Oct. 27, 1962, is the date on which we humans were spared extinction thanks to Soviet Navy submarine Captain Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov. Arkhipov insisted on following the book on using nuclear weapons. He overruled his colleagues on Soviet submarine B-59, who were...
Absurdity of the Neocons’ Syrian Oil Narrative
No doubt, US foreign and military policy since the 1970s has focused on access to and control over the vast oil reserves in the Middle East. Uncritical support of Saudi Arabia (home base for jihadi terrorism and the women-oppressing form of Islam practiced by the...
Camp Bucca, Abu Ghraib, and the Rise of Extremism in Iraq
Sunday morning, President Trump announced the death of Abu Bakr Al- Baghdadi and three of his children. President Trump said Al-Baghdadi, the founder of ISIS, was fleeing U.S. military forces, in a tunnel, and then killed himself by detonating a suicide vest he wore....
Trump Flip-Flops on Syria Withdrawal. Again.
President Trump is reversing his foreign policy decisions so quickly these days that it almost seems like he overturns himself before making the decision in the first place. Last week he was very clear that the US was pulling its troops out of Syria. “Bringing...
Iraq Daily Roundup: Eight Killed; Student Protesters Beaten
What the Dismantling of the Berlin Wall Means 30 Years Later
Originally posted at TomDispatch. You know, it’s strange. There are certain moments that you and everyone in your generation never forget. For instance, I can tell you exactly where I was – eating a 25-cent hamburger in a diner that might have been called the Yankee...
Saudi Bases and the Bin Ladens: A Love Story
What is Trump really up to? It’s almost unknowable. At the same time that the president was pulling (some) troops out of Northeast Syria, giving an antiwar speech, and then sending other troops back into Syria to "secure the oil," he also quietly sent...
In Syria ‘Withdrawal,’ Less Is Probably More
When US president Donald Trump announced his plan to relocate a few dozen US soldiers in Syria – getting them out of the way of a pending Turkish invasion – the Washington establishment exploded in rage at what it mis-characterized as a US “withdrawal”...


