The U.S. government, having illegally sent American troops into Syria, is now threatening to attack the Syrian military if it endangers those troops, an Orwellian twist that marks a dangerous escalation, explains Daniel Lazare. War, like politics, is filled with surprises. While the focus in Syria has been on a U.S.-backed rebel offensive in Aleppo [...]

Washington’s neocon hypocrisy surfaced again with the furor over Russia using an Iranian base to launch airstrikes against terror groups in Syria, while the U.S. uses other Mideast bases for the same purpose, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar notes. We should reflect on the meaning of Russia’s use of a base in Iran for staging airstrikes in Syria, and about what lessons we could learn from t [...]

Russia’s air raids in Syria, launched from Iranian territory this week, were received by Washington with a mixture of consternation and disappointment. Understandably, too. It marks a breakthrough in Russia’s standing in the Middle East. Russia is working closely in a quartet that includes Iran, Iraq and Syria. [...]

Counter measures will be taken by US troops in case they “feel threatened” by Syrian or Russian air forces, according to a senior US military official. The warning comes in the wake of a recent incident with Syrian warplanes attacking areas close to US Special Forces. [...]

As the United States and Europe embark on an increasingly hawkish policy towards China, Beijing has moved to welcome the formation of an alliance with Russia to counter NATO. Speaking at the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party last month, Xi Jinping delivered what Western analysts are calling an "incendiary speech" in which he called for a military union with Russia [...]

The U.S. foreign policy establishment cloaks its desire for global dominance in the language of humanitarianism and “democracy promotion” even when the policies lead to death and chaos, as James W Carden describes. Despite America’s myriad problems domestically and internationally, its [...]

The Chinese military appears to be dramatically increasing its presence around a key island in the South China Sea, sending a strong message to Washington. As Beijing continues its land reclamation projects in the South China Sea, Washington has remained adamant about one [...]

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are founding members of ISIS by bankrolling, arming and supporting jihadists in Syria and Libya to both destabilize the Middle East and expand the domestic police state. Clinton even even admitted in 2009 that the U.S. government – staffed with many of her [...]

Amid the media-hyped furor over Donald Trump's 2nd Amendment comments and Wikileaks' suggestions about the untimely death of DNC-staffer Seth Rich, we thought it perhaps of note that Democratic strategist, and CNN host, has publicly called for the "illegal assassination of that son-of-a-bitch" Julian Assange... [...]

In the face of a "war of a thousand cuts" unleashed by Islamists does the West truly have any viable alternative to cooperation with Putin's Russia? Vladimir Putin is certainly one of a kind, writes G. Murphy Donovan, a former American intelligence officer, in his opinion piece for US conservative daily The American Thinker. [Elite_video_player id="6"] [...]

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell, who has recently endorsed Hillary Clinton, has caused a firestorm when he said that the United States should covertly kill Russians and Iranians in Syria, with Russian lawmakers denouncing the remarks as "monstrous" and experts saying that he merely [...]

Newly declassified papers on the U.S. government's role in Argentina's 1976-83 "Dirty War" have been released, detailing—among other things—how former secretary of state Henry Kissinger stymied attempts to end mass killings of dissidents. [...]

With President Obama’s May 27 visit to Hiroshima, reporters, columnists and editors generally adhered to the official story that “the atomic bomb…ultimately spared more Japanese civilians from a final invasion,” as Kaimay Yuen Terry wrote for the Minneapolis StarTribune, or that, “Without it, more Japanese would have died in a US assault on the islands, as would have tens of thousands of [...]

US President Barack Obama should use his remaining time in office wisely and “restore people's rights” by returning $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote in a letter to the White House.   [...]

Official Washington’s influential neocons continue to dream up new excuses for expanding U.S. military intervention in Syria, including why to bomb Syrian government forces and confront Russia, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. The complicated, multidimensional nature of the Syrian civil war continues to discourage clear thinking in debate about U.S. policy toward Syria. [...]

For almost a century British and American geostrategists tried to prevent Russo-German and Russo-Chinese rapprochement as it threatened to undermine the UK/US dominance. Likewise the China-led 'One Belt, One Road' project is regarded by US geopolitical analysts as a menace. [...]

On his visit to Hiroshima last May, Obama did not, as some had vainly hoped he might, apologize for the August 6, 1945 atomic bombing of the city. Instead he gave a high-sounding speech against war. He did this as he was waging ongoing drone war against defenseless enemies in faraway countries and approving plans to spend a trillion dollars upgrading the US nuclear arsenal. [...]

The joint Syrian-Russian humanitarian operation to save civilians trapped in militant-held territories in Aleppo has struck a severe blow to US policy in the country, says former diplomat and Middle East expert Vyacheslav Matuzov.   [...]

Commenting on the recent developments in the Syrian conflict and the agreement between Russia and the US on the coordination of bombing missions in the country, many media sources now agree that Moscow has the upper hand in the conflict and its agreement with the US will grant it and its ally Iran the final victory. [...]

Italy may very well be joining the US anti-Daesh operation in Libya, having offered Washington the use of Sigonella air base in Sicily for USAF raids into the North African country. Sputnik spoke to Italian military journalist Mirko Molteni about why Italy has once again allowed itself to become involved in a NATO air war over Libya. [...]

The White House has released a redacted copy of the so-called drone strike “playbook”, which outlines US policies on unmanned aerial vehicles, just three years after President Obama promised to make the covert program more transparent. [...]

The 9/11 attacks opened a bloody chapter of American history, “justifying” U.S. attacks on multiple countries but not on the one most connected to the terrorism, U.S. “ally,” Saudi Arabia. Why is that, asks Lawrence Davidson. On Nov. 27, 2002, a bipartisan commission was established by Congress to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. [...]