US politics

By Farhang Jahanpour | (Informed Comment) – Anniversary of Iranian Revolution February 2nd marks the 36th anniversary of the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to Iran after 14 years of exile. After ruling Iran for 37 years as a staunch U.S. ally, Mohammad Reza Shah left Iran on January 16, 1979, never to return. Demonstrations […]

Militarization

War Is the New Normal: Seven Deadly Reasons Why America’s Wars Persist

By William J. Astore | (Tomdispatch.com) – It was launched immediately after the 9/11 attacks, when I was still in the military, and almost immediately became known as the Global War on Terror, or GWOT. Pentagon insiders called it “the long war,” an open-ended, perhaps unending, conflict against nations and terror networks mainly of a […]

Iran

GOP Pres. Candidates warn Iran Nukes can hit NYC (despite No Nukes, ICBMs)

Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks) – “”Three likely presidential candidates shared the stage Sunday night before a roomful of wealthy donors, engaging in a rapid-fire policy discussion that underscored sharp disagreement within the GOP over global affairs and national security. Republican Sens. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul took part in a largely […]

Economy

Attn. Tea Party: ‘How Immigrants (yes, Muslims and Latinos) can save Detroit & other Cities’

The Economist | — “From Detroit to Philadelphia to Baltimore, policy makers in America’s old industrial metropolises are struggling with the same problem: how to reverse the fortunes of decaying cities. Decades of economic decline and suburbanisation have left their city centres depressed and dangerous. But immigrants – whether students, migrants or refugees – could […]

5 Top Reasons Romney ought to have Withdrawn

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Likely the reasons Mitt Rimney decided not to run for a third time are financial – the big money just wouldn’t make another bet on a serial loser. But here is why he shouldn’t have even thought about running in a rational world: 1. In his famous slam […]

The Need for New Blood at State Dept.: Obama’s Problem with the ‘Vision Thing’

By Andrew J. Bacevich | (Tomdispatch.com) – En route back to Washington at the tail end of his most recent overseas trip, John Kerry, America’s peripatetic secretary of state, stopped off in France “to share a hug with all of Paris.” Whether Paris reciprocated the secretary’s embrace went unrecorded. Despite the requisite reference to General […]

Netanyahu & Boehner: How Israel went from being a Democratic to a Republican Project

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — The audacity of Speaker of the House John Boehner colluding with the prime minister of a foreign country to undermine a sitting president is, I think, still not entirely appreciated. And the whole point of the plot with Binyamin Netanyahu is to stop a sitting president from successfully […]

New Saudi King to Obama: Lower-price Oil Policy won’t Change