via Think Progress
The new U.S. sanctions against Iran that kick in today — along with an E.U. oil embargo set to take effect Sunday — are expected to put significant pressure on an already faltering Iranian economy. The new U.S. sanctions, signed into law by President Obama, will penalize any foreign [...]
American Decline in Perspective, Part 1
By Noam Chomsky
Published by Tom Dispatch
Significant anniversaries are solemnly commemorated — Japan’s attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, for example. Others are ignored, and we can often learn valuable lessons from them about what is likely to lie ahead. Right [...]
This week saw the furthering of draconian legislation against Iran that may end up benefiting U.S. adversaries more than hurting Iran’s government. On Wednesday the House of Representatives passed the Iran Threat Reductions Act (H.R. 1905) and President Obama is expected to sign into law sanctions against Iran’s Central Bank (Bank Markazi) as [...]
By Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
Iran’s Zahedan airport is located on a road named for Allama Iqbal (also known as Sir Muhammad Iqbal), the great Indian philosopher whom Pakistan adopted after partition as its national poet. The shaheen, or eagle, features prominently in Iqbal’s poetry, as a symbol of vigour, dignity and daring. It is contrasted against the [...]
Can Washington Move from Pacific Power to Pacific Partner?
Reposted by arrangement with Tom Dispatch
By John Feffer
The United States has long styled itself a Pacific power. It established the model of counterinsurgency in the Philippines in 1899 and defeated the Japanese in World War II. It [...]
In “The martyr state myth” Matthew Duss of the Center for American Progress deconstructs alarmist and unsubstantiated arguments about the Iranian government’s alleged suicidal tendencies:
In the Republican presidential primary debate in Ames, Iowa two weeks ago, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) caused a bit of an uproar with his suggestion that an Iranian [...]
Victoria’s secret is that, like the previous interceptions like those of and the Karine A, its interception comes at a time when Israel is being urged to move forward in the peace process and doesn’t want to. But it is also radically reinterpreting international law, particularly the Laws of Armed Conflict and the Law of the Sea.
BBC poll data indicates that 25% percent of Egyptian respondents view Iran favorably, nearly the same number as view U.S. influence as positive (26%). Nearly equal numbers of Turkish respondents approve of the influence of the U.S. (35%) and Iran (36%). Half of those polled, in countries long regarded as the staunchest Middle East allies of both the U.S. and of Israel–50% in Egypt, 49% in Turkey– expressed negativity about U.S. influence, with only 32% of Egyptians and 45% of Turks worried about Iran.
I cannot for the life of me figure out why entirely admirable human rights groups — which pride themselves on their independence from governments and political parties — choose to associate themselves with organizations whose advocacy for human rights is highly, highly selective, to say the least, and whose foreign-policy views are frankly imperialist.
Yet [...]
Tony Karon‘s story at Time how the Republican surge in the Congress will affect U.S. President Barack Obama’s Iran policy is well worth the read. He writes that while Obama is universally viewed as unlikely to attack Iran, the Republican House will make meaningful engagement difficult. (See Eli’s take on this [...]
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