Much was supposedly riding on Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) decision about whether to support Obama's nomination for Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel. Schumer is a big supporter of Israel and a shameless foreign policy hawk, and Hagel's past positions - like, being willing...
Ben Schreiner points out at CounterPunch that the US involvement in the French-led war in Mali is more about the geo-politics of imperial grand strategy and competing with China in Africa than it is about eliminating serious terrorist threats: According to the U.S....
Israeli Defense Forces on Tuesday shot from behind and killed 16-year-old Samir Awad, a Palestinian boy in the West Bank, as he was retreating*. The IDF claims Awad tried to breach the separation barrier Israel has built to help fortify their system of apartheid and...
Kevin Gosztola over at FireDogLake has a helpful round-up of news stories describing US involvement in the French-led military intervention in Mali: CBS News reported the ”United States is providing communications and transport help for an international military...
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: "No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which they can not be regarded as jointly and severally responsible." The Guardian reports that...
In Friday's Washington Post, David Ignatius described "an intelligence report provided to the State Department last week by Syrian sources working with the Free Syrian Army (FSA)," which describes Syria's rebel opposition as "disorganized fighters, greedy arms...
A group of about 200 Palestinians have set up a small tent village - basically camping out - in the territory in East Jerusalem described by Israel as E1. They say they plan to start building a new Palestinian village there under the name Bab As-Shams. These...
The Associated Press is reporting that "Chuck Hagel, is meeting with senior Pentagon staff to try to set the record straight about his stand on Iran, saying he backs strong international sanctions against Tehran and believes all options, including military action,...
Via Andrew Sullivan.
As I've noted, Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel and John Brennan to Secretary of Defense and CIA Director, respectively, is perfectly in keeping with the Obama foreign policy of the first term. That is, a deep reluctance to get involved in conventional ground wars...
