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Archives: Foreign Policy

Tweeting while the Planet Burns: Dystopia 2025

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - It’s January 2025, and within days of entering the Oval Office, a new president already faces his first full-scale crisis abroad. Twenty-four…

Are US troops in Afghanistan causing Talibanism?

By Ann Jones | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - Here we go again! Years after most Americans forgot about the longest war this country ever fought, American soldiers are again being deployed…

Is Trump planning permanent occupation of Afghanistan?

By Reese Erlich | ( 48Hills | - - What will 4,000 more US troops do that 100,000 troops couldn't do before? On my first reporting trip to Afghanistan, I was surprised…

Iran’s Parliament defies new Trump/GOP Sanctions, Increases Missile Funds

TeleSur | - - The bill would allocate over US$260 million each to Iran's ballistic missile program and the Quds Force. Iran's parliament has approved the first step of a bill to…

‘Locked & Loaded’ Trump’s 1960s Cowboyism re: N. Korea & Venezuela

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - If you were away from news on Friday, you might like to know that in addition to hot wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq…

Trump bends over, thanks Putin for Expelling 755 Career US Diplomats

CNN. | (News Video Clip) | - - 1. "President Trump thanks Russian President Putin for expelling US diplomats from Russia following US imposed sanctions." 2. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.…

Syria: US & Russia Agree to Ceasefire, De-Escalation: But will it Hold?

TeleSur | - - Rex Tillerson praised the agreement as indicative of future cooperation in Syria, but also said that the United States still sees no "long-term role" for the Assad government.…

Why it Matters that the World thinks US under Trump is Laughingstock

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Pew Research Center has found that the confidence of the world public in the US willingness to do the right thing has plummeted…

Is Putin’s Russia the critical threat Americans believe it to be?

Ronald Suny | (The Conversation) | - - U.S. intelligence agencies – 17 of them – agree that evidence shows the Russian government hacked the Democratic National Committee and waged a campaign…

Trump accuses Syrian of Planning Gas attack as Haley attacks Russia, Iran

Trump accuses Syria of Planning Gas attack as Haley attacks Russia, Iran

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Trump administration is making noise about striking Syria, on the grounds that Damascus is planning to use poison gas again. Trump's Neoconservative…

All Signs from Trump Point to a Coming Conflict with Iran

By John Feffer | Foreign Policy in Focus | - - Behind all of Trump's boneheaded policies in the Middle East is an unmistakable urge for confrontation with Iran. The Saudi war…

Trump’s Great Retreat, from Asia Too

John Feffer | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - Asia has been the future for more than a generation. When Americans try to glimpse what’s to come, images of the Pacific Rim…

Is US Winning its Longest War? Huge Bomb Hits Kabul Embassy Row, kills at least 80

TeleSur | - - Health ministry spokesman Ismael Kawoosi said: "They are still bringing bodies, and wounded people to hospitals." A powerful vehicle bomb has hit the diplomatic area of the Kabul.…

Saudi-US War on Yemen: No Victory, but Cholera, Famine, State Collapse

Sophia Dingli | (The Conversation) | - - Yemen and its people are engulfed by utter devastation. In the two-plus years of the conflict between the Houthi movement and its allies, including…

GOP not the party of ‘Security’ as Intel Allies Flee Trump

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Globally, US security partners are beginning to rethink sharing sensitive intelligence with the United States. That decisio should worry all Americans, since it…

American Amnesia in the Garden of War

By John Dower | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - Some years ago, a newspaper article credited a European visitor with the wry observation that Americans are charming because they have such short…

Trump’s Real sin in DC is not distinguishing between “Good” and “Bad” Dictators

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Donald J. Trump's peculiar comments about and relationship with dictators and loonies among foreign leaders have upset a range of observers, from sincere…

No, MSM: Man-Baby Trump didn’t become President with Missile Strikes

By Bill Moyers | BillMoyers.com | - - It’s been a week now since Donald Trump once again became our president. Here’s how it happened. After he unleashed missiles on a Syrian…

ISIL Now Controls only 7% of Iraq: What will its Defeat Mean for the Country?

Peter Bartu | (OpenDemocracy.net) | - - The west has treated ISIL as enemy number one while local actors see it as a sideshow in a political arena stretching from the Mediterranean…

Can António Guterres Fend Off America’s War on the UN?

By Dulcie Leimbach | (Inter Press Service) | - - UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - When António Guterres was chosen by the United Nations Security Council in October to become the next leader…