“Putin will not talk to Obama under pressure,” American journalist Josh Rogin was told late last week by a close associate of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. If Russia’s President will no longer call or accept calls from the President Obama, this strikes me as the most important casualty so far from U.S.-provoked “regime change” …
Continue reading “Killing the Putin-Obama ‘Trust’”
As U.S. President Barack Obama descends on the Philippines, Manila and Washington are rushing to complete negotiations on an Agreement on Enhanced Defense Cooperation (AEDC) between the two countries. The Philippines’ territorial disputes with China are one major reason for this new agreement. With Washington’s help, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III wants to make the …
Continue reading “Obama in Asia: Washington Extracts Rent-free Basing From the Philippines”
Earlier this month, CIA-operated drones killed as many as 55 people in Yemen in several separate strikes. Although it was claimed that those killed were “militants,” according to press reports at least three civilians were killed and at least five others wounded. That makes at least 92 US drone attacks against Yemen during the Obama …
Continue reading “Obama’s Drone Wars Undermine American Values”
Uniformed militants took advantage of advanced parliamentary voting today and attacked security forces waiting to cast votes. At least 84 people were killed and 164 more were wounded. The public votes on Wednesday, but expatriates began voting yesterday.
The Naval War College, based in Newport, Rhode Island, runs a special 11-month course for foreign Navy officers. On February 3, the Naval War College held a special morning session at the Hoover Institution, where I am a research fellow. I was invited to speak. The best invites, in my experience, are those for which …
Continue reading “An Economist’s Case for a Non-Interventionist Foreign Policy”
For those of us who wondered "whatever happened to the ‘Asian pivot?’" the answer is now in: it was the diplomatic-strategic equivalent of vaporware, i.e. it was never a Serious Thing in the first place. For those not familiar with the foreign policy wonk-speak, the Asian Pivot was supposed to have been a major turning …
Continue reading “Obama’s Asian Pivot Stumbles”
Originally posted at TomDispatch. In mid-April, Abu Ghraib was closed down. It was a grim end for the Iraqi prison where the Bush administration gave autocrat Saddam Hussein a run for his money. The Iraqi government feared it might be overrun by an al-Qaeda offshoot that calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the …
Continue reading “Abu Ghraib Never Left Us”
At least 41 people were killed and 63 more were wounded today. Meanwhile, Iraq forces flew into Syria to conduct an air strike. Also, more details about a failed militant takeover in Diyala last month were revealed.
Attacks against provincial councilmen and polling centers continued. Today, a councilman from Salah ad Din province was targeted and killed. A number of dumped bodies were found in Baghdad. Some of the attack may have been in revenge for an attack on a political rally yesterday. At least 69 people were killed and 37 more were wounded.
The statement signed last week in Geneva was correctly seen as an attempt to buy time by all the parties involved – Russia, the Atlantic Empire, and the coup regime in Kiev. But while Moscow may have stalled to give the volatile situation on the ground time to calm down, Washington and Kiev sought to …
Continue reading “The Kiev Gambit” 
