August 2018

  By Gordon M. Hahn August 31, 2018 As the West has turned more and more to Soviet/Russian methods of the ‘big lie’ in order to advance democracy and its interests, the Russia-West propaganda war had produced a post-fact world in which disinformation comes to be believed by its purveyors. Both sides, forgetting the previous disinformation and lies from the most recent crisis of the day, reiterate their previous claims as part of the reason for believing the next series of disinformation and lies surrounding the current crisis of the day. This process of propaganda plague has filled the fake news on both sides of the Atlantic since Georgia through Syria, Ukraine, Syria, Skripal, Syria again. Russia has its RT and state television; the US has RFERL and state-tied mass media across the West. To be sure, the West has a problem with promoting a united message with messy changes...

  Der var engang, hvor man kunne blive chokeret over, at den danske udlændinge- og integrationsdebat kunne hvirvle ud af proportioner i de danske medier og beslaglægge den offentlige debat. Men efter minimum et årti med hede debatter om svinekød i vuggestuer, burkaer, bederum på universiteter, ramadan og aflysning af gudstjenester, synes ingen grænser længere. Det er nemt at se et mønster, og det åbenlyse fællestræk er forskelle i værdier og kultur mellem ”dem” i form af Islam og det ”os” i form af den danske identitet. Foregangsmændene i de her debatter påstår ofte implicit eller eksplicit, at ”vores” værdier er truet udefra. Spørgsmålet er om vores værdier i højere grad er truet indefra, af os selv? I sidste uge kom de visionære folkevalgte i Dansk Folkeparti, Det Konservative Folkeparti og Socialdemokratiet frem til, at et håndtryk fremover bør afgøre, om en ikke-dansk statsborger har gjort sig fortjent til at...

  Part 1. Preface – Background and forthcoming book on Iran   By Farhang Jahanpour September 1, 2018   Background I am a British national of Iranian origin. I was born in Shiraz, near Persepolis, the capital of Pars Province in Iran, which gave its name to Persia and to two ancient Persian Empires, the Achaemenid and the Sassanian. Shiraz is famous as an Iranian cultural centre, being the birthplace of two of Iran’s greatest poets, Hafiz and Sa’di, and many philosophers, saints and scholars. My former tutor at the University of Cambridge, the late Professor A. J. Arberry, who was one of the greatest experts on Iran and Islam wrote a fascinating book on “Shiraz, the Iranian City of Saints and Poets”. I studied Persian literature at Shiraz University, and as I graduated with the highest grades in my year, I was given a scholarship to continue my studies...

  Thwarting the anti-dollar coalition should be Washington’s top national priority   By Gal Luft August 30, 2018   The United States is currently waging economic warfare against one tenth of the world’s countries with cumulative population of nearly 2 billion people and combined gross domestic product (GDP) of more than $15 trillion. These include Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, North Korea and others on which Washington has imposed sanctions over the years, but also countries like China, Pakistan and Turkey which are not under full sanctions but rather targets of other punitive economic measures. In addition, thousands of individuals from scores of countries are included in the Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals who are effectively blocked from the U.S.-dominated global financial system. Many of those designated are either part of or closely linked to their countries’ leadership. Published by Yahoo...

The evidence that has come out from the UN and NGOs makes clear, without any reservation or ambiguity, that on August 9th dozens of school children on a bus in Yemen were killed by a Saudi Arabian air-strike, and that American supplied weapons had been used, and probably British too. Criticism of Saudi Arabia and its partner in crime, the United Arab Republic, has been increasing over the last year. The US is not a partner in the actual fighting but, started by President Barack Obama and continued on a larger scale by President Donald Trump, the US doesn’t only provide weapons it has provided intelligence, warplane refueling and guidance technology for missiles and bombs. This is reminiscent of when the US supported Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran, some years before Saddam himself became the West’s opponent. Although Saddam used a weapon of mass destruction – chemicals – the US,...

By David Krieger Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, NAPF August 2018 Nuclear weapons pose a grave threat to the future of civilization. As long as we allow these weapons to exist, we flirt with the catastrophe that they will be used, whether intentionally or accidentally. Meanwhile, nuclear weapons skew social priorities, create imbalances of power, and heighten geopolitical tension. Diplomacy has brought some noteworthy steps in curbing risks and proliferation, but progress has been uneven and tenuous. The ultimate aim of abolishing these weapons from the face of the earth—the “zero option”—faces formidable challenges of ignorance, apathy, and fatigue. Yet, the total abolition of nuclear weapons is essential for a Great Transition to a future rooted in respect for life, global solidarity, and ecological resilience. This will require an emboldened disarmament movement working synergistically with kindred movements, such as those fighting for peace, environmental sustainability, and economic justice, in pursuit of...

By David Swanson TFF Associate David Swanson delivers, in his usual crystal clear and well-documented manner, the arguments against higher U.S. military spending and illustrates how much better it would be for the U.S. itself and for the world to reduce the military expenditures and allocate even just a fraction of these incomprehensibly huge sums to constructive purposes. TFF is proud to inform you that David has been awarded the US Peace Memorial Foundation’s 2018 Peace Prize. Congratulations, David! So well deserved.

  TFF launches a new educational series on regime change in the Middle East to help prevent a repetition on Iran – #NotIranToo   TFF is about to publish a series of articles on regime change in the Middle East over the last few decades. The series has a special focus on Iran because it is now abundantly clear that the U.S. under Trump’s formal administration – but perhaps more under the elites that make up the Deep State underlying it – seems bent on building up to at least a political, psychological and economic war on Iran and – in the worst of cases – also to some kind of military action too. The series consists of sections of Chapter 12 in a forthcoming book by eminent scholar and TFF Board member, Farhang Jahanpour, Oxford University. In a comprehensive preface, he explains his own intellectual path and journalistic work...

    From ancient Greece onward, the West has used the Eastern other as an enemy through which to identify itself.   Marco Carnelos August 22, 2018 US President Donald Trump’s administration seems to be intent on confronting the rest of the world. With a few exceptions, such as Russia (as far as Trump himself is concerned), Israel and Saudi Arabia, almost every other nation in the world has felt the rage and contempt of the current American president. Originally published on middleeasteye.net August 17, 2018 Bonds with traditional US allies have been questioned and the many principles, pillars, and rules of the liberal world order, itself conceived and shaped by the United States, are now disowned.   Little knowledge These developments can’t simply be attributed to Trump and Trump alone. The president’s thinking is shared by a significant section of the American people, who have little knowledge of the...

Everything gets said, nothing gets done. When President Donald Trump met President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last month we were promised all sorts of goodies- progress in reconciliation in Ukraine and Syria, and not least nuclear disarmament. If there is progress behind the scenes it’s not noticeable to the naked eye. People talk about Trump being in Putin’s pocket yet when, soon after Trump became president, Putin suggested major cuts in nuclear weapons Trump turned him down. This would have been a fantastic way to start his presidency. He could have upped Barack Obama’s achievement of getting the arsenal down to 1550 warheads each. In nearly everything else he wants to destroy Obama’s legacy or minimize it. This would have been a way to do it. This doesn’t sound to me like Putin, the supposed puppet master, was pulling the strings on his marionette, Trump. Let that be, maybe we’ll...