There are occasions when statements of the blindingly obvious are rather revealing, although not in the way that those making the statements intend.
Analysis
Syria’s ‘WMD moment’: Don’t be duped again (Peter Hitchens)
Under immense pressure from the despots of Saudi Arabia, the USA will not give up its efforts to overthrow the Syrian government. It is clear that it is now prepared to risk an open confrontation with Moscow to achieve this. Why? Who do they think they are, and how can their cause be so good that they take such risks?
William Potter and Sarah Bidgood: US-Russia Cooperation on Nonproliferation
The chill in the air was palpable at the 2018 meeting on the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in Geneva.
New Cold War Spins Out of Control (Alistair Crooke)
In the aftermath of the U.S. attack on the Syrian army positions overlooking and commanding the Dier A-Zor airfield – the airfield, whose daily “Berlin air-bridge” style flights, are the sole lifeline to a city long besieged by ISIS – the Russian U.N. Ambassador asked a pertinent rhetorical question at the United Nations Security Council: Who is running U.S. policy: Is it the Pentagon or the White House?
George Beebe: Is Russia Really Trying to Sway the Midterm Elections?
The Washington consensus holds that Moscow has no genuine interest in rapprochement. Rather, it bears an ideological hatred of democracy and hopes to undermine our system of government by exploiting social divisions. This explanation is not implausible, but it ignores the reality that Russia has friendly relations with many of the world’s prominent democracies, including Israel, India and Japan.
Gordon Bardos: Montenegro and NATO’s Faustian Bargain
Did Montenegro’s NATO accession increase the collective defense of the West or merely protect a corrupt regime?
Trading Insults (Paul Robinson)
The moral posturing concerning the war in Syria is entirely unwarranted. Neither side is in the clear, although for different reasons…
It’s Time to Ban and Eliminate Nuclear Weapons (Mayor Kazumi Matsui)
The mayor of Hiroshima calls for a global security paradigm based on dialogue, mutual understanding, and cooperation, instead of doomsday threats.
The explanations behind Russian and US airstrikes in Syria are a lesson in propaganda (Patrick Cockburn)
Airstrikes that hit the wrong target have always been justified or denied by the perpetrators with a rich blend of hypocrisy and lies. It was interesting to see this tradition of deliberate mendacity being not only maintained, but outdone in Syria over the last week.
Eugene Rumer: Here we go again with Russia sanctions that will do nothing.
American foreign policy toward Russia is stuck in a seemingly endless pattern of doing the same thing over and over again with an unsatisfactory result, but expecting a different outcome each time.
The Manafort Trial: RussiaGate Without Russia?
From VICE news: Gates detailed how Manafort planned to help Ukraine enter the EU, through his project, “Engage Ukraine.” “Engage Ukraine became the strategy for helping Ukraine enter the European Union,” he told prosecutors Tuesday…
Dealing With Russia: Advice To The Next President (Ambassador Jack Matlock)
What does the next president need to do about US-Russian Relations? Former US Ambassador to the USSR Jack Matlock says the first thing is to understand why, in many respects, our current policy is not serving the national interest. It is not as defective and dangerous as it was when President Obama took office, but it is still, in many respects, on the wrong track. [Read more…] about Dealing With Russia: Advice To The Next President (Ambassador Jack Matlock)
The west looks on as corruption and bigotry rule in the ‘new Ukraine’ (The Guardian)
Two years ago, the west looked at Ukraine with enthusiasm. These days, the sentiments are closer to despair and fatigue. My country has not had the European breakthrough that was promised. Those who came to power in Kiev to the applause of western elites now hope that their international partners will turn a blind eye to the way they run the country.
Sleepwalking into a big war (Michael T. Klare)
When speaking of Russia’s moves in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, western analysts highlight what they view as the illegal nature of the Russian intervention. But their real concern is over evidence that Russian investment in enhanced military capabilities over the past decade is beginning to bear fruit.
David Cortright: New sanctions on Russia and Iran are unlikely to work. Here’s why
Sanctions are much in demand these days as a tool of American foreign policy.
Don’t Try to Imitate the Russians in Syria (Paul Pillar)
The Washington Post’s deputy editorial page editor Jackson Diehl says President Obama ought to emulate Vladimir Putin in Syria. Yet nothing in Diehl’s column considers exactly where U.S. interests do and do not lie in Syria. They do not lie with any particular political coloration of a future regime in Damascus. They do not rest on overthrowing the Assads; somehow U.S. interests have survived even though the Assads, father and son, have been in power for 46 years.
Is Putin Really a Fascist? (Paul Robinson)
In 1990 the New York Times admitted that Walter Duranty’s reporting was some of the worst it had ever printed. Given what the newspaper is publishing nowadays, Duranty is facing some stiff competition.
Hannah Rosenthal: The New York Times Whitewashes Ukrainian Neo-Nazis
The most unfortunate thing about the New York Times Ukraine article is how it exposes the lax standards with which Western media has treated the disturbing reality in the country.
Who Is Making American Foreign Policy—the President or the War Party? (Stephen F. Cohen)
Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments are at TheNation.com.) The main focus of Tuesday night’s conversation is Syria, the crisis in Ukraine, and Russia’s parliamentary elections.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Dawn of a new Armageddon
The world has entered an unimaginably deadly new arms race, with no rules of the road and no scheduled arms control talks for these new weapons systems. In three years, New START, the US-Russia agreement that limits nuclear arsenals, is set to lapse, removing the last agreed restraint on arsenal sizes.