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The unlikely bipartisan coalition
Michael Collins
Republicans and Democrats in the United States House of Representatives united last week to oppose Obama administration policies on meddling in the Syrian conflict and violating the privacy of citizens through pervasive collection of telephone records.
A vote on lethal aid to Syrian rebels and broader United States military intervention resulted in a slow down of lethal aid to Syrian rebels and restrictions on any use of U.S. troops in that nation's civil war. The limiting amendment was attached to a Defense Department appropriations bill and passed by voice votes "with only scant dissent."
The adoption of this amendment represents the first real shift away from the imperial presidency allowed by Congress since the War Powers Resolution of 1973. President Obama lost the free hand he expected to continue the assault on a sovereign state, Syria, that never attacked or posed a threat to the U.S.
Escalated Thatcherism in Britain
by Stephen Lendman
A previous article discussed Thatcherism. It's Chicago School fundamentalism writ large. It's financial terrorism. It's hugely exploitative.
It's forced-fed austerity. It's corporate welfare. It's mass privatizations. It benefits business and society's wealthy. It's government of, by, and for privileged elites alone.
It's fundamentally unfair. It's cutthroat predatory capitalism. It's one-sidedly pro-business. It's ruthlessly anti-democratic, anti-populist, and anti-labor.
It's cruel and unusual punishment. It's humanity's scourge. It's business as usual in America. It's policy in other Western societies. It's merciless.
America: Super-Bully Nation
by Stephen Lendman
Count the ways. Obama's waging financial war on humanity. He's waging multiple direct and indirect hot ones. He bears full responsibility.
He represents the worst of rogue leadership. He heads America's coup d'etat government. It "lacks constitutional and legal legitimacy," said Paul Craig Roberts.
Washington's ruled by "usurpers," he added. "An unconstitutional government is an illegal government." Regimes operating extrajudicially have no legitimacy. America's by far the worst.
State terror is official policy. So is rogue state lawlessness. It operates at home and abroad. Tyranny's the law of the land. Diktat power rules.
FBI, DEA, Homeland Security, other repressive government agencies, and militarized local police collude. They're America's Gestapo. They operate extrajudicially.
Israel: Talking Peace, Waging War
by Stephen Lendman
No peace talks convene next week in Washington. They're fake. They're subterfuge. They're meaningless. They never worked before. They're rigged to fail now.
Israeli and US orchestrators assure it. So do longtime Palestinian collaborators. They're Israeli enforcers. They're assigned that role. They're well compensated for doing so.
Palestine's legitimate government won't participate. Previous articles asked how can legitimate peace talks proceed with one side excluded. Only in America. Only in Israel. Only under a scenario preordained to fail.
At the same time, militarized occupation continues. Palestinians face ongoing state terror. Multiple community incursions occur daily. Gaza remains besieged.
Russia and China Prepare for Global War
by Stephen Lendman
Both countries want peace, not war. America threatens them. Defensive readiness is prioritized. Forewarned is forearmed.
NATO's a global alliance. Washington heads it. It's a geopolitical threat. It menaces humanity. It's expanding worldwide. It's allied for offense, not defense. It plans war, not peace.
It's comprised of 28 member states, 22 partner ones, seven Mediterranean Dialogue allies, four Istanbul (Gulf) Cooperation Council Initiative states, and eight other global Partners.
It works cooperatively with the UN, EU, and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. South American and African expansion is planned.
Obama's Way: Waging Financial War on Humanity
by Stephen Lendman
Class war rages in America. Institutionalized inequality defines it. Obama continues what began decades ago. He exceeds the worst of his predecessors.
He supports capital's divine right. He transferred unprecedented wealth amounts from ordinary Americans to Wall Street, war profiteers, other corporate favorites and privileged elites.
He's ideologically over-the-top. He's no progressive. He's polar opposite. He's not what most people expected. He's not what they deserve.
He's pro-business, pro-privilege, pro-super wealth, anti-populist, and anti-government of, by and for everyone equitably.
Israeli/Palestinian Peace Talks: Let the Charade Begin
by Stephen Lendman
According to Israeli Energy and Water Resources Minister Silvan Shalom, talks will begin next week in Washington. They'll start Tuesday.
Imagine one side going into the enemy camp's heartland. Imagine its legitimate government denied participation.
Imagine being represented by a longtime Israeli collaborator. Imagine a betrayal and failure scenario. It's certain. It's guaranteed. Palestinians deserve better. They have no say. Maybe next time. Not now.
Kerry Uses Arabs to Bully Palestinians*
By Nicola Nasser**
A new tactic by US Secretary of State John Kerry is causing a split within the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) ranks regarding further talks with Israel. Kerry is apparently using the Arab League’s Follow-Up Committee on the Arab Peace Initiative (FCAPI) to bully the Palestinians into accepting new ground rules for the talks to which they had objected in the past.
In his sixth tour of the region as secretary of state, Kerry did something unusual. Instead of visiting Israel, as he always does, he left it out of his itinerary, deciding instead to hold most of the talks in the Jordanian capital Amman. While there, he conferred with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as well as members of the FCAPI. As the talks progressed, it became clear that Kerry was no longer focussing on Israel, the country that has torpedoed all previous attempts at peace, but on the PLO. His aim is to get the latter to offer more concessions than any they have accepted in the past.
Egypt Under Empire, Part 2: The "Threat" of Arab Nationalism
Andrew Gavin Marshall
Part 1: Working Class Resistance and European Imperial Ambitions
In 1945, the British agreed to renegotiate the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, with the British seeking to protect their large military presence with their base at the Suez Canal. The negotiations had become frustrated with the Egyptians demanding the unconditional removal of all British troops, a prospect that was reviled by both the British and Americans, who were first and foremost interested in maintaining their imperial hegemony over the region.[1] One of the major threats to Western imperial domination of the Middle East and North Africa (and thus, of Asia and Africa more generally) was the "rising tide" of Arab Nationalism.
Arab Nationalism was considered a threat for a number of reasons: it presented the possibility of small countries being able to unite as a common force, chart their own paths and determine their own sovereignty, remain 'neutral' in the Cold War, and threaten the West's control of the region's oil resources and transport routes long considered vital to energy, trade, and military expansionism. In short, Arab Nationalism was a threat precisely because it presented an 'alternative' for the poor nations and peoples of the world to follow, an independent form of nationalism not tied to or dependent upon the imperial powers, instead seeking to unite the 'Third World' - with its vast natural resource wealth and strategic locations - and thus, could potentially bring the downfall of Western imperial domination of the world.
Do “Peace Accords” Lead to Peace, Justice and Security for the People? (Lessons from El Salvador for the Columbian FARC) In Memory of Manuel Marulanda, Farabundo Marti and Augusto Sandino
James Petras
Introduction
It is commonly assumed that “peace agreements” between pro-US rightwing regimes and leftwing insurgents lead to peace, justice and greater security. A number of peace agreements which were signed and implemented in the 1990’s in Central America, South Africa, Philippines and elsewhere provide us with ample data over two decades to confirm or reject this commonplace assumption.
We will examine the case of El Salvador where a powerful guerilla movement (FMLN) signed off on a peace accord in 1992.
Method of Evaluating the Peace Accord
In approaching the analysis of the Peace Accord it is important to begin by focusing on the evolution of the FMLN – the ideological, organizational and political changes that led to the negotiations, the eventual pact with the rightwing regime and the socio-economic and political results. The second part of the essay compares and contrasts the socio-economic and political results and policies which followed from the pact and how they affected the mass of the people. This allows us to see who benefited and who lost; what socio-economic class and political structures emerged; what foreign policies were followed.
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