On April 17th, Congress voted to pass a brief 10-day extension of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This sets the new expiration date for April 30th, 2026. Section 702 was added to FISA in 2008 with a provision that requires Congress to...
Bibi’s Big Lie and Why Pluto Didn’t Bark In Tehran
Well, it bears repeating. Again. The Iranians never had a nuke, had no near-term prospect of weaponizing their enriched uranium stockpiles, were not hell-bent on blowing up the world and were not two weeks from anything other than still another wolf-crying episode...
Israel’s War Obsession and the Urgency of Palestinian Leverage
It is tempting to argue that Israel’s new military doctrine is predicated on perpetual war – but the reality is more complex. Not that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would object to such an arrangement. On the contrary, his relentless drive for military...
Shutting Down the War Machine
Consider the change remarkable in its own fashion. The “President of PEACE” in his first term in office has distinctly become the President of WAR the second time around, whether in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, in Venezuela, in Nigeria, in Somalia,...
Nuclear Weapons Didn’t Save Lives in 1945. They Wouldn’t Today Either
This article was first published by Al Jazeera in Arabic. False historical narratives abound in our contentious and divided world, as leaders and complicit historians endeavor to use public understanding of the past to push policies and gain control in the present....
Military Disasters and the End of Empire
My life began in wartime — World War II — and, if Donald Trump has anything to say about it, will evidently end in war, too. The president who, as advertised, didn’t go to war in his first term in office, also insisted then that the U.S. should stop engaging in...
Rule by Secrecy – How Covert Regime Change Shaped Our World
The modern international order rests on a contradiction rarely examined in full daylight. Western states present themselves as guardians of international rules, democracy, and self-determination, yet the historical record of their behavior abroad tells a different...
Stagflation Incoming: The Donald Ain’t Gonna Like What Happens Next!
Here is a salient place to start regarding the economic impact of the Donald’s misbegotten war on Iran: To wit, approximately 7 billion ton-miles of freight moves by truck each and every day in the USA, which heavy truck fleet consumes upwards of 2.9 million barrels...
The Cowardice of Qualification: When Anti-War Voices Speak the Language of Empire
A respected human rights activist has spoken repeatedly against the US-Israeli aggression on Iran. She recognizes the illegality of the war and does not shy away from condemning it in clear terms. Yet, almost invariably, she feels compelled to qualify her position,...
The Teenage Bully Boy Who Got the War Toys
Here he goes again. The phony “cease fire” is expiring Wednesday. So the Donald is back on the keyboard promising to obliterate what remains of Iran if the mullahs (or whoever) don’t raise the white flag of surrender forthwith. Yet in the unhinged outpouring of crude...


