Image by Campaign Against Arms Trade via Flickr
by Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Crossposted from Middle East Eye
October 26, 2018
The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi now seems very likely to prompt Congress to impose some sanctions on the Saudi government, and it may finally act to end the active US role in the Saudi-UAE war on Yemen.
Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the videos below
by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
June 13, 2018
Less than a year ago, President Donald Trump was threatening North Korea with “fire and fury.”
Today such threats are completely absent from his remarks and tweets.
Image by tristam sparks via Flickr
Updated: Oct. 7, 2017
TheRealNews on Oct 5, 2017
Before decertifying the Iran nuclear deal, the US should approach the UN Security Council and the P5+1 with evidence that Iran is not in compliance, this is a multilateral deal says Professor Vijay Prashad.
Image by Campaign Against Arms Trade via Flickr
by Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Crossposted from The American Conservative
October 3, 2017
Lawmakers use War Powers Act to finally question legality of U.S. involvement.
The bill introduced by a bipartisan group of House members last week to end the direct U.S. military role in the Saudi coalition war in Yemen guarantees that the House of Representatives will vote for the first time on the single most important element of U.S. involvement in the war—the refueling of Saudi coalition planes systematically bombing Yemeni civilian targets.
Image by cool revolution via Flickr
by Ariel Ky
Writer, Dandelion Salad
August 31, 2017
Let’s put some context into North Korea’s decision to keep on testing missiles in the face of U.S. threats.
First, the DPRK felt provoked by South Korea’s decision to further deploy THAAD, reported on August 20, 2017 in China’s Xinhua news article, “DPRK slams ROK’s decision to deploy additional THAAD launch pads.” From Pyongyang, “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday slammed the Republic of Korea’s decision to deploy four additional launch pads of the Terminal High Altitude Areas Defense (THAAD) system under alleged threat from DPRK missiles.”
Image by Alisdare Hickson via Flickr
by Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
crossposted at Middle East Eye, April 21, 2017
Washington
April 23, 2017
Since 2001, senior Pentagon and CIA officials have sacrificed American interests in weakening al-Qaeda to pursue their own interests
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman outraged many readers when he wrote an opinion piece on 12 April calling on President Trump to “back off fighting territorial ISIS in Syria”. The reason he gave for that recommendation was not that US wars in the Middle East are inevitably self-defeating and endless, but that it would reduce the “pressure on Assad, Iran, Russia and Hezbollah”.
Image by tristam sparks via Flickr
by Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
crossposted at Middle East Eye
Washington
February 14, 2017
For all its grandstanding, Trump’s administration is just following an American tradition of coercing Iran and its ‘malign influence’
The first public pronouncements by President Donald Trump’s administration on Iran have created the widespread impression that the US will adopt a much more aggressive posture towards the Islamic Republic than under Barack Obama’s presidency.
Image by Shreyans Bhansali via Flickr
by Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
crossposted at Middle East Eye
Washington
November 14, 2016
Disastrous consequences could ensue if President-elect Donald Trump picks John Bolton for Secretary of State
Post-election comments on Middle East policy last week by President-elect Donald Trump and one his campaign advisers have provoked speculation about whether Trump will upend two main foreign policy lines of the Obama administration in the Middle East.
Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr
by Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
worldbeyondwar.org
September 26, 2016
Remarks at #NoWar2016
My remarks are related to the problem of media as a factor in the war system but not focused primarily on that. I have experienced first hand as a journalist and as an author how the corporate news media hews to a set of well-delineated lines in the coverage of issues of war and peace that systematically block out all data that conflict with those lines. I’d be glad to talk about my experiences especially in covering Iran and Syria in Q and A.
Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr
by Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
crossposted at Middle East Eye
Washington
August 30, 2016
The main criticism of US policy in Syria has long been that President Barack Obama should have used US military force or more aggressive arms aid to strengthen the armed opposition to Assad. The easy answer is that the whole idea that there was a viable non-extremist force to be strengthened is a myth – albeit one that certain political figures in London and Washington refuse to give up.
Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr
by Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
crossposted at Middle East Eye
Washington
March 28, 2016
By his military withdrawal, Putin was actually enhancing his leverage over both the military situation and the political negotiations still to come
When Russian President Vladimir Putin had a substantive meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry last week, it was an extremely rare departure from normal protocol. There was some political logic to the meeting, however, because Putin and Kerry have clearly been the primary drivers of their respective governments’ policies toward Syria, and their negotiations have already led to a stunningly successful Syrian ceasefire and possible Syrian negotiations on a political settlement.
Image by Susan Melkisethian via Flickr
with Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
January 20, 2016
TheRealNews on Jan 20, 2016
Gareth Porter says Hillary wants to support the Syrian opposition and overthrow Assad, Bernie’s priority is to defeat of ISIS.
Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr
by Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
crossposted at Middle East Eye
Washington
January 4, 2016
Seymour Hersh’s recent revelations about an effort by the US military leadership in 2013 to bolster the Syrian army against jihadist forces in Syria shed important new light on the internal bureaucratic politics surrounding regime change in US Middle East policy. Hersh’s account makes it clear that the Obama administration’s policy of regime change in both Libya and Syria provoked pushback from the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr
by Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
crossposted at Middle East Eye
Washington
Dec. 18, 2015
The anti-Assad coalition led by the United States continues to stagger toward the supposed objective of beginning peace negotiations between the Syrian government and what has now been blessed as the politically acceptable “opposition”. The first such meeting was scheduled for 1 January, but no one on either side believes for a moment that any such negotiations are going to happen any time in the foreseeable future.
Image by Susan Melkisethian via Flickr
by Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
crossposted at Middle East Eye
Washington
Nov. 30, 2015
The data supports Putin’s assertion that the shoot-down was prepared in advance due to Russian bombing of Turkey-linked rebels in Syria
The United States and its NATO allies offered a ritual of NATO unity after Turkish officials presented their case that the shoot-down of a Russian jet occurred after two planes had penetrated Turkish airspace.
Dandelion Salad 