Ted Snider

Recently, two stories have been in the news – though not enough in the news. They have been in the news because they are both stories of American missile strikes that importantly changed events and because they are both stories of missile strikes that were justified by lies. They have been not enough in the … Continue reading “Lies, Missile Strikes and a Whole Lot of History”

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement with Iran was working. Iran was consistently in compliance, the US and Iran were talking and diplomacy was working. Then Trump turned his back on peace, shattered the diplomacy and resuscitated the hostile relation with Iran. This pass that Trump took on peace was not the … Continue reading “A Pattern of Passing Up Peace”

On January 6, just days after the U.S. assassination of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani, Agnes Callamard, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, requested that U.N. Secretary General António Guterres "establish an impartial inquiry into [the] lawfulness of Soleimani’s killing" under Article 99 of the U.N. charter, which gives the Secretary General the power … Continue reading “The Assassination of Qassem Suleimani: Imminent Threat of Peace”

The U.S. says it wasn’t a coup. Trump’s official statement "applauds" the Bolivian regime change for preserving democracy. Trump identifies the event as "a significant moment in democracy" because it stymied Bolivian President Evo Morales’ attempt "to override the Bolivian constitution and the will of the people. . .." But all three White House claims … Continue reading “Finally Got Him: The Bolivian Coup”

The way you frame a question can shape the answer you’ll get. On October 6, 2019, the US removed its troops from the Kurdish region of northeast Syria, clearing the way for the Turkish invasion of the region that followed three days later. Trump’s decision was born of a phone call with Turkish President Recep … Continue reading “The Cries of the Kurds”

Yesterday In 1982, Iraq changed the nature of their war on Iran. They began using chemical weapons. At first, it was only tear gas. But, within a year, Iraq was using mustard gas and the nerve agents sarin and soman on, not only Iranian soldiers, but Iranian civilians. The downpour of chemicals was prodigious: the … Continue reading “Iran, Islam, and Banning the Bomb”

The commonly offered logic behind America’s push for war against Iran is that it, at least in part, is pushed by Israeli desire for war with Iran. But that explanation defies the logic of the geopolitics of the Middle East. In the logic of the Middle East, Israel does not obviously seek war with Iran. … Continue reading “How Israel Could Prevent a War With Iran”

If there was a meter to measure White House statements – or the tweets that pass for them – the needle would be wildly swinging from "willing to talk" to "locked and loaded." But, the needle never needed to be so jittery. Iran’s Need to Enrich A gust of the wind of international law is … Continue reading “How America Created the Nuclear Conflict With Iran”

When Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev received his peace prize in 1990, the Nobel Prize committee declared that "the two mighty power blocs, have managed to abandon their life-threatening confrontation" and confidently expressed that "It is our hope that we are now celebrating the end of the Cold War." Recently, U.N. General Secretary António Guterres funereally … Continue reading “Demythologizing the Roots of the New Cold War”

The mainstream media is full of images and stories of Venezuela’s inhumanely authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro pushing American offerings of humanitarian aid away from Venezuela’s border with Columbia. The mainstream media serves us up our offerings of news as if each headline story was an isolated event, floating alone on an ahistorical sea, unmoored from … Continue reading “Why Won’t Maduro Let US Humanitarian Aid Into Venezuela? History.”