Antiwar.com Blog

As expected, Trump has started the process for redesignating the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), and he is also going after USAID support for U.N. and humanitarian aid groups working in Yemen:

It also directs the US Agency for International Development to end its relationship with United Nations agencies, nongovernmental organizations and contractors “that have made payments to the Houthis, or which have opposed international efforts to counter the Houthis while turning a blind eye towards the Houthis’ terrorism and abuses.”

The Biden administration removed the Houthis from the FTO list for a very good reason, and it is a terrible mistake to put them back on. The Houthis are the de facto government of the part of Yemen where most of its people live. Labeling them as terrorists will do tremendous harm to the population. The sanctions that come with this designation threaten to cripple the economy, block remittances, and prevent the delivery of humanitarian aid. That is why humanitarian aid groups condemned the designation the first time, and it is why they are condemning it again now.

Continue reading “Trump’s Malevolent Yemen Policy”

I interviewed three anti-nuke activists to understand the Doomsday Clock and how our society thinks about the very real threat of nuclear war.

On a rainy Saturday afternoon in the Catskill Mountains where New Yorkers went for the summer to escape the city heat,  Alice Slater’s mother took her to go see a movie in town.  It was late summer in 1945, and the second World War had just ended. Alice remembers parading around the Catskills town a few weeks earlier as everyone celebrated the end of the war. When I asked her when she first became aware of nuclear weapons, the first thing she thought to tell me was about her trip to the theater with her mom. Instead of trailers before the movies they used to show news reels. The mushroom cloud over Hiroshima projected across the screen and Alice asked her mom, “What is that?”

“That’s a wonderful new weapon and now all the boys would come home,” her mom answered.

Continue reading “Maybe Doom Isn’t Scary Enough”

Veterans For Peace joins the people of Gaza in rejoicing at the Ceasefire that has brought a halt to Israel’s bombardment of Palestinian children, women and men, and their churches, their mosques, their schools and hospitals. At least 50,000 have been killed in a cold-blooded massacre and over 100,000 injured, many losing their limbs. But the huge smiles on the faces of the children of Gaza and their shouts of joy since the ceasefire went into effect were a deeply profound thing to witness.

But just how real is the Gaza ceasefire?  How enduring will it be?  Many close observers of Israel are skeptical.  In his recent article, The Ceasefire Charade, Chris Hedges, renowned war correspondent and VFP Advisory Board member writes:

“Israel, going back decades, has played a duplicitous game. It signs a deal with the Palestinians that is to be implemented in phases. The first phase gives Israel what it wants – in this case the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza – but Israel habitually fails to implement subsequent phases that would lead to a just and equitable peace. It eventually provokes the Palestinians with indiscriminate armed assaults to retaliate, defines a Palestinian response as a provocation and abrogates the ceasefire deal to reignite the slaughter. If this latest three-phase ceasefire deal is ratified it will, I expect, be little more than a presidential inauguration bombing pause. Israel has no intention of halting its merry-go-round of death.”

Continue reading “Veterans For Peace Celebrates the Gaza Ceasefire and Pledges To Defend It”

On COI #749, Kyle Anzalone discusses Trump’s first week back in office.

Subscribe on YouTube and audio-only.

On the new Kyle Anzalone show, I break down Trump’s statement on John Bolton.

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.