Nicolas J. S. Davies

As President Trump has complained, the U.S. does not win wars anymore. In fact, since 1945, the only 4 wars it has won were over the small neocolonial outposts of Grenada, Panama, Kuwait and Kosovo. Americans across the political spectrum refer to the wars the US has launched since 2001 as "endless" or “unwinnable” wars. … Continue reading “Trump Must Choose Between a Global Ceasefire and America’s Long Lost Wars”

At least 70 countries have signed on to the March 23 call by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a worldwide ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic. Like non-essential business and spectator sports, war is a luxury that the Secretary General says we must manage without for a while. After U.S. leaders have told Americans for … Continue reading “UN Ceasefire Defines War as a Non-Essential Activity”

While the world is consumed with the terrifying coronavirus pandemic, on March 19 the Trump administration will be marking the 17th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq by ramping up the conflict there. After an Iran-aligned militia allegedly struck a US base near Baghdad on March 11, the US military carried out retaliatory strikes … Continue reading “12 Ways the US Invasion of Iraq Lives On in Infamy”

The world is waiting anxiously to see whether the U.S. and Afghan governments and the Taliban will agree to a one-week truce that could set the stage for a “permanent and comprehensive” ceasefire and a withdrawal of US and other foreign occupation forces from Afghanistan. Could the talks be for real this time, or will … Continue reading “Afghan Troops Say Taliban Are Brothers and War Is ‘Not Really Our Fight.””

Sixteen years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, most Americans understand that it was an illegal war based on lies about nonexistent"weapons of mass destruction." But our government is now threatening to drag us into a war on Iran with a nearly identical "big lie" about a nonexistent nuclear weapons program, based on politicized intelligence … Continue reading “The US Is Recycling Its Big Lie About Iraq To Target Iran”

It’s a new year, and the U.S. has found a new enemy – an Iraqi militia called Kata’ib Hezbollah. How tragically predictable was that? So who or what is Kata’ib Hezbollah? Why are US forces attacking it? And where will this lead? Kata’ib Hezbollah is one of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) that were recruited … Continue reading “A New Year and a New Trump Foreign Policy Blunder in Iraq”

The trove of U.S. "Lessons Learned" documents on Afghanistan published by the Washington Post portrays, in excruciating detail, the anatomy of a failed policy, scandalously hidden from the public for 18 years. The "Lessons Learned" papers, however, are based on the premise that the US and its allies will keep intervening militarily in other countries, … Continue reading “The Real Lesson of Afghanistan Is That Regime Change Does Not Work”

As Americans sat down to Thanksgiving dinner, Iraqis were mourning more than 60 people killed by police and soldiers on Thursday in Baghdad, Najaf and Nasiriyah. Nearly 400 protesters have been killed since hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets at the beginning of October. Human rights groups have described the crisis in … Continue reading “Iraqis Rise Up Against 16 Years of ‘Made in the USA’ Corruption”

On Saturday, September 14th, two oil refineries and other oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia were hit and set ablaze by 18 drones and 7 cruise missiles, dramatically slashing Saudi Arabia’s oil production by half, from about ten million to five million barrels per day. On September 18, the Trump administration, blaming Iran, announced it was … Continue reading “Will Americans Let Trump Start a War for Saudi Arabia?”

While the mystery of who is responsible for sabotaging the two tankers in the Gulf of Oman remains unsolved, it is clear that the Trump administration has been sabotaging Iranian oil shipments since May 2, when it announced its intention to “bring Iran’s oil exports to zero, denying the regime its principal source of revenue.” … Continue reading “US Sanctions: Economic Sabotage That Is Deadly, Illegal, and Ineffective”