Gareth Porter

The two top national security officials in the Trump administration – Secretary of Defense James Mattis and national security adviser HR McMaster – are trying to secure long-term US ground and air combat roles in the three long-running wars in the greater Middle East – Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Proposals for each of the three … Continue reading “Will Trump Agree to the Pentagon’s Permanent War in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria?”

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman outraged many readers when he wrote an opinion piece on 12 April calling on President Trump to ”back off fighting territorial ISIS in Syria”. The reason he gave for that recommendation was not that US wars in the Middle East are inevitably self-defeating and endless, but that it would … Continue reading “US ‘Deep State’ Sold Out Counter-Terrorism To Keep Itself in Business”

Two unnamed senior Trump administration officials briefing journalists Tuesday asserted that a Syrian regime airstrike in the city of Khan Sheikhoun on April 4 had deliberately killed dozens of civilians with sarin gas. The Trump administration officials dismissed the Russian claim that the Syrian airstrike had targeted a munitions warehouse controlled by Islamic extremists as … Continue reading “New Revelations Belie Trump Claims on Syria Chemical Attack”

As Yemen’s population has teetered on the brink of mass starvation in recent months, the United States has played a crucial role in enabling the Saudi strategy responsible for that potential humanitarian catastrophe.  Both the Obama and Trump administrations have prioritized the US’s alliance with the Saudis and their Gulf allies over the lives of … Continue reading “US Provided Cover for the Saudi Starvation Strategy in Yemen”

The March 1 report by the United Nations’ “Independent International Commission of Inquiry“ asserted that the bloody attack on a humanitarian aid convoy west of Aleppo City on Sept. 19, 2016, was an airstrike by Syrian government planes. But an analysis of the U.N. panel’s report shows that it was based on an account of … Continue reading “A Flawed UN Investigation on Syria”

Opponents of the Trump administration have generally accepted as fact the common theme across mainstream media that aides to Donald Trump were involved in some kind of illicit communications with the Russian government that has compromised the independence of the administration from Russian influence. But close analysis of the entire series of leaks reveals something … Continue reading “How ‘New Cold Warriors’ Cornered Trump”

The first public pronouncements by President Donald Trump’s administration on Iran have created the widespread impression that the US will adopt a much more aggressive posture towards the Islamic Republic than under Barack Obama’s presidency. But despite the rather crude warnings to Tehran by now ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn and by Trump himself, the … Continue reading “Ignore the Tough Talk – Trump’s Iran Policy Will Be Much Like Obama’s”

The Trump administration’s truculent warning last week that it was putting Iran “on notice” over its recent missile test and a missile strike on a Saudi warship off the coast of Yemen appears calculated to convince the American public that the current administration is going to be tougher on Iran than the Obama administration was. … Continue reading “Trump’s Hard Line on Iran Will Give Saudis Free Hand in Yemen”

The Trump administration may recognize that the Syrian army is the only institution committed to resisting terrorism in its country Gareth Porter A new coalition of US-based organizations is pushing for a more aggressive US intervention against the Assad regime. But both the war in Syria and politics in the United States have shifted dramatically … Continue reading “US Intervention Against Syria? Not Under Trump”

In the middle of a major domestic crisis over the U.S. charge that Russia had interfered with the US election, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) triggered a brief national media hysteria by creating and spreading a bogus story of Russian hacking into US power infrastructure. DHS had initiated the now-discredited tale of a hacked … Continue reading “Mainstream Media’s Russian Bogeymen”