US Defense Secretary James Mattis has not ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes against Syria in response to an alleged chemical attack in the militant-held town of Douma. Speaking with reports on Monday, Mattis said he wouldn't "rule out anything right now" after being asked if the US was mulling strikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad. [...]

The US was the only country in the world to oppose a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for war crimes, at the 29th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), held from 15 June to 3 July 2015. The US voted against “ensuring accountability and justice for all violations of international law in” the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US military policymakers and their political allies continue to block President Donald Trump’s repeatedly expressed desire to withdraw all US troops currently operating in Syria, analysts told Sputnik. Last week, Trump revealed that the United States would soon withdraw from Syria, however, there was no confirmation from the president's administration or the Pentagon. [...]

The proposal for visa applicants to surrender 5 years of their social-media history will have a "huge impact" on travel to the US and could be "very damaging" for those seeking to come to America, an immigration attorney told RT. [...]

The US should, but likely won’t, pull out of Syria soon, independent journalist Eva Bartlett told RT’s Lee Camp. She added that you have to be “brain-dead” to believe the myths used by the US to justify the conflict. [...]

The US military spent $60 million on a new section of power grid in Afghanistan’s northeast. It doesn’t work and may even put residents at risk, according to a report from the US government’s reconstruction watchdog. While the power lines have been built, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found that mismanagement by the Army Corps of Engineers led to the g [...]

Nikki Haley has erupted in another fiery Russophobic rant, warning that Russia will “never be America’s friend.” Moscow can try to behave “like a regular country,” but the US will “slap them when we need to,” Haley said. [...]

Exclusive: Donald Trump’s appointment of war hawk John Bolton is a cause for concern, Daniel Lazare writes, but what is perhaps an even bigger concern is that both major U.S. political parties are dominated by war hawks. John Bolton is a hawk’s hawk, a militarist who never saw a U.S. war of aggression he didn’t like. The best thing one can say about his appointment as national security ad [...]

With the largest joint U.S.-Israeli air defense exercise ever conducted having recently concluded, which involved over 2,500 American service personnel, and in the midst of heightened Israeli involvement in the Syrian war, we find ourselves asking... Are US troops ready to fight and to die for America’s Israel's defense? [...]

People seeking a US visa may soon be required to disclose their social media information so that five years’ worth of their online footprint can be scrutinized. It was previously reserved for people from terrorism-affected states. [...]

The price of the traditional safe haven gold increased on Monday after Beijing introduced retaliatory measures against American goods coming to China. After falling in the past three trading sessions, the yellow metal surged over $8 per troy ounce to $1,335. [...]

President Donald Trump’s appointment of John Bolton as his national security adviser is his most dangerous move yet, argues Marjorie Cohn. Nothing Donald Trump has done since his inauguration 14 months ago is more dangerous – to the United States, and indeed, to the world – than his selection of John Bolton for National Security Adviser. It is not surprising the president would feel most co [...]

Beijing is hiking up tariffs on more than 128 US imports, including fruit and pork, as part of a tit-for-tat response to US President Donald Trump’s $60 billion package of tariffs imposed against China. The additional fares, which range from 15 to 25 percent, will take effect on Monday, the Chinese Finance Ministry said on their website. [...]

Trump's appointment of well-known neocons Mike Pompeo and John Bolton as the next Secretary of State and National Security Advisor respectively proves that he's decisively embraced the neoconservative faction of the "deep state". The President used to rail against people like Pompeo and Bolton, especially the latter because of his hawkish views towards Iraq, but now he's depending on both o [...]

The looming April 9 first day on the job for Republican superhawk John Bolton as US President Donald Trump’s hand-picked national security advisor - replacing three-star General H.R. McMaster - has the Pentagon bracing for trouble. [...]

On Monday, a number of European countries, as well as the United States and Canada, announced they were expelling Russian diplomats over the Skripal case. Radio Sputnik discussed the significance of the diplomatic response by the Western powers with Srdja Trifkovic, a US journalist and writer on international affairs. [...]

Nearly two dozen countries have joined the UK in expelling Russian diplomats over the poisoning of ex--spy Sergei Skripal in southern England. Speaking to Sputnik, Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity, shared his thoughts on the broader implications of the case, and what Russia's approach should be. [...]

Rushed to completion by war hawks, the newly-released US national security strategy “drastically reverses” President Donald Trump’s campaign promises on Russia, Syria and NATO, Virginia state Senator Richard Black believes. The strategy, published on Monday, is the first ever to be issued during an administration’s initial year in office. [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Russia must take responsibility for the alleged poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the UK if it wants to improve relations with the United States, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said during a press briefing on Tuesday. "If Russia wants to improve relations it needs to first acknowledge its responsibility for this attack and cease its recklessly aggressive be [...]

The UN declined to comment on the legality of Washington’s move to expel 12 Russian staff working there, saying only that it had been “notified.” The US envoy to Russia hinted they hadn’t even sent notification in advance.  Speaking to reporters, the UN spokesman declined to comment on the US move to expel 12 Russian diplomats from the permanent mission to the UN, citing the “sensitivi [...]

The Israeli defense minister hailed the US’ hefty contribution to the missile defense program, thanking Washington for its $705 million in aid – $558 million more than Israel’s initial request. “I am pleased to announce that the US Congress has approved a record amount for missile defense: $705 million in 2018,” Avigdor Liberman tweeted. [...]

Early in Richard Nixon’s presidency, he told his chief of staff Bob Haldeman that his secret strategy for ending the Vietnam War was to threaten the use of nuclear weapons.  Nixon opined that President Eisenhower’s nuclear threats in 1953 brought a quick end to the Korean War, and that he planned to use the same principle of threatening maximum force.  Nixon called it the “madman theory,� [...]