Imperial Hubris

Tillerson Pledges Open-Ended Military Presence In Syria To Counter Iran

"Tillerson once again reiterated the US desire to eventually see President Bashar al Assad removed from power while also pledging US commitment to staying in Syria in order to counter Iran's influence in the region. Ultimately, according to Tillerson, 'the United States will remain in Syria' until certain conditions are met which include the complete destruction of ISIS, Assad's removal from power, and the return of refugees to a stabilized country."

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US Ally Turkey Attacks US-Backed Forces In Syria

"Contradiction has become the norm for US foreign policy over the past many years - an observation that is clear to anyone even remotely paying attention. On Tuesday the US State Department spokesperson was asked during the daily press briefing about the obvious contradiction inherent in US ally and NATO member Turkey shelling US-backed Kurdish forces in Afrin - the Kurdish held zone in northwest Syria near the Turkish border."

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President Trump’s ‘Friends’ in Saudi Arabia

"Trump and his unabashedly Iranophobic generals have allowed the United States to become a patsy for Saudi Arabia, actively abetting or tacitly endorsing MBS’s ambitions. Yet whatever the administration’s purported intent, throwing in with the Crown Prince will only exacerbate the disorder that previous U.S. administrations have done so much to create."

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Pentagon’s African Command: “We Don’t Consider You a Legitimate Journalist”

"The command has deflected questions about the killing in Mali, offered murky and shifting explanations of the attack in Niger, and cleared U.S. personnel of wrongdoing in Somalia before launching a new investigation into the killings. All of this comes as the Defense Department as a whole has become less transparent and accessible, according to numerous journalists who cover U.S. national security. At the same time, according to the Pentagon’s Inspector General, there has been a rise in complaints of misconduct by senior officials, as well as reprisals against whistleblowers."

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Turkey vows to ‘drown’ US-backed insurgent force

"'The United States has admitted that it has created a terrorist force along our country’s border. Our duty is to drown this army of terror before it is born,' Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara. The U.S.-led coalition declined to comment on Erdogan’s threats."

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Alfred McCoy: Tweeting While Rome Burns

"In just one extraordinary year, Trump has destabilized the delicate duality that has long been the foundation for U.S. foreign policy: favoring war over diplomacy, the Pentagon over the State Department, and narrow national interest over international leadership. But in a globalizing world interconnected by trade, the Internet, and the rapid proliferation of nuclear-armed missiles, walls won’t work. There can be no Fortress America."

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Did secret deal let hundreds of ISIS fighters flee Raqqa?

"The BBC reports 250 ISIS fighters were permitted to leave Raqqa with 3,500 family members to ISIS-controlled territory. The U.S. and British-led coalition reportedly knew about the deal brokered by Syrian Democratic Forces and monitored the exodus. Quentin Sommerville of our partners at BBC report."

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Pat Buchanan: What Is America’s Mission Now?

"The [Iran] episode exposes a malady of American foreign policy. It lacks consistency, coherence and moral clarity, treats friends and adversaries by separate standards, and is reflexively interventionist. Thus has America lost much of the near-universal admiration and respect she enjoyed at the close of the Cold War. This hubristic generation has kicked it all away."

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