Antiwar.com Blog

In this April 2, 2024 interview with Judge Napolitano, Dennis Kucinich says: “What’s happened is that the U.S. State Department and U.S. Government basically engineered a coup in Ukraine and used that to drag Ukraine into a conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbas and ignited this war which Russia has been horrible in the way they have come in and attacked. There’s been six hundred thousand people, the flower of Ukraine, who have been killed. This thing is heartbreaking.

But we cannot ignore the role that the U.S. has played in helping to impel it, and we cannot ignore the fact that, as you point out, there was a chance to resolve this two years ago.”  (He’s referring to how in March of 2022 the U.S. forced the Zelensky government to step back from a peace deal that was being negotiated with Russia.)

Continue reading “Dennis Kucinich: The US Engineered a Coup To Drag Ukraine Into a Conflict”

On COI #565, Kyle Anzalone talks about weapons shipments to Israel and Ukraine.

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The Biden administration continues to act contrary to logic and humane values in response to Israel’s war policies. Despite overwhelming evidence of Israel’s war crimes and acts that constitute genocide, the administration plies the right-wing Israeli government with more weapons. The latest arms package being prepared by the administration will reportedly be the largest since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Valued at around $18 billion, it will include 50 F-15 fighter jets and precision-guided munitions kits as well as more 2000- and 500-pound bombs.

Many critics, including some within the administration itself, have pointed with alarm to the obvious contradiction in US policy between supporting negotiations on a cease-fire and hostage release on one hand, and continuing to ship non-defensive weapons to Israel on the other. The contradiction applies not just to the immediate situation in Israel but also to overall US policy on the abuse of military aid – NSM 20 – which specifies that arms recipients must adhere to international and American law. Israel, while giving assurances about its use of US weapons, has violated US policy guidelines in numerous ways – for instance, bombing hospitals and other civilian targets with US bombs, and using US-supplied white phosphorus munitions in densely populated areas of Gaza.

Continue reading “US Complicity in Israel’s War Crimes Takes Another Step”

More than 80 U.S. Muslim, Palestinian, and allied groups on Wednesday implored President Joe Biden to pursue a “concrete change in policy” that includes the suspension of arms transfers to Israel as it wages a genocidal war on Gaza.

“The National Security Memorandum on Safeguards and Accountability With Respect to Transferred Defense Articles and Defense Services prohibits our government from transferring arms to nations that violate international law or obstruct U.S. humanitarian aid,” the groups wrote in a letter to the U.S. president. “Furthermore, the Leahy Law forbids our government from providing military assistance to military units in foreign nations involved in human rights abuses.

Continue reading “80+ Groups Urge Biden to ‘Reverse Course Before Thousands More Die’ in Gaza”

On COI #564, Kyle Anzalone talks Julian Assange and Israel’s war on Palestinians.

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The Israeli military killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen (WCK) in three consecutive targeted attacks on their vehicles. The vehicles were marked with the WCK logo, they were traveling on an approved route in a so-called safe zone, and their movements were coordinated with Israeli forces. Despite all these precautions, the vehicles were struck one after another and all of the passengers were killed. WCK has suspended their operations in Gaza as a result of the killings. Other humanitarian agencies are considering doing the same because of the extraordinary danger to their workers.

Netanyahu claims that it was an “unintentional hit,” but that simply isn’t credible. There have been too many similar attacks on humanitarian workers throughout the war for anyone to believe that this was just an unfortunate accident. We heard many of the same excuses from the Saudi coalition in Yemen when their jets would bomb clearly marked hospitals and clinics. When a client government commits an outrageous crime like this, it claims it was not intentional and promises to investigate itself. Washington takes the denials at face value because acknowledging the reality would require the U.S. to stop arming the client to the teeth.

Continue reading “The War on Humanitarian Aid Workers”