Antiwar.com Blog

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley joined her boss, President Trump, in warning the Syrian government not to re-take the last bit of Syrian territory controlled by rebels. The problem is President Trump’s own Special Envoy for the fight against ISIS has confirmed that this region, Idlib, is controlled by al-Qaeda. The neocons are itching to have some more bombs lobbed at the Syrian government and have all but called for a false flag by the rebels to provide cover. How will the “last battle” play out? Join today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report for our take:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

As a kid, I was a big admirer of Israel.* I kept a scrapbook on the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Back then, Israel was America’s plucky ally, David against Goliath, helping to keep the Soviet bear at bay, or so it seemed to me.

Through a kid’s eyes, Israel in 1973 was an island seemingly surrounded by a sea of well-armed enemies: Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia. Outnumbered and outgunned. And now look at today’s reality: Egypt and Iraq have been neutralized. Syria is devastated. Jordan is wisely (sort of) neutral. The Saudis are a quasi-ally. Outside of the more-or-less manageable threat of terrorism (Hamas and Hezbollah), Israel’s chief enemy today appears to be itself.

What I mean by that is this: Israel, which over the last 70 years has fought several wars for its survival, is now a regional superpower. Yet the mindset of David versus Goliath persists, even though Goliath is hobbled and defeated. Meanwhile, as Israel combats terrorism and the legacies of West Bank occupation and isolation of the Gaza Strip, the government prosecutes policies that are considered illiberal and dangerous by many Jewish critics within Israel itself.

Continue reading “The USA and Israel as Big and Little Prussia”

Originally appeared on The American Conservative.

Paul Pillar capably sums up why supporting the war on Yemen is not in America’s interest:

Neither does the administration’s policy toward the Yemeni war accord with a realist perspective of where U.S. interests in the area do and do not lie. The United States does not have a stake in the outcome of civil warfare in Yemen. The Houthi rebellion is rooted in very local issues involving what the Houthis contend has been insufficient central government attention to the interests of tribal elements in the north of the country. Nor do the Houthis pose more than a trivial threat to anyone else in the region [bold mine-DL]. Although the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia have made a big deal about missiles that the Houthis have fired at Saudi Arabia, those firings are pinpricks compared to the aerial assault in the other direction for which the missiles have been an attempt at retaliation. Missiles would not be launched if the Saudis and Emiratis had never launched their destructive expedition.

Continue reading “No, the Saudis Aren’t ‘Defending Themselves’”

Felton Davis, who coordinates a weekly vigil in NYC calling for an end to the U.S. war against Yemen, sent us a letter written by Yemen’s Minister of Education which names the students and teachers who were killed when a Saudi warplane fired a 500 lb. bomb, made in the US, at their school bus. We feel relieved to know that ten children whom we believed had died are actually alive. The number of children killed was 34, not 44. Four of their teachers were killed along with 12 passers-by. 78 people were wounded, including 55 students. Our hearts also go out to the first responders, EMT workers and hospital staff whose courageous efforts to save and heal people also involved trying to determine the number of dead.

We encourage people to continue commemorating those who died in the April 9, 2018 attack. In Chicago, Voices and other peace groups gathered in the Federal Building Plaza where we set up blue backpacks to commemorate each child who had been killed. (UNICEF had issued blue backpacks to the children before they went on their outing).

Continue reading “34 Backpacks – An Ongoing Commemoration of Yemeni Children Killed on August 9”

The "National Commission on Military, National and Public Service" has announced that the final event in its year-long series of "informal" open-mike public hearings on whether registration for a military draft should be ended or extended will be at Cal State University, Los Angeles, on Thursday, September 20, 2018, from 3-5 p.m.:

Thursday, September 20, 2018
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM PDT

California State University Los Angeles
Golden Eagle Ballroom 1 & 2
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90032

Following presentations by an invited panel, members of the public will get 2 minutes each to testify. This will probably be framed as an opportunity to ask questions of the panel, but members of the public can testify on any of the issues the Commission has been appointed to study.

Continue reading “Hearing on the Draft and Draft Registration, Thursday, 9/20/2018 in Los Angeles”

Originally appeared on The American Conservative.

USA Today published a very extensive report on conditions inside Iran this week. Here is a description of the response to the reimposition of U.S. sanctions:

Still, despite rhetoric from the Trump administration and some exiled Iranians – as well as praise for Washington’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – the overwhelming sentiment on Iran’s streets is not revolutionary fervor but fatigue over decades of failed Iranian-U.S. diplomacy and the resulting economic struggles for ordinary Iranians [bold mine-DL].

“We waited for so long for good news between our two nations,” a woman, 37, in a coffee shop told USA TODAY as she despaired over the renewed sanctions and breakdown in relations.

The Trump administration doesn’t appreciate and certainly doesn’t care that reneging on the nuclear deal and moving to strangle Iran’s economy have dashed the hopes of most Iranians for a better future. Iran hawks hope to rile up the Iranian people through increased hardship and deprivation, but no nation ever responds to collective punishment this way. US policy towards Iran is sowing enmity between our two countries for years and decades to come, and both of our countries will be worse off because of it. For all of the administration’s complaints about Iran’s “malign behavior” in the region, they have made a point of penalizing Iran even though it is abiding by the nuclear deal. Iran has responded constructively on the nuclear issue, and it is being strangled with sanctions anyway.

Continue reading “The Trump Administration’s Cruel Collective Punishment of the Iranian People”