Posted by seumasach on March 25, 2014
Jim Lobe
25th March, 2014
WASHINGTON – The observation that the Chinese characters for the word “crisis” combine the characters for “danger” and “opportunity” has become a staple of Washington foreign policy discourse for years. So it’s no surprise that the ongoing crisis in Ukraine – and Russia’s de facto absorption of Crimea – provides lots of “opportunities” for various interests to push their favorite causes.
Posted in Ukraine War, Uncategorized | Tagged: Death of neo-conservatism, neocons v.Obama, Obama's realist turn, retreat from empire | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on March 25, 2014
“In terms of the terrorist activity inside Iraq, we believe it’s a direct result mostly of the situation in Syria and the destabilizing impact that Syria has had on Iraq in terms of foreign fighters being able to flow into Iraq and really wreak havoc there as well. We’re working with the Iraqi Government to increase their capacity to fight these threats on their own,” she concluded.
Washington: Situation in Syria has destabilizing impact on Iraq
25th March, 2014
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The US Department of State denounced killing the professor and Journalist, Mohammed Shammari, in Baghdad by a guard within the Presidential Protection Forces.
Posted in Syria | Tagged: Obama's realist turn, retreat from empire | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on March 22, 2014
Cailean Bochanan
22nd March, 2014
We are nearly a week into the “New Cold War” and we haven’t got as far as kicking the Russians out of the G8. At the same time a remarkably laid back Barak Obama has, uncharacteristically for a US president, taken the military option off the table- did Kennedy do that during the Cuban missile crisis at the height of the Cold War? The West will therefore limit itself to a non-military response. But Western hegemony, the empire, rests entirely on military force as we have seen repeatedly in the last thirty years. To rely on moral authority or diplomatic finesse is to go naked. Legal authority looks equally questionable. The EU has declared the Crimean referendum invalid on the grounds that it runs contrary to the Ukrainian constitution- the same constitution that it trashed by supporting the 22nd February coup in Kiev.
Posted in Ukraine War, Uncategorized | Tagged: End of empire, Obama's realist turn | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on March 13, 2014
M.K.Bhadrakumar
13th March, 2014
When a Russia scholar of great repute, Stephen Cohen of New York University, says that the United States is two steps from the Cuban Missile Crisis and three steps from a war with Russia for the first time, things appear grim. Cohen insists, “We need to get a negotiation going on…” (Excerpts)
Posted in Ukraine War, Uncategorized | Tagged: Obama's realist turn, Russian diplomacy, US-Russia strategic partnership, Us-Russian convergence | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on March 10, 2014
Arab states withdraw ambassadors from Qatar in protest at ‘interference’
5th March, 2014
In a rare public spat that has highlighted deep political divisions in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have all withdrawn their ambassadors from Qatar in protest at Doha’s “interference in their internal affairs”.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Arab revolution, GCC, Muslim Brotherhood, Obama's realist turn, qatar | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on March 1, 2014
Fort much of the left and libertarian movement Obama is a fascist tyrant. For the neo-cons, however, he is nothing but a wimp. Krauthammer certainly has a point in regarding Obama’s intervention as very low-key.
Krauthammer on Ukraine: ‘Everybody is shocked by the weakness of Obama’s statement’
28th February, 2014
Charles Krauthammer told viewers Friday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that President Obama’s statement on the latest Ukraine developments showed “weakness,” and implied that “we’re not really going to do anything” about the political upheaval in Ukraine.
Posted in Ukraine War, Uncategorized | Tagged: End of empire, Obama's realist turn | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on February 27, 2014
Obama and Karzai agree to part ways
M.K.Bhadrakumar
The US president Barack Obama’s telephone call to Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Tuesday is a rare happening, given the poor equations between the two leaders, and it was intended to flag a ‘turning point’ in the White House’s strategy for the period beyond 2014. It comes just before an important NATO meeting at defence minister level in Brussels and at a time when for the first time the majority opinion among the American public has begun casting doubts on the raison d’etre of the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: Bilateral Security Agreement [BSA], End of empire, Obama's realist turn | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on February 25, 2014
20th February, 2014
WASHINGTON, Feb 20 (KUNA) — President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues, including the growing terrorism in Syria.
The two leaders discussed “the importance of close cooperation between our the two countries to address the growing terrorist presence in Syria and on the shared interest in continuing efforts to advance a political solution to the Syria conflict,” said the White House in a statement late on Wednesday.
Posted in Syria | Tagged: Obama's realist turn | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on February 20, 2014
19th February, 2014
The live wire of the Saudi royal house’s drive against President Barack Obama’s détente with Tehran has been dropped. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s National Security Adviser and Intelligence Director, has not been seen for more than a month. He was reported by DEBKAfile’s US and Saudi sources Wednesday, Feb. 19, to have been removed from the tight policy-making circle in Riyadh.
Posted in Syria | Tagged: bandar bush, House of Saud, Obama's realist turn, saudi arabia | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on February 20, 2014
“Prince Miteb and Mohammed bin Nayef, they are in charge,” the adviser said. The world will see a “new strategy for Syria—quieter, more open, not too extreme. There will be more politics to it, and probably much less military.”
Saudi Arabia Replaces Key Official in Effort to Arm Syria Rebels
19th February, 2014
Saudi Arabia has sidelined its veteran intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, as leader of the kingdom’s efforts to arm and fund Syrian rebels, replacing him with another prince well-regarded by U.S. officials for his successes fighting al-Qaeda, Saudi royal advisers said this week.
Posted in Syria | Tagged: bandar bush, Obama's realist turn, saudi arabia | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on February 18, 2014
This neo-con view of Obama’s Middle East policy is in marked contrast to that of the left. The left see nothing but growing US belligerence, a new cold war, retreat by Iran, renewed possibility of an attack on Syria and an intractable Israel. Bolton’s view is actually more realistic pointing to the ebbing of US global power and the consequent concessions to one-time enemies. Bolton, of course, hopes that US diplomacy will fail, as do so many vested, lobby interests in the vague hope of returning to the Anglo-American global hegemony agenda. He darkly evokes “another 9/11, another disaster” which “will produce the necessary awakening.”
18th February, 2014
President Obama has three significant Middle East diplomatic initiatives underway, treating, respectively, Iran’s nuclear weapons program; Syria’s deadly, exhausting conflict; and the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Into these negotiations, Obama and his administration have poured enormous amounts of American prestige, time and effort.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: neocons v.Obama, obama revolution, Obama's realist turn | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 