Robert Dreyfuss | The Nation
WMD in Syria? Here We Go Again
A Syrian fighter climbs atop rubble after an air force strike in Azaz. (Reuters/Goran Tomasevic.)
Hawks, neoconservatives, liberal interventionists and others—truth be told, in Washington, nearly everyone except President Obama himself—seems to want to get involved militarily in Syria. The latest bugaboo: WMD. Haven’t we heard that someplace before? Say, ten years ago?
Obama in 'Iran-Israel Week'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress in 2011. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh.)
Let’s first of all put a positive spin on President Obama’s latest Nowruz message to the Iranian people for its New Year. By now, it’s a tradition for Obama to deliver a text and video message for Nowruz, addressed, says the White House, “directly to the people and leaders of Iran.” Because Obama is headed to Israel this week, where he’ll go mano a mano with a weakened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama’s message yesterday marks the official start of what might be called “Iran-Israel Week.”
OpinionNation: Reflections on the Tenth Anniversary of the Iraq Invasion
As the tenth anniversary of the war in Iraq approached, we asked veteran antiwar activist Tom Hayden, CODE PINK’s Jodie Evans, foreign policy blogger Robert Dreyfuss and activist-writer Nathan Schneider to reflect the legacy of the invasion and the destruction, and disillusionment, that followed. Their responses follow.
The Dove Is Never Free
Obama's Iran Missteps Before Israel Visit
Barack Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak.)
If President Obama’s remarks to the Israeli media are any indication, his upcoming (and long-delayed) visit to Israel next week is going to be a troubling one.
The CIA Takes Opposite Sides in Syria and Iraq
A Syrian rebel in Damascus. (Reuters/Ahmed Jadallah.)
What, really, could be more bizarre than this: as the United States ramps up its aid to Syria’s rag-tag rebels, whose backbone is comprised of radical Islamists and Sunni fundamentalists, some with ties to Al Qaeda, the CIA is busily engaged in combat inside Iraq with the very same radical Islamists and Sunni fundamentalists, some with ties to Al Qaeda.
Obama's Iran Bluff
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who has reacted positively to negotiations. (AP Photo/Hayat News Agency, Meisam Hosseini.)
How do you know President Obama is bluffing when he talks about taking military action against Iran and that “all options are on the table”? Because Vice President Joe Biden told AIPAC that Obama isn’t bluffing.
Drone-Zapping Americans at Home?
CIA headquarters in McLean, Virginia. (Reuters/Larry Downing)
Now that John Brennan, confirmed by a Senate vote of 63-34, is headed to the Central Intelligence Agency, it’s the perfect time for Brennan, President Obama and the national security establishment to come clean on torture, drones and other legacies of the George W. Bush–inspired “Global War on Terror.”
Is DoD's Asia 'Pivot' Dead?
Barack Obama meets with then-president Hu Jintao in Beijing. (Reuters/Jason Lee.)
Nothing could be a better sign from the administration of President Barack Obama than a decision to kill the “pivot.”
R.I.P. Hugo Chavez (1954–2013)
Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. (Reuters/Miraflores Palace.)
For now—por ahora—Venezuelans are waiting to see what happens next.
Another 'One-Tenth of a Newtown' in Afghanistan
An Afghan boy passes an American soldier in 2010. (Reuters/Bob Strong.)
Two more children dead in Afghanistan, thanks to an American airstrike. The war is winding down, but try telling that to the families of the children blown to pieces by mistake. Unless you’ve been reading news accounts closely, you probably missed the story:
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