Halawani said he contracted Covid-19 earlier this month, as the epidemic swept... Read More

Syrians Face Calamity as Trump’s Sanctions Mix with Surging Covid-19

Patrick Cockburn • August 23, 2020

• 1,200 Words • 13 Comments • Reply

“If I don’t buy masks or medicine, I may die or survive, but if I don’t buy bread for the family, we will all die of starvation,” says a retired 68-year-old teacher in Damascus, explaining why he does not have masks, sterilisers or medicines. “We need two bundles of loaves every day which costs us... Read More

An In-Depth Look Behind the Scenes of Southfront Censorship

Southfront Editor • May 6, 2020

• 2,500 Words • 42 Comments • Reply

The situation surrounding the censorship of Southfront on Facebook has turned into a display of the stereotypical Big-tech super villain. Facebook has published a report justifying its actions, which is an egregious, textbook example of fake news. The report contains only disjointed accusations under the cover of meaningless words, and without a single example being... Read More

A Few Recent Political Developments Which Should Not Go Unnoticed

The Saker • March 25, 2020

• 1,300 Words • 225 Comments • Reply

The COVID19/SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is, by any measure, an immense planetary crisis which will probably change the world we live in forever. Still, there are other issues which are maybe not quite as dramatic and important, but which deserve not to be forgotten. Here are some of those The grand betrayal of Tulsi Gabbard It was... Read More

More American Blunders in the Middle East: U.S. Envoys Embrace Terrorists Yet Again

Philip Giraldi • March 14, 2020

• 1,600 Words • 24 Comments • Reply

The spread of the coronavirus has meant that much of the other news about developments around the world has disappeared from the normal news cycle. The situation in Syria, which involves not only the government in Damascus but also Turkey, Russia, Iran and a remaining American force in part of the country has been proving... Read More

Is This How Europe Ends?

Pat Buchanan • March 10, 2020

• 900 Words • 133 Comments • Reply

"Fortress Europe is an illusion." So declares the Financial Times in the closing line of its Saturday editorial: "Europe Cannot Ignore Syrian Migrant Crisis." The FT undertakes to instruct the Old Continent on what its duty is and what its future holds: "The EU will face flows of migrants and asylum seekers across the Mediterranean... Read More

Turbulence Rising

Oil Prices – Syria – Refugee Invasion

Israel Shamir • March 9, 2020

• 1,700 Words • 70 Comments • Reply

Turbulence rising, we are in for a choppy ride, - that’s what our captain should announce. After some fake turbulence supplied by the overblown coronavirus media hype, real things began to add up. They all add up to a great uncertainty and to a deep recession; to a war substitute, from the financial point of... Read More

Putin Saves Erdogan from Himself

Pepe Escobar • March 6, 2020

• 900 Words • 11 Comments • Reply

At the start of their discussion marathon in Moscow on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with arguably the most extraordinary diplomatic gambit of the young 21st century. Putin said: “At the beginning of our meeting, I would like to once again express my sincere condolences over the death of... Read More

Erdogan Loses the Battle, But the War Is Far from Over

The Saker • March 5, 2020

• 1,600 Words • 230 Comments • Reply

Following 6 hours of grueling negotiations, including direct negotiations between Putin and Erdogan, the parties have finally agreed to the following: A ceasefire will begin at midnight. Russia and Turkey will jointly patrol the M4 highway (M5 now belongs to Damascus). A 6km buffer zone will have to be created and enforced on each side... Read More

Showdown in Idlib: Master Statesman Putin Averts War with Combative Erdogan

Mike Whitney • March 5, 2020

• 2,500 Words • 10 Comments • Reply

The media has done a poor job of explaining what's actually taking place in Idlib Province in Syria. That's unfortunate, but the facts are pretty clear. A year and a half ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a deal in Sochi. No one twisted Erdogan's arm to sign 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

Syria - Corona - AIPAC

Israel Shamir • March 2, 2020

• 2,000 Words • 172 Comments • Reply

The Russians feel fighting Turkey is below their dignity, and prefer to keep the fighting in Idlib as a proxy war. The dignity point is important: traditionally, the Russians go to war only with great powers. Smaller military encounters are a matter for a local commander. Even cruel Winter Campaign 1940 against Finland had been... 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

Lavrov at Munich: the Lone Voice for Peace

Mike Whitney • February 18, 2020

• 1,400 Words • 15 Comments • Reply

The threats to human survival have never been greater than they are today, but the attachment to a crumbling order is blocking the way forward. Unless leaders settle on a new approach that guarantees security for everyone, the crises will continue to intensify bringing the world's two superpowers closer to war. Following the dissolution of... 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

Scuffle Between Syrian Civilians and US Soldiers Reflects Increasing Hostility to US Troops

Whitney Webb • February 12, 2020

• 1,000 Words • 6 Comments • Reply

As resistance to U.S. troop presence in both Iraq and Syria gains steam, a rare scuffle between Syrian civilians and U.S. forces broke out on Wednesday resulting in the death of one Syrian, believed to be a civilian, and the wounding of another. A U.S. soldier was also reportedly injured in the scuffle. The event... Read More

Putin vs. Erdogan: Who's Going to Blink First?

Mike Whitney • February 12, 2020

• 1,600 Words • 25 Comments • Reply

An explosive situation is developing in Idlib province where the Syrian army is conducting a major offensive that has triggered a harsh response from Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is threatening to attack Syrian forces anywhere in the country if the Syrian government does not stop all military operations in the so-called Idlib "de-escalation... Read More

How the Pro-War “Left” Fell for the Kurds in Syria

Max Parry • December 22, 2019

• 2,900 Words • 133 Comments • Reply

The October decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw American troops from northeastern Syria did not only precipitate the Turkish offensive, codenamed ‘Operation Peace Spring’, into Kurdish-held territory which followed. It also sparked an outcry of hysteria from much of the so-called “left” that has been deeply divided during the 8-year long conflict over... 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

The One Insurmountable Obstacle to Peace in Syria

Mike Whitney • December 4, 2019

• 2,000 Words • 137 Comments • Reply

The Turkish army did not invade Syria to attack the Kurds. That's simply not true. The actual target of the Turkish operation (Peace Spring) was a group of separatist militants (The YPG) who have waged a bloody 30 year-long terrorist war on the Turkish state killing upwards of 40,000 people. With the assistance of US... Read More

Erdogan's Ethnic Cleansing of the Kurds Is Still Happening

Patrick Cockburn • November 15, 2019

• 1,100 Words • 15 Comments • Reply

Mass expulsion or the physical extermination of an entire ethnic or religious community – ethnic cleansing – is usually treated by the media in one of two different ways: either it receives maximum publicity as a horror story about which the world should care and do something about, or it is ignored and never reaches... Read More

The White House Plan to Strangle Iran

Philip Giraldi • November 2, 2019

• 1,400 Words • 29 Comments • Reply

There is a certain irony in President Donald Trump’s frequently expressed desire to withdraw from the endless wars that have characterized the so-called “global war on terror” initiated by George W. Bush in 2001. The problem is that Trump has expressed such sentiments both when he was running for office and also as recently as... Read More

Rebuilding Syria – Without Syria’s Oil

Compare US pillaging with Russia-Iran-Turkey’s active involvement in a political solution to normalize Syria

Pepe Escobar • November 1, 2019

• 900 Words • 3 Comments • Reply

What happened in Geneva this Wednesday, in terms of finally bringing peace to Syria, could not be more significant: the first session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee. The Syrian Constitutional Committee sprang out of a resolution passed in January 2018 in Sochi, Russia, by a body called the Syrian National Dialogue Congress. The 150-strong committee... 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

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

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

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

Vladimir Putin, Syria’s Pacifier-in-Chief

Russia-Turkey deal establishes ‘safe zone’ along Turkish border and there will be joint Russia-Turkey military patrols

Pepe Escobar • October 24, 2019

• 1,000 Words • Leave a Comment

The negotiations in Sochi were long – over six hours – tense and tough. Two leaders in a room with their interpreters and several senior Turkish ministers close by if advice was needed. The stakes were immense: a road map to pacify northeast Syria, finally. The press conference afterwards was somewhat awkward – riffing on... Read More

Revisiting the Win-Win-Win-Win Outcome in Syria

The Saker • October 23, 2019

• 7,100 Words • 220 Comments • Reply

In his recent article "The Road to Damascus: How the Syria War Was Won" Pepe Escobar summarized the outcome of the war in Syria in the following way: This otherwise excellent summary overlooks two out of three members of the "Axis of Kindness", including Israel and the KSA. Of course, later in his analysis Pepe... 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 Mother of All Messes in Syria

Eric Margolis • October 19, 2019

• 700 Words • 16 Comments • Reply

What a mess. The imperial cooks in Washington have turned poor Syria into a poison pit of warring factions, with disastrous results for all. Henry Kissinger once quipped that it is more dangerous being America’s ally than its enemy. A good example is how Washington used the Kurds in Syria to fight ISIS and then... Read More

The Road to Damascus: How the Syria War Was Won

Following the Damascus-Kurdish alliance, Syria may become the biggest defeat for the Central Intelligence Agency since...

Pepe Escobar • October 18, 2019

• 2,600 Words • Leave a Comment

What is happening in Syria, following yet another Russia-brokered deal, is a massive geopolitical game-changer. I’ve tried to summarize it in a single paragraph this way: Syria may be the biggest defeat for the CIA since Vietnam. Yet that hardly begins to tell the whole story. Allow me to briefly sketch in broad historical strokes... Read More

Is Putin the New King of the Middle East?

Pat Buchanan • October 18, 2019

• 800 Words • 135 Comments • Reply

"Russia Assumes Mantle of Supreme Power Broker in the Middle East," proclaimed Britain's Telegraph. The article began: "Russia's status as the undisputed power-broker in the Middle East was cemented as Vladimir Putin continued a triumphant tour of capitals traditionally allied to the US." "Donald Trump Has Handed Putin the Middle East on a Plate" was... Read More

Turkey's Syria Invasion Rapidly Backfiring for Ankara

Patrick Cockburn • October 16, 2019

• 700 Words • 46 Comments • Reply

Turkey’s Syrian venture is rapidly turning sour from President Erdogan’s point of view. The Turkish advance into the northeast is moving slowly, but Turkey’s military options are becoming increasingly limited as the Syrian army, backed by Russia, moves into Kurdish-held cities and towns that might have been targeted by Turkish forces. It is unlikely that... Read More

Trump Wants to End the "Stupid Wars"?

Let's see what he actually does

Philip Giraldi • October 15, 2019

• 1,400 Words • 339 Comments • Reply

The discussion, if one might even call it that, regarding the apparent President Donald Trump decision to withdraw at least some American soldiers from Syria has predictably developed along partisan, ideologically fueled lines. Trump has inevitably muddied the waters by engaging in his usual confusing explanations coupled with piles of invective heaped upon critics. The... Read More

Kurds Face Stark Options After US Pullback from Northern Syria

Forget an independent Kurdistan: They may have to do a deal with Damascus on sharing their area with Sunni Arab refugees

Pepe Escobar • October 15, 2019

• 1,800 Words • Leave a Comment

In the annals of bombastic Trump tweets, this one is simply astonishing: here we have a President of the United States, on the record, unmasking the whole $8-trillion intervention in the Middle East as an endless war based on a “false premise.” No wonder the Pentagon is not amused. Trump’s tweet bisects the surreal geopolitical... Read More

Is the Interventionists' Era Over for Good?

Pat Buchanan • October 15, 2019

• 900 Words • 47 Comments • Reply

President Donald Trump could have been more deft and diplomatic in how he engineered that immediate pullout from northeastern Syria. Yet that withdrawal was as inevitable as were its consequences. A thousand U.S. troops and their Kurdish allies were not going to dominate indefinitely the entire northeast quadrant of a country the size of Syria... 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

Washington Is Wrong Once Again – Kurds Join Assad to Defend Syria

Ron Paul • October 14, 2019

• 600 Words • 16 Comments • Reply

When President Trump Tweeted last week that “it is time for us to get out of these ridiculous endless wars,” adding that the US would be withdrawing from Syria, Washington went into a panic. Suddenly Republicans, Democrats, the media, the think tanks, and the war industry all discovered and quickly became experts on “the Kurds,”... Read More

Cautious Optimism on Turks and Kurds

Israel Shamir • October 13, 2019

• 2,600 Words • 155 Comments • Reply

Amid the usual hysterics of ‘impending genocide’ and ‘brutal betrayal’, the long-expected Turkish operation in northeast Syria is rolling, and Turkish troops accompanied by their Syrian rebel allies quickly advance into the former US occupation zone east of the Euphrates River, pushing the Kurdish nationalist militias away from the border. The American soldiers withdrew from... Read More

Turkey Beats the War Drums

Eric Margolis • October 12, 2019

• 800 Words • 15 Comments • Reply

More war in wretched Syria. Half the population is now refugees; entire cities lie shattered by bombing; bands of crazed gunmen run rampant; US, French, Israeli and Russian warplanes bomb widely. Now, adding to the chaos, President Donald Trump has finally given Turkey, NATO’s second military power, the green light to invade parts of northeastern... 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

Kurdish Soldiers Always Feared Trump Would be a Treacherous Ally

Patrick Cockburn • October 9, 2019

• 1,000 Words • 56 Comments • Reply

In a field beside a disused railway station on the plain just south of the Syrian-Turkish frontier, a brigade of Syrian Kurdish soldiers were retraining in order to resist an invasion by the Turkish army. “We acted like a regular army when we were fighting Daesh [Isis],” Rojvan, a veteran Kurdish commander of the YPG... 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

Syrian tank near Idlib facing Uyghurs and other terrorists

March of the Uyghurs

Again, The West Tries to Destroy China, Using Religion and Terror

Andre Vltchek • July 23, 2019

• 8,200 Words • 286 Comments • Reply

They are everywhere, where their Western, Gulf states and Turkish handlers want them to be. Their combat as well as political cells and units are based in Syria and Indonesia, in Turkey and occasionally in Egypt. When they are told to kill, they murder with unimaginable brutality; decapitating, or cutting to pieces priests, infants, old... Read More

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"Syria" Items Across Entire Archive

Category Classics

American Pravda: Our Coronavirus Catastrophe as Biowarfare Blowback?

Ron Unz

• 1,635 Comments • Reply

9/11 Was an Israeli Job

How America was neoconned into World War IV

Laurent Guyénot

• 437 Comments • Reply

American Pravda: 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

Ron Unz