Even as the nation recovers from the shock of the Boston Marathon bombing, the US government is under pressure to intervene in Syria on behalf of the Tsarnaev brothers' jihadist compatriots. The drumbeat for intervention in Syria has been going on for many months,...
Tunisia Now Exporting ‘Jihadis’ to Syria
Tunisian families have begun to dread knocks on their doors, or late-night phone calls, fearing that the messenger will bear the news that their son has been smuggled out of the country to join the “jihad” in Syria. Families here told IPS that they have no way of...
Obama at the Edge of a Cliff in Middle East
With Syria and Iran, President Barack Obama faces getting mired in two wars that could set the entire Middle East aflame, and perhaps the rest of the Islamic world, too. Such an outcome would be in part due to Mr. Obama’s Middle Eastern policy, and the willingness of...
Goading Gullible America Into War
As President Obama departed for Israel, there came a startling report. Bashar Assad's regime had used poison gas on Syrian rebels. Two Israeli Cabinet members claimed credible evidence. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said, "It's clear for us that (gas is) being used....
The Syrian Back Door to War With Iran
Secretary of State John Kerry has long urged increased US support for Syria's Islamist rebels, and now he has his wish: shortly after being confirmed, he announced the US would now directly aid rebel groups, rather than "indirectly," as we've supposedly been...
Hold US Policymakers to Their Abysmal Record on Foreign Meddling
The United States and Saudi Arabia appear to be ramping up aid to the Syrian rebels. Here we go again on the road to debacle. Why? The media never holds anybody to either their predictions or their results--officeholders, politicians, and of course their own pundits....
Obama Administration Reveals Deep Divisions on Syria Policy
‘He’s Killing His Own People!’
“He’s killing his own people!” It’s a familiar refrain to those of us who’ve been paying attention the past decade or so: it’s what our leaders in both parties said about Saddam Hussein by way of justifying the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and it’s what they’re...
Next Stop: Syria
A new study says the British have invaded nine out of ten countries on earth: during the course of their long history of conquest, only 22 nations escaped Britannia's imperial wrath. And it looks like they're at it again, with British Prime Minister David Cameron...
Ignore Syrian Rebels’ Threats
Syrian rebels, in a stalemated conflict with the autocratic Bashar al-Assad, predictably are trying every trick to suck more help out of the United States. They are using the same tactic that developing nations used against U.S. policymakers during the Cold War to get...