15 June 2019 — Moon of Alabama
Slate’s Fred Kaplan writes:
The Washington Post’s Greg Miller reported Sunday that President Donald Trump’s confiscation of the translator’s notes from a one-on-one conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2017 was “unusual.” This is incorrect. It was unprecedented.
There is nothing like it in the annals of presidential history.
Not really. Other U.S. leaders held long private meetings with their counterparts without notes being taken.
12 January 2019 — Strategic Culture Foundation
As was to be expected, the announcement that the US was withdrawing troops from Syria has served to provoke numerous reactions in the Middle East and beyond. Following the removal of Mattis, Pompey and Bolton embarked on a whirlwind Middle Eastern tour of Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Kuwait to reassure regional allies.
11 January 2019 — WSWS
US President Donald Trump visited the southern border of the United States on Thursday, where he continued to peddle his lying claims that the country is in the jaws of a crisis caused by criminals and drugs flowing in from Mexico.
8 January 2019 — James Petras
Introduction: The US embraces a regime doomed to failure and threatens the world’s most dynamic economy. President Trump has lauded Brazil’s newly elected President Jair Bolsonaro and promises to promote close economic, political, social and cultural ties. In contrast the Trump regime is committed to dismantling China’s growth model, imposing harsh and pervasive sanctions, and promoting the division and fragmentation of greater China.
Washington’s choice of allies and enemies is based on a narrow conception of short-term advantage and strategic losses.
8 January 2019 — WSWS
US National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have embarked on what could be described as a “walk back” tour of the Middle East. Its purpose is to assure US regional allies that Washington is not about to implement the decision announced by President Donald Trump last month to carry out a speedy and total withdrawal of US troops from Syria.
4 January 2019 — WSWS
The term “decoupling,” referring to the severing of trade ties between the United States and China, has, to quote one commentator, become the “talk of Washington.” The two countries are embroiled in what has been widely described as a “new cold war,” in which, in the words of former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, an “iron curtain” has descended over the Pacific.
4 January 2019 — Strategic Culture Foundation
The Anglo-American ‘Special Relationship’ has been known to exist as a close alliance between the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since the days of FDR and Churchill forged during the Second World War. It is called special because of the unique historical and cultural bonds of kinship that unite the American and British peoples through a perceived shared heritage, common political/social/economic values and language. Together over the course of 72 years it has been the White House with the support of 10 Downing Street as its principal strategic leading ally in Europe.
4 January 2019 — Strategic Culture Foundation
“I don’t care about Europe,” declared US President Donald Trump this week during his White House cabinet’s first meeting of the new year.
The American president probably revealed more about the true nature of US-European relations than he intended.
28 December 2018 — WSWS
Donald Trump’s brief, unannounced visit to Iraq on the day after Christmas was staged with a patent political motive. His appearance with assembled troops—for a grand total of 45 minutes—was aimed at shoring up support within the Pentagon as well as among rank-and-file soldiers in the wake of the resignation in protest of his defense secretary, Gen. James Mattis, following Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria.
28 December 2018 — Strategic Culture Foundation
President Trump’s sudden call for US troops to withdraw from Syria and Afghanistan has left many observers scratching their heads.
Yes, in general, it is to be welcomed that American forces are leaving Syria. They have been there illegally, in contravention of Syria’s sovereignty, for the past four years. US troops getting out of the Arab country potentially allows for a political settlement to take hold after nearly eight years of war.
27 December 2018 — The Indian Punchline – Oriental Review
Within the week, President Trump’s sudden announcement of “total” troop withdrawal from Syria has ripped apart the American political system and exposed its fault lines. Trump’s decision is intrinsically a sound one. He didn’t start the Syrian conflict and he has been on record repeatedly that the US had no business to intervene in it militarily. But his writ as president and commander-in-chief didn’t run large. Astoundingly enough, we know now that the Pentagon defied the president who is also the commander-in-chief.
25 December 2018 — Oriental Review – The Indian Punchline
The US President Donald Trump’s announcement on Wednesday regarding the withdrawal of American military from Syria has predictably run into strong headwinds in the Washington Beltway. A formidable coalition appeared overnight – comprising the Deep State, US defence and security establishment, leading members of the Congress, major media organs –branding Trump as a maverick. However, the fact of the matter is that Trump made a considered decision.
