US Foreign Policy

AFRICOM Spearheads Escalation Of US “Scramble For Africa”

March 17, 2017 Eddie Haywood, www.wsws.org Educate! Africa, AFRICOM, Imperialism, US Foreign Policy

By Eddie Haywood for WSWS - The chief of the US African Command (AFRICOM), General Thomas Waldhauser, warned last week in an annual report to Congress that resource constraints on his forces are threatening to undermine Washington’s influence over Africa. Headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, AFRICOM was created with the mission of exerting greater military influence over Africa in order to maintain and facilitate Western capitalism’s exploitation of the continent’s vast economic resources and its working masses. In his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, General Waldhauser warned that AFRICOM’s “inadequate surveillance, poor supply chain networks...

Impact Of US-Saudi War On Yemen: 7 Million Close To Famine

March 17, 2017 Les Roopanarine et al, www.theguardian.com Educate! Famine, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy, Yemen

By Les Roopanarine, Patrick Wintour, Saeed Kamali Dehghan and Ahmad Algohbary in Ibb for The Guardian - Governments warned they face enduring shame should famine take hold in Yemen, where two-thirds of the population face severe food shortages, nation is near ‘point of no return’ Aid agencies have warned that Yemen is “at the point of no return” after new figures released by the UN indicated 17 million people are facing severe food insecurity and will fall prey to famine without urgent humanitarian assistance. A total of 6.8 million people are deemed to be in a state of emergency – one step from famine on the five-point integrated food security phase classification (IPC), the standard international measure – with a further 10.2 million in crisis.

More Mideast Madness As Trump Prepares To March

March 13, 2017 Eric Margolis, www.ericmargolis.com Educate! Donald Trump, Middle East, US Foreign Policy

By Eric Margolis for Eric Margolis - We are now moving rapidly into stage II of Levantine Madness as the US boosts its intervention in the war-torn Mideast. Five thousand US troops are back in Iraq to bolster the shattered nation’s puppet regime that is propped up by American bayonets. New Iraqi military formations have been formed, totally equipped with modern US M1 Abrams tanks, Humvees, and fleets of trucks. More US forces are on the way. These US-financed Iraqi units are euphemistically called ‘anti-terrorism forces’ and are supervised by US officers. In fact, what we see is the old British Imperial Raj formula of white officers commanding native mercenary troops.

Mad About THAAD: An Untimely Decision

March 10, 2017 Mel Gurtov, www.original.antiwar.com Educate! South Korea, US Foreign Policy

By Mel Gurtov for Anti War - The US decision, supported by the South Korean government, to deploy an antimissile system known as THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) may be one of the most thoughtless strategic moves in a generation. The official US argument is that close-in defense against North Korean missiles is necessary. But the deployment has resulted in the following: an argument in China for increasing its nuclear weapons stockpile; an incentive in North Korea for moving rapidly ahead to develop its long-range missile capability; a deep fissure in China-South Korea relations; roiling of South Korean politics at a time when its corrupt president has been impeached; and a new issue in Sino-US relations. Most of these negatives were well known when THAAD was initially on the drawing board several years ago.

It’s Not Trump, US In Rapid Decline, Still In Wars

March 9, 2017 John Feffer, www.fpif.org Educate! Donald Trump, US Foreign Policy

By John Feffer for Foreign Policy In Focus - The first signs of decline are physical. Citizens don’t grow as tall. They don’t live as long. They start killing each other in large numbers. Sounds like the post-mortem for a society that disappeared long ago, a conclusion that archaeologists deliver after sifting through bone fragments and pottery shards. Why, the puzzled scholars ask, did such a vibrant society, which produced beautiful art and remarkable scientific advances, fall apart so rapidly and leave so little behind in the unforgiving rainforest? This time, however, the diagnosis is being provided in real time. And the society in decline is the most powerful country in the world.

U.S. Considers First-Strike Attack On North Korea

March 8, 2017 Bruce K. Gagnon, www.space4peace.blogspot.com Educate! Airstrikes, Imperialism, North Dakota, US Foreign Policy

By Bruce K. Gagnon for Organizing Notes - The publication called Business Insider is carrying a story promoting a US first-strike attack on North Korea. The article includes a quote from the Wall Street Journal that reads, "An internal White House review of strategy on North Korea includes the possibility of military force or regime change to blunt the country’s nuclear-weapons threat, people familiar with the process said, a prospect that has some U.S. allies in the region on edge." The BI article also states: Military action against North Korea wouldn't be pretty. Some number of civilians in South Korea, possibly Japan, and US forces stationed in the Pacific would be likely to die in the undertaking no matter how smoothly things went.

Alert From Odessa, Ukraine

March 7, 2017 Bruce K. Gagnon, www.space4peace.blogspot.com Resist! Foreign Relations, Russia, Ukraine, US Foreign Policy

By Bruce K. Gagnon for Organizing Notes - March 6, 2017 — It’s been nearly three years since the brutal massacre of 46 mostly young progressives by a neo-Nazi-led mob in the Ukrainian city of Odessa. Government repression and right-wing attacks against Odessans demanding justice for that atrocity have been constant, but now have entered a new and much more dangerous stage. On Feb. 23, Alexander Kushnarev, the father of one of the young people murdered on May 2, 2014, was arrested by agents of the federal Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Oleg Zhuchenko, chief prosecutor for the Odessan region, claims Kushnarev had been planning to kidnap and torture a member of the country’s Rada, or parliament. After Kushnarev was arrested, his home was searched and police claimed they found literature that “promotes national hatred between Ukrainians, Russians and Jews.”

Syrian Regime Change In The Context Of US-Syria History

February 28, 2017 Staff, wwwwashingtonsblog.com Educate! Regime Change, Syria, US Foreign Policy

By Staff of WashingtonsBlog - The U.S. Carried Out Regime Change In Syria In 1949 … and Tried Again In 1957, 1986, 1991 and 2011-Today. The CIA backed a right-wing coup in Syria in 1949. Douglas Little, Professor, Department of Clark University History professor Douglas Little notes: Recently declassified records… confirm that beginning on November 30, 1948, [CIA operative Stephen] Meade met secretly with Colonel Zaim at least six times to discuss the “possibility [of an] army supported dictatorship.” [“Cold War and Covert Action: The United States and Syria, 1945-1958,” Middle East Journal, Winter 1990, p. 55]

US Conducts Show Of Force In South China Sea

February 21, 2017 Mike Head, www.wsws.org Educate! China, Imperialism, US Foreign Policy, US military

By Mike Head for WSWS - Defying warnings from Beijing not to escalate tensions in the South China Sea, the Trump administration last Saturday said a United States aircraft carrier strike group had begun “routine” patrols in the strategic waterway. According to a US Navy statement, the guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer is joining the 97,000-ton Carl Vinson along with aircraft from Carrier Air Wing for the operations. The Carl Vinson carries a flight group of more than 60 aircraft, including F/A-18 jet fighters, as well as a crew of 7,500. This is not the first such mission. The Obama administration also ordered US aircraft carrier operations in the South China Sea as part of its “pivot to Asia” to confront China’s rising influence. Almost a year ago, the USS John C. Stennis led another “routine” cruise through the area.

Popular Movement Against Trump vs. Corporate Media’s Anti-Russia Witch-Hunt

February 20, 2017 Andre Damon,www.http://wsws.org/ Educate! Corporate Media, Donald Trump, Propaganda, Russia, US Foreign Policy

By Andre Damon for WSWS - One day after Donald Trump’s extraordinary news conference, the battle within the American state only grew more intense. The conflict pits the ultra-right president of the United States against powerful sections of the military-intelligence apparatus, with the corporate media, the Democratic Party and a section of the Republicans serving as mouthpieces of the CIA. There is no progressive faction in this dispute, which centers on issues of foreign policy and war. Trump is a noxious representative of the financial oligarchy. He has packed his administration with CEOs and billionaires, alongside ex-generals, social reactionaries and outright fascists. His opponents in the political and media establishment are themselves reactionaries, motivated not by democratic principles, but by concerns that Trump is shifting away from the aggressive, militarist policy toward Russia that is backed by the intelligence establishment and was carried out by the previous administration.

Trump-Netanyahu Meeting Lays Ground Or One-State Solution

February 17, 2017 Ali Abunimah, www.electronicintifada.net Strategize! Donald Trump, Israel, Palestine, US Foreign Policy

By Ali Abunimah for Electronic Antifada - US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a joint press conference at the White House on Wednesday morning, before going into their much-anticipated bilateral meeting. Asked about whether the US was still wedded to a two-state solution, Trump broke with longstanding orthodoxy. “I am looking at two states or one state, and I like the one that both parties like,” the president said. On settlements, Trump reaffirmed to Netanyahu, “I’d like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit.” Advocates of a two-state solution, including the previous US administration and European governments, see it as the only way to rescue Israel as a racist state that ensures its Jewish demographic majority through a battery of racist laws – a situation they refer to as “peace.”

Secret Reason We’ve Invaded Iraq, Libya & Soon Iran

February 14, 2017 Staff, www.popularresistance.org Resistance Report Iran, Iraq, Libya, US Foreign Policy

By Staff of Popular Resistance - If Donald Trump's recent threat of military action against Iran sounds familiar to you, then It should. Democrats in Congress already beat him to it before Trump's tiny hands could even grace the bible at his swearing-in ceremony. How did they do this? By creating a resolution in January to threaten military action against Iran if they tried to obtain nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, what's being touted as a move for U.S. safety and security is starting to sound eerily similar to the threat to invade a country to find deadly weapons that turned out to never exist (think Iraq). So what's the REAL reason behind this threat of military action? All signs seem to point both underground and in America's wallets.

US Launches Major War Game Just 50 Miles Off The Iranian Coast

February 9, 2017 Melissa Dykes, www.thedailysheeple.com Educate! Iran, US Foreign Policy, Wars and Militarism

By Melissa Dykes for The Daily Sheeple - But Trump’s new Pentagon chief General Mattis also gave a press conference where he declared Iran to be “the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world”. That was last week. This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s administration is actively working to “drive a wedge between Iran and Russia”. So yeah, all that and it hasn’t even been three weeks yet…Now Breitbart is exclusively reporting (not much of a shock there considering their former executive chair is now White House Chief Strategist) that 17 ships from the US, UK, Australia, and France chose last week

White House: Iran ‘On Notice,’ US Won’t Rule Out Attack

February 3, 2017 Jason Ditz, www.news.antiwar.com Educate! Iran, US Foreign Policy

By Jason Ditz for Antiwar - White House officials are ratcheting up the rhetoric over Iran’s recent ballistic missile test, accusing it of being “highly provocative” and threatening non-specific action, which might include military force, against Iran over the incident. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn announced that the Trump Administration is “putting Iran on notice” over the test, saying that the test threatens stability across the region and “places American lives at risk.” Other officials said a lot of options were under consideration. In practice very little happened to provoke this reaction. Iran’s single test of a medium-range ballistic missile almost certain did not violate the P5+1 nuclear deal’s restriction on testing nuclear-capable missiles

If Americans Cared About Muslims, Stop Supporting Their Killing

February 2, 2017 Glen Ford, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Muslim Ban, Muslims, US Foreign Policy

By Glen Ford for Black Agenda Report - In the most dramatic expression of insider opposition to a sitting administration’s policies in generations, over 1,000 U.S. State Department employees signed on to a memo protesting President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries setting foot on U.S. soil. Another recent high point in dissent among the State Department’s 18,000 worldwide employees occurred in June of last year, when 51 diplomats called for U.S. air strikes against the Syrian government of President Bashar al Assad. Neither outburst of dissent was directed against the U.S. wars and economic sanctions that have killed and displaced millions of people in the affected countries

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