Month: November 2016

I have said throughout this presidential campaign that it doesn’t matter much which candidate wins. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are authoritarians and neither can be expected to roll back the leviathan state that destroys our civil liberties at home while destroying our economy and security with endless wars overseas. Candidates do not matter … Continue reading “Regardless of How America Votes, Americans Want a Different Foreign Policy”

Troops captured Bashiqa and Hammam al-Alil on Monday. Also, a mass grave was discovered.

Originally posted at TomDispatch. I was born on July 20, 1944, the day of the failed officers’ plot against Adolf Hitler. That means I preceded the official dawning of the nuclear age by exactly 361 days, which makes me part of the last generation to do so. I’m speaking not of the obliteration of two … Continue reading “Whose Finger on the Nuclear Button?”

The main issue in the world today is globalism versus national sovereignty, and it is playing out in the politics of countries on every continent. In the United States, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s critique of globalism – encapsulated in his campaign theme of “America First” – has galvanized a mass movement opposed to the … Continue reading “Bringing Down the Globalist Monster”

At least 155 people were killed and 157 were wounded in recent violence.

Security forces captured Hammam al-Alil just south of Mosul.

“We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible.” So declared the Irish partisans of the Easter Rising against British rule 100 years ago. Controlling their own destiny has always been a bit of a preoccupation for … Continue reading “How Washington Turned Ireland Into an International Scofflaw”

The Russian-Syrian bombing campaign in eastern Aleppo, which has ended at least for the time being, has been described in press reports and op-eds as though it were unique in modern military history in its indiscriminateness. In an usual move for a senior US official, Secretary of State John Kerry called for an investigation of … Continue reading “US Hypocrisy: Bombing of Aleppo Is No Worse Than What Happened in Gaza and Iraq”

Fighting intensified in Mosul where soldiers were forced to retreat.

Much has been made of the swing in political allegiances of neoconservatives in favor of Hillary Clinton. As a group, Washington’s neocons are generally terrified of Trump’s unpredictability and his flirtation with the alt-right. They also support Clinton’s more assertive foreign policy (not to mention her closer relationship to Israel). Perhaps, too, after eight long … Continue reading “Hillary Clinton and the Neocons”