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 […]
Posts Tagged ‘US’
Is Russia now in charge of Middle East policy?
Sep 17th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The US has been comprehensively outmanoeuvred over Syria. First, the Commons vote induced Obama to seek a vote in Congress to shore up his authority to take military action against the background that US public opinion shared UK public opinion in resisting any further intervention in the Middle East. Then as uncertainty grew about the […]
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The West is too riddled with self interest to lead on Syria or other world affairs
Sep 5th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Obama’s key line that the attack on Syria would be a short, surgical strike was designed to win over those who were appalled at Assad’s (virtually certain) use of chemical weapons and wanted him to be punished, but without risk of another long war. His latest deviation from this line – that the missile strike […]
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The special relationship and the difference a day makes
Sep 1st, 2013 by Kate Hudson.Suddenly, politics is before and after ‘last Thursday’. Before last Thursday, Britain was America’s poodle, prepared to pay the ‘blood price’ for our special relationship, riding pillion passenger to US foreign policy, whatever the blowback. Since last Thursday, Britain has determined its own destiny. It has rejected participation in another murderous and futile US war […]
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A US attack on Syria won’t stop chemical weapons: there’s a better way
Sep 1st, 2013 by Michael Meacher.An American military strike against Syria in the next few days is a virtual certainty, despite the fact that US public opinion seems as tepid about this action as in the UK. What may be driving the US is not so much an abhorrence against a resort to chemical weapons – the US said nothing […]
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Syria: the path to hell
Aug 28th, 2013 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.The path to hell is paved with good intentions. And to take most people at face value who favour military intervention in Syria, they appear to sincerely favour “doing something” – anything – for the best of reasons. The chemical attack on a rebel-held suburb of Damascus is utterly reprehensible, no doubt about that. After […]
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I am Bradley Manning
Jul 30th, 2013 by Newsdesk.I am Bradley Manning. Because I believe the public deserves the truth and whistleblowers deserve a fair trial. 1161 days of unjust confinement is enough! Drop the “aiding the enemy” charge Amidst courtroom secrecy, whistleblower and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Bradley Manning is on trial after three years of confinement. The information that Bradley gave to the public has […]
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If only we had a government we could trust, we should offer Edward Snowden asylum
Jul 15th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Instead of pursuing Edward Snowden to the ends of the earth, as the US is doing, we should be lauding him for the huge service he has done us at enormous risk to himself. He has revealed the nature of our State and the security services which every citizen of the UK needs to […]
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Uncle Sam, what big ears you have!
Jul 3rd, 2013 by Tom Gill.Translated from the original by François Delapierre We do not know what is more astonishing. The revelations about the spying on the European Union by the United States intelligence services? Or the surprise this causes among EU leaders? It seems that amid the rhetoric of the unity of the “free world” during the Cold War, […]
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What is being done to control mass surveillance?
Jul 2nd, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The cascade of revelations about secret surveillance, thanks to Edward Snowden, rolls on. Today it’s Dropmire which apparently refers to a bug inserted in an encrupted fax machine used for transmission of commercial data at the EU mission in Washington DC. Once revealed, the Americans explain it as designed to collect data on policy disagreements […]
