Middle East

Civil Rights, Middle East, peace January 9, 2020

Iran and the Need for Black Activism

Black Agenda Report By Margaret Kimberley January 8, 2020 Black Americans, as perpetual targets of US lies and attacks, should be the first to reject Washington’s rationales for war with Iran. Even the most disparaging Donald Trump critic, such as this columnist, can still be shocked by the president’s rash behavior and inexplicable decision making. Such was the case when Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian Quds general Qassem Soleimani and Abd Mahdi al-Muhandis, commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces. The drone attack in Baghdad killed the two men and eight others. The United States was well aware that Soleimani was on…

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Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Economy, Health Care Reform, Middle East, Obamacare, Ralph Nader, Single Payer December 24, 2019

Ralph Nader: Democrats have no excuse for dealing with Trump

Truthdig By Ralph Nader December 23, 2019 While attention was focused on the House of Representatives’ impeachment of Donald J. Trump, legislators from both parties were secretly huddling with White House aides to seal a $1.4 trillion budget deal to fund the government until next September. They were rushing to do this to avoid a partial government shutdown starting December 21, 2019. Had the budget been deliberated in open Congressional hearings, the media would have reported on this backroom deal and the people of this country would have had a chance to weigh in during the proceedings. Instead, a degraded…

Democracy, Hillary Clinton, Middle East, military budget December 6, 2019

Trump was right: NATO should be obsolete

Popular Resistance By Medea Benjamin December 5, 2019 The three smartest words that Donald Trump uttered during his presidential campaign are “NATO is obsolete.” His adversary, Hillary Clinton, retorted that NATO was “the strongest military alliance in the history of the world.” Now that Trump has been in power, the White House parrots the same worn line that NATO is “the most successful Alliance in history, guaranteeing the security, prosperity, and freedom of its members.” But Trump was right the first time around: Rather than being a strong alliance with a clear purpose, this 70-year-old organization that is meeting in London on December 4 is a…

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International, Middle East, military budget, National Politics November 22, 2014

The Fourth Estate in Flames: On the US Media’s Award-Winning War Propaganda

Common Dreams by Medea Benjamin A war-weary American public that a year ago resoundingly rejected US military intervention in Syria to overthrow the Assad regime now is rallying behind the use of force to destroy the so-called Islamic State (ISIS). In just three months, from June to September, support for US airstrikes in Iraq soared from 45% percent to 71%, and to 65% for airstrikes in Syria. How did such an astounding turnabout occur? Certainly it wasn’t due to the persuasive powers of President Obama, who seems to have been reluctantly dragged into a conflict that he once acknowledged has…

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International, Middle East, peace August 19, 2014

Palestinian/Israeli Conflict Redux

by Justine Mccabe Litchfield County Times Friday, August 01, 2014 I’m responding at length to letters of Messrs. Wilkins and Kilchevsky, who expressed similar views opposing my 7/11 letter, “Decolonization” and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. They both deny my claims: That Israel was founded by the same national formative act as the U.S.: ethnic cleansing of the majority native inhabitants; and That Israel practices apartheid within both Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). As a scholar, who has worked in the Navajo Indian Medical Center and Navajo reservation, as well as in the Middle East (Lebanon, Iran and the OPT),…