The US seems unable to take ‘yes’ for an answer

It is quite astonishing how when it comes to diplomacy, the US finds it so hard to take yes for an answer.

Take for example Syria. Whether or not chemical weapons were used and by whom, I think all reasonable people would agree that getting rid of those weapons anywhere is a good thing. And that is what we seem to be moving towards in Syria as a result of the Russian/Syrian plan triggered by John Kerry’s remark. It is going to take some time. After all, the US is far behind schedule on its own promises to reduce its chemical weapons stockpile. [Read more…]

Latest Snowden revelation: NSA shares raw intelligence with Israel

The latest revelation from the Edward Snowden documents is that the NSA hands over raw intelligence containing personal data it has collected on Americans to Israel. The top secret memorandum of understanding between the US and Israel has been released that show that the US did not place any legal limits on the use of the data by Israel though even if it had, it hardly seems likely that the Israeli authorities would have felt constrained by them. [Read more…]

The religious drive for war

There are a lot of people in the US who advocate for war. The neoconservatives are one such group, because they have as their goal the projection of US power all over the globe to establish complete dominance. The Israel lobby is another group that seeks to have the US act on Israel’s behalf and attack and destabilize and even overthrow all the Middle Eastern countries that it sees as enemies. And of course, there is the military-industrial complex that makes a lot of money out of the death and destruction wreaked by the US on other people. [Read more…]

The anti-war movement rises to the occasion

We can all breathe a sigh of relief that the impending war with Syria has been at least postponed. It is clear that it was the massive and rising antiwar sentiment that put a check on the Obama administration and its war-loving supporters to back off (at least temporarily) from their threats to bomb Syria and instead accept the offer of Russia to find a diplomatic solution. The Obama administration’s Syria policy was incoherent and based on hypocritical fear-mongering and his speech last night reflected all those things. [Read more…]

Lawrence O’Donnell does the impossible

In this interview, the host of an MSNBC talk show actually makes New York mayoral candidate Anthony Wiener, as obnoxious and unlikable a person as I have ever seen in public life (and I am not even talking about his much-publicized private life), actually come off as sympathetic. What is it with people like O’Donnell who invite people for interviews on their shows and then self-righteously lecture them? Wiener clearly has a massive ego but O’Donnell seems to have an even bigger one, covered with a generous coating of sanctimony. Wiener, for all his faults, was exactly right in calling him out. [Read more…]

What does ‘unbelievably small’ mean?

The trouble with John Kerry is that he is clearly in love with his own voice and does not know when to stop talking. While in the senate, he was notorious for long droning speeches at committee hearings that often resulted in him running out his allotted time before he could ask questions of the people before the panel. The Daily Show lampooned his performances back in 2009. [Read more…]

Opposition to war surges

One of the hopeful features of the current political climate is that public opinion in the US has not been stampeded into supporting the bombing of Syria, at least not yet. In fact, as the propaganda for the war increases, public opinion is going the other way. Pew reports that just within the last two weeks, opposition to the war has surged from 48% to 63 % with support being stagnant at 28%. [Read more…]