Iran is a threat because Washington says so. Certainly, WaPo accepts the charge at face value: Iran’s ambitions, which have cast a long shadow over the greater Middle East, may serve as a common bond keeping a frail peace process intact despite threats that have arisen even before the negotiations open Thursday at the State [...]

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In a previous post about the futility of preventing Iran (or anyone else) from developing nuclear weapons, I wrongly mentioned that Iran has maintained the right to do so. That was faulty memory. I should have looked up the source and gotten it right. My bad. Iran maintains the right to develop nuclear fuel, but [...]

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Yup. Yet this is hypocrisy to which we’ve grown so accustomed that nobody seems to notice it any more. The nuclear club is meant to be exclusive. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty recognises the five permanent members of the UN security council as “nuclear weapons states”, committing them to act as bouncers at the club door. [...]

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The story of U.S. counterinsurgency “success” and military withdrawal is a bed-time tale told to put the American public to sleep. So argues Hannah Gurman in a Salon piece that punctures several propaganda balloons floated by the ObamAdmin, GOP and Dem hawks, and the usual right-thinkers among the commentariat. Here is one to keep in [...]

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As in “blind” and “crazy”: Instead of “the hammer,” in the words of John O. Brennan, President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, America will rely on the “scalpel.” In a speech in May, Mr. Brennan, an architect of the White House strategy, used this analogy while pledging a “multigenerational” campaign against Al Qaeda and its extremist [...]

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