Category Archives: Foreign Policy

Woman – Life – Freedom: Interview on Resistance in Iran, Part 2

Part 1 of this interview was published in the December 2022 issue. The text has been substantially shortened and edited. Public i: I want to shift the discussion to the US now, and ask what can or should the US … Continue reading

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Biden’s Sanctions on Afghanistan Threaten to Kill More Civilians than Two Decades of War

When President Joe Biden decided to withdraw the US military from Afghanistan last year, much of America’s news media came down on him like a ton of bricks. Republicans piled on, calling the withdrawal an “unmitigated disaster.” But getting out was the right … Continue reading

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Progressive Dilemmas on Ukraine

The Left has tangled itself in knots over how to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Early statements, such as by CodePink and Black Alliance for Peace, while putatively opposing war, laid emphasis on US and Western responsibility, NATO’s … Continue reading

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The Great De-Centering: The World after Ukraine

The Ukraine war is a turning point in history, but not the one you might be expecting. It won’t revive the Cold War. It won’t determine the survival of the Liberal World Order (whatever that is). And most decidedly, it … Continue reading

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The Border We Build Every Day: Guatemala in Champaign-Urbana

The border mechanisms that capture headlines—the roundups, the cages, and the deportations—deserve attention, but this human sorting isn’t confined to the moment or space of the frontier crossing. It is part of the food we buy, the clothes we wear, … Continue reading

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The WTO Vaccination Charade

It’s not an accident that the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the site for the battle over the pandemic and the health of the world. Many critics of corporate control of international trade, and of most of everyday life, have … Continue reading

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Posted in Big Pharma, COVID-19, Foreign Policy, International, pandemic, Politics, Public Health, World-wide death and suffering | Comments Off on The WTO Vaccination Charade

Yemen: A War of Many Fronts

Journalists describe the conflict in Yemen as a sectarian proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, but that fails to capture the complexity of the war: in October, 2020, Human Rights Watch reported more than thirty battle fronts between various … Continue reading

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Counting the Costs of War

“The refugee crisis” is a big and scary concept, but to many of us it is just that, conceptual. However, a September 2020 study has found that between 37 and 59 million people from 12 different countries have been displaced … Continue reading

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A Tale of Two Elections

  This article was first published in The Raw Story on December 21, 2020, under the title “Trump’s Coup is Failing—But a Similar Effort Backed by the US has Already Succeeded.” It has been amended to note the inauguration’s having happened. Reprinted … Continue reading

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Anti-Austerity Protesters in Ecuador Win Some Concessions, But Unlikely to Prevent Further Unrest or Repression

The government of Ecuador reached an agreement on October 13 with leaders of the protests that had rocked the country for the previous two weeks. The deal, which included the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), is a retreat … Continue reading

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Bolton is Out! But Imperialist Aggression Against Iran is Still In

On September 10, National Security Advisor John Bolton was fired from his post at the White House. With one of the staunchest advocates for US imperialism now out of the Trump administration, some were optimistic that the warmongering and the … Continue reading

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Need for System Change

The time is long past due for American citizens to realize that our political and economic systems are untenable. Trump is awful, no question there. And for those who continue to support the Democratic candidates as the lesser evil—fine, that’s … Continue reading

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Defenders of the Bolivarian Republic Forcibly Evicted from Venezuelan Embassy

On May 16, supporters of the democratically elected government of Nicolás Maduro were forcibly evicted from the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, D.C. by US police forces. Earlier this year, President Maduro’s embassy staff was ordered by the US to vacate … Continue reading

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The US Helped Push Venezuela Into Chaos—and Trump’s Regime Change Policy Will Make Sure It Stays That Way

Washington has been trying to topple Venezuela’s government for at least 17 years, but the Trump administration has taken a more openly aggressive tack than its predecessors. Last week, administration officials kicked their efforts into high gear by anointing their chosen … Continue reading

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Hiroshima 1945 and the Threat of Nuclear Catastrophe

“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” – Albert Einstein, 1946. “To hell with these maniacs.” – Premier Nikita Khrushchev, talking about his military advisors during … Continue reading

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The U.S. Military in Africa: a Workshop for the Militarization of Foreign Policy

By Janice Jayes After four American servicemen were killed in in Niger in October, social media discussion fixated on President Trump’s insensitive remarks to the widow of one of the slain soldiers and questions about the logistics surrounding the unlucky … Continue reading

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Israel Anti-Boycott Act a Threat to Free Speech

This article is about a bill introduced in both the U.S. Senate (S.720) and the House of Representatives (H.R.1697). These identical bills are both very complex and very dangerous to our civil liberties. They would outlaw “requests to impose restrictive … Continue reading

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The 2018 U.S. Militarized Budget

The 2018 U.S. Militarized Budget My premise is that the military budget, as proposed by the current administration, is a principal reason for the strangling of our civil society. This article explains why it is unnecessary, why it is promoted, … Continue reading

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OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND, THE HIDDEN COSTS OF WAR

“War is a racket!” This was a famous quote from retired U.S. Marine Corp General Smedley Butler in 1934. Butler stated that “I spent 33 years in the Marine Corp, most of my time being a high-class muscle man for … Continue reading

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