Ten weeks after Parliament voted to bomb IS (Islamic State) in northern Iraq, US Secretary of State John Kerry has admitted that it could take years for them to be defeated. Since Parliament’s vote in September, other European countries have lined up to take part in the campaign – but it remains uncertain whether these […]
Posts Tagged ‘Obama’
Obama wants jihadi cancer to be halted, but how?
Aug 22nd, 2014 by Michael Meacher.It is extraordinary that after an 18 month ISIS rampage of beheadings, torture and executions across northern Iraq and Syria, and after the killing including crucifixion of 500 Yahidi men because of their Christian faith, the brutal murder of one man has now aroused such passion in the West. But that of course is because […]
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The conflict between workers’ rights and “free trade”
Jan 21st, 2014 by Adrian Weir.:In his ‘State of the Union’ address in February 2013 President Obama announced that he was opening talks with the European Union with the aim of signing a Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP), in other words a free trade agreement covering two of the world’s largest trading blocs. Although many of the aspects of such […]
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There are big lessons to be learnt from the Iran deal
Nov 26th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The US-Iran agreement, albeit temporary, may well be the diplomatic coup of the decade, or indeed the biggest peaceful shifting of the tectonic plates since the last World War in the most dangerous area on the planet. But it is as well, for future reference, to identify the specific mechanisms which allowed this breakthrough to […]
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Why President Obama won (translating Slavoj Zizek)
Nov 14th, 2012 by Carl Packman.The radical French philosopher Alain Badiou was asked, after the 2009 US election, what he thought of the then President-elect Barack Obama, to which he responded, only partly amusingly: “Obama? As actor or as politician?” It wasn’t meant negatively, he went on to explain, but rather that Obama had convincingly pulled off a return to […]
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Iran and the bomb: containment is an option
Mar 6th, 2012 by David Osler.Benjamin Netanyahu is not much given to obfuscation. His speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Monday night made it quite clear to Tehran – and anyone else listening in – that he will do whatever it takes to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. Despite the carefully inserted disclaimers, numerous passages can only […]
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Can Obama win?
Nov 7th, 2011 by Andy Newman.Today’s Los Angeles Times reports that Obama has a clear fundraising edge over all his Republican rivals. Key to winning will be to defend the gains Obama made in 2008 in the south: Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida, which have 57 electoral college seats between them. We should remind ourselves that only two generations ago the […]
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Israel/Palestine. Two states? Forget it, says Obama
Sep 18th, 2011 by Mark Seddon.Even President George Bush played lip service to the idea of a ‘two state’ solution for Israel/Palestine. That, after all, is the default position of the international community. It is also the position of the Obama administration, which has nonetheless allowed the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu to run rings around it. So if the […]
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Who the hell are Standard & Poors?
Aug 9th, 2011 by Mark Seddon.Amidst all of the market babble and financial gobbledegook that poured from both ‘analysts’ and ‘practitioners’ following last week’s global market meltdown, came a shaft of light. It took the form of a question and the question was posed by Robert Reich; “Pardon me”, he said “but who gave Standard & Poor’s the authority to […]
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Uncompromising fanaticism in favour of the rich now rules on both sides of the Atlantic
Aug 2nd, 2011 by Michael Meacher.There was rejoicing when the US House of Representatives finally passed the deal to lift the debt ceiling, just as there was when Osborne sat down in the House at the end of his June 2010 budget. Relief all round for the Republican Tea Party and the Tory Right because the monstrous excesses of their […]
