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The Bomb in Monaco and a Torture Room Near Kyiv

They took her trainers. That is the detail that survives, once the rest is stripped away – the belongings removed from the corpse, the shoes pulled from her feet, the shallow hole in woods sixty kilometers west of Kyiv. Anastasiia Berezovska had been shot in the back of the head, then shot again as she […]
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The New Apologists for American Empire

The Trump administration marked the two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of U.S. independence with a series of statements in support of American empire. Despite the fact that Trump campaigned against endless war and the White House issued a National Security Strategy that rejected “global domination,” the Trump administration celebrated the nation’s two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary by glorifying empire as one […]
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The Long Road to War

The war between the United States and Iran is rooted in events stretching back more than seventy years. As the major media continues to ignore the history, it is important to understand this essential backstory. If you’re wondering why the United States and Iran have been bitter antagonists for more than a half century, and […]
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The Silver Lining: The Donald’s Impending Defeat in Iran May Finally Bring the Empire Home

It is damn obvious that Washington has lost Donald Trump’s idiotic war on Iran. After all, it is now five months since the opening salvos of Operation Epic Fury on February 28, which was advertised to last only 3-4 weeks. Instead, the conflict has settled into a grinding, inconclusive stalemate at best, and, more importantly, […]
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Trump’s Iran War Raises a Midterm Question: Who Decides When America Goes to War?

On July 23, President Donald Trump threatened to carry out his “biggest attack yet” on Iran after nearly two weeks of renewed U.S. airstrikes. That same day, the House voted 214–208 to direct the president to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran, while a parallel Senate effort failed 47–49. The contrast sharpened a question […]
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JD Vance’s Iran War Dilemma

Vice President JD Vance has struggled to justify his shifting rhetoric on Iran. Once thought of as the standard-bearer of a right-wing, non-interventionist school of foreign policy thought, Vance has been forced to repeatedly contradict himself in an effort to sell this war to the American public. Once the bombs started dropping, JD Vance folded […]
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The Meaning of Tell: Why the West Bank May Be Nearing a Breaking Point

The events in Tell, southwest of Nablus, were not an isolated act of violence. They were a warning. For years, Israel has treated Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank as open spaces for military raids, settler invasions, land theft and collective punishment. The expectation was that Palestinians would endure the violence, bury their dead […]
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America vs. the MAGA-Industrial Complex

Reprinted with permission from The Jason Jones Show substack. Have you seen the ruling classes’ latest ploy for holding onto power rather than allow the public to hold them accountable through straightforward and honest elections? It’s clear as day to anyone with eyes to see. And the fact that the powerful now operate as much […]
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The Rulers of the Nuclear Powers Are Slow Learners

Although 81 years have passed since the atomic bombing of Japan in August 1945, the rulers of major nations continue their reckless march toward a nuclear holocaust. The nine nuclear powers (the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea), possessing some 12,100 nuclear warheads, are all busily upgrading and expanding […]
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Baltic Republics Foment Crises With Russia

Historically, one of the greatest dangers to a major power in the international system is letting smaller allies and clients drag that power into an unwise war. Both the United States and leading European powers seem inclined to make that blunder with respect to the Baltic republics. Too many U.S. policymakers have not only tolerated […]
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The Normalcy of American Wars

The war in Iran is unlawful and unconstitutional, but in post-World War II America, it is normal. Here is the backstory. When President Donald Trump decided to begin bombing Iran last June, he did not state a coherent or lawful reason for doing so. His director of national intelligence and his own CIA had publicly […]
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Before Hormuz, There Was Suez: What Trump Can Learn From Eisenhower

Reprinted with permission from Trita Parsi’s Substack. Oman and Iran appear close to a temporary arrangement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, potentially providing both an exit from the current round of fighting and the foundation for a more durable maritime order. Washington should welcome such an agreement – even if it acknowledges a degree […]
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The New Big Three

Reprinted from The Realist Review. “The enemy at last was plain in view, huge and hateful, all disguise cast off. It was the Modern Age in arms…” Such was the view of the English novelist Evelyn Waugh’s finest fictional creation, Guy Crouchback, in the days following the announcement of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The parallels […]
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America’s Middle East Bases: An Imperial Burden

By all conventional measures, America is losing the war with Iran. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has survived the U.S.-Israeli regime change effort, and it seems as though the hardline factions in Iran have been empowered. They also maintain their stockpiles of drones and missiles, while the U.S. is running dangerously low on crucial […]
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Call Off the Iran War. Just Walk Away!

After several days of increasing threats against Iran, including social media posts like “FINISH THE JOB!” and “Take the oil. No mercy!,” President Trump has over the weekend called off a planned major escalation in the Middle East. For now. “The U.S.A. is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of […]
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War With Iran: A Double-Edged Sword for the US Economy and Agriculture

The sharp swings in oil prices following the latest round of attacks and negotiations over safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz demonstrate that wars do not always reveal themselves first on the battlefield. Sometimes, their earliest signs appear on gas-station price boards, in transportation bills, and on the balance sheets of farmers standing thousands […]
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The Ceuta Operation: Washington Wrote the Script in March, Morocco Ran It in July

Seventy-two bodies came out of the water at Tarajal, and the sea kept giving some of them back through the weekend. They drowned in sight of Europe, in the fourteen-kilometer channel where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic, reaching for a seven-square-mile scrap of Spain on the African shore. Most were young men. Some were children. […]
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