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United States Foreign Policy
The Forgotten Anniversary: 10/7 and America's Longest War
![[U.S. soldiers from A Company, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment pass through a village near Forward Operating Base Blessing, Afghanistan. Image from en.wikipedia.org]](/content_images/3/sm_afghananniv.jpg "[U.S. soldiers from A Company, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment pass through a village near Forward Operating Base Blessing, Afghanistan. Image from en.wikipedia.org]")
On 7 October 2001, at approximately 12:30pm EST, US and British forces launched Operation Enduring Freedom, an aerial bombing campaign with the declared objectives of overthrowing the Taliban regime, destroying or capturing Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, and bringing an end to terrorist activities in Afghanistan.
Keep Reading »Study: U.S. Night Raids Aimed at Afghan Civilians
![[Night raids. AP image from commondreams.org]](/content_images/3/sm_nightraids_afghancivilians.jpg "[Night raids. AP image from commondreams.org]")
[The following statement was issued by Inter Press Service on September 21, 2011. It was recently published on commondreams.org] New Study Says U.S. Night Raids Aimed at Afghan Civilians WASHINGTON - U.S. Special Operations Forces have been increasingly aiming their night-time raids, which have been the primary cause of Afghan anger at the U.S. military presence, at civilian non- combatants in order to exploit their possible intelligence value, according to a new study published by the Open Society Foundation and The Liaison Office. The study provides new evidence of the degree to which the criteria used for targeting of individuals in night raids and for seizing ...
Keep Reading »Obama's Palestine Problem, and Ours
![[Protest against US Tax-Funded Aid to Israel. Photo via SUSTAIN-Philadelphia.]](/content_images/3/sm_sustain2.jpg "[Protest against US Tax-Funded Aid to Israel. Photo via SUSTAIN-Philadelphia.]")
It is shocking, but not surprising, that in the US, the primary way of understanding and analyzing the debate at the United Nations over Palestinian statehood is in terms of its effect upon American politics. More specifically, the main focus in the US media has been on how the Obama administration would handle the “crisis” at the UN, inevitably described as one aspect of the supposed "roiling tensions in the region." Very little thought is being devoted to the question of whether the move by the Palestinian leadership is part of a larger strategy for escaping from the disastrous stasis of the Oslo framework, or to what possibilities might arise from potential ...
Keep Reading »KPOO's "Arab Talk" Interview with Jadaliyya Co-Editor on Bagram, Obama's Other Gitmo, and US Detention Policy
![[Image from HRW.org]](/content_images/3/sm_arabtalklis.jpg "[Image from HRW.org]")
This interview was conducted with Jadaliyya Co-Editor Lisa Hajjar during the week marking the ten year anniversary of the September 11 attack in the United States. Conducted by Jess Ghannam, of KPOO's "Arab Talk," the interview begins with a survey of the landscape of US detention policy of the last ten years. While some aspects of torture and abuse have changed under the Obama Administration, more has stayed the same, including indefinite detention, denial of habeas, use of military commissions, and the fact that there has not yet been a definitive end to US torture. Following this is a more in depth discussion of Bagram and detention operations in ...
Keep Reading »US Detention Post-9/11: Birth of a Debacle (Part 1 of 5 Part Series)
![[First prisoners arrive at Guantanamo on 11 January 2002. Image from Gallo/Getty]](/content_images/3/sm_birthofadebacle.jpg "[First prisoners arrive at Guantanamo on 11 January 2002. Image from Gallo/Getty]")
Days after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the Bush administration started making decisions that led to the official authorization of torture tactics, indefinite incommunicado detention and the denial of habeas corpus for people who would be detained at Guantánamo, Bagram, or “black sites” (secret prisons) run by the CIA, kidnappings, forced disappearances and extraordinary rendition to foreign countries to exploit their torturing services. While some of those practices were cancelled when Barack Obama took office in January 2009, others continue to characterise US detention policy in the "war on terror". Even the cancelled policies continue ...
Keep Reading »Interview with Ali Ahmida, Gilbert Achcar, and David Smith on Situation in Libya
![[Image from newsmild.com]](/content_images/3/sm_qaddafiqaddafialjhdf.jpg "[Image from newsmild.com]")
AUDIO PLAYER BELOW The fall of Qaddafi's Tripoli to Libyan rebels has raised a host of new questions and intensified existing debates about the nature and fate of the Libyan uprising. As the peaceful uprising in Libya shifted towards an open rebellion in the face of a violent response by Qaddafi's regime, various calls for intervention by the Libyan people mobilized and polarized world powers, solidarity activists, and everyday observers as to the nature and legitimacy of the Transitional National Council (TNC), the UN Security Council resolutions, and the NATO intervention. Khalil Bendib spoke to professors Ali Ahmida (New England University) and Gilbert Achcar (School ...
Keep Reading »Can the Palestinian Leadership Pave the Way from Statehood to Independence?
![[Image from the BBC.com]](/content_images/3/sm_UNAssembly.jpg "[Image from the BBC.com]")
Middle Eastern analysts concerned with the Palestinian statehood bid have rightly highlighted the benefits conferred by such status. They assume, however, that the current Palestinian leadership is willing to take the necessary steps in order to lead Palestinians from statehood on paper to independence in practice. In the early 1990s, the Palestinian leadership supplanted its struggle for self-determination with a state-building project. In its narrow pursuit of a mandate to govern, it placed undue faith in the US’s willingness, and arguably its ability, to pressure Israel to end its prolonged occupation thus shunning a resistance platform. In its bid for statehood, the ...
Keep Reading »The Legal Campaign Against American Torture
Torture, like genocide and crimes against humanity, is a gross crime under international law. The right not to be tortured is constituted through the prohibition of practices that purposefully cause harm (physical and/or psychological) to persons who are in custody but have not been found guilty of a crime. (The international legal definition excludes lawful punishments regardless of their brutality.) The right not to be tortured is exceptionally strong, at least in principle, because it is absolute under any circumstances including war and conflict, and universally applies to all people at all times everywhere. The torture prohibition is foundational to the rule of law ...
Keep Reading »The Anguish in the American Dream
As we cope with downturns in American power in the world and the American economy at home, there is much talk about reviving, renewing, rescuing, or redefining the American Dream. We would be better off facing the anguish inherent in the American Dream. Once we recognize that the dream has always been dependent on domination, we can see more clearly our options for a just and sustainable future. Whether celebrated or condemned, the American Dream endures, though always ambiguously. We are forever describing and defining, analyzing and assessing the concept, and with each attempt to clarify, the idea of an American Dream grows more incoherent yet more ...
Keep Reading »Multilateral Cooperation Between The United States and Israel
![[Image from unknown archive.]](/content_images/3/sm_departmentofstate2.jpg "[Image from unknown archive.]")
[The below remarks were made at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on June 15, 2011, by Esther Brimmer, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, U.S. Department of State.] Multilateral Cooperation Between The United States and Israel: Fighting Delegitimization, Moving Forward Together Good afternoon. I want to thank Rob Satloff and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy for this invitation. It is truly a privilege to have this opportunity at this distinguished institution and to exchange ideas and views on topics that the Institute has been so deeply engaged in since 1985. As the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of ...
Keep Reading »Three Powerfully Wrong--and Wrongly Powerful--American Narratives about the Arab Spring
![[Egyptian carrying sign in Tahrir. Image from Politirature.]](/content_images/3/sm_EgyptSupportsWisconsin.jpg "[Egyptian carrying sign in Tahrir. Image from Politirature.]")
The “Arab Spring” that actually began in the dead of winter has spread from Tunisia to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria…and the year only half over. As the media, policymakers, and global audiences struggle to make sense of changes that have inspired hundreds of millions to “just say no” to decades of dictatorship, a number of narratives have taken hold in the US—evident in remarks on cable news talk shows, at academic and policy symposia, and on Twitter—about precisely what is happening and what these massive crowds want. While elements of these narratives have some foundation in truth, they also present such a simplified view as to obscure ...
Keep Reading »UCLA Uncut Interview with James Gelvin on Obama's May 19 Speech
![[James Gelvin. Image from screenshot of interview.]](/content_images/3/sm_gelvinspeech.jpg "[James Gelvin. Image from screenshot of interview.]")
This is an 11-minute edited video of an interview conducted with James L. Gelvin after President Barack Obama's "Middle East Speech" that was delivered on May 19, 2011. In it, Gelvin discusses the lukewarm reaction throughout the Middle East to Obama's speech, outlining the ways in which the stated objectives and policies of the United States fell short of both the needs and expectations of the people of the Arab world.
Keep Reading »ACLU Statement on Killing of Anwar Al-Aulaqi
[The following statement was issued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on 30 September 2011.] NEW YORK – U.S. airstrikes in Yemen today killed Anwar Al-Aulaqi, an American citizen who has never been charged with any crime. ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said, "The targeted killing program violates both U.S. and international law. As we've seen today, this is a program under which American citizens far from any battlefield can be executed by their own government without judicial ...
Keep Reading »Text of Obama Address to the United Nations General Assembly
[The following statement was made by President Obama at the U.N. General Assemby on 21 September, 2011. It was recently published on whitehouse.gov.] Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen: It is a great honor for me to be here today. I would like to talk to you about a subject that is at the heart of the United Nations -- the pursuit of peace in an imperfect world. War and conflict have been with us since the beginning of civilizations. But in the first part of ...
Keep Reading »Interview with Jadaliyya Co-Editor Lisa Hajjar on Obama's own 'Gitmo,' Bagram, and US Detention Policy
This interview was conducted with Jadaliyya Co-Editor Lisa Hajjar during the week marking the ten year anniversary of the 11 September attack in the United States. Interviewed by Jess Ghannam of KPOO's "Arab Talk," Lisa begins with a survey of the landscape of US detention policy of the last ten years. While some aspects of torture and abuse have changed under the Obama administration, more has stayed the same, including indefinite detention, denial of habeas, use of military commissions, and ...
Keep Reading »Ten Years, Over a Trillion Dollars Later: What and How Much Has Changed?
As the tenth anniversary of September 11th passes, one question that is likely crossing many people’s minds is: What has changed ten years on? As mundane and somewhat cliché as this question may be, it has many of us weighing the costs along with the benefits of America’s campaign against “terror.” Unfortunately, for a segment of the American population, the answer to this question never goes beyond the rallying cry of patriotic retaliation and the abstract safety of US homeland security and defense ...
Keep Reading »Chart: Who Funds the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
This chart helps represent one of the ways the United States government is able to shape the policies of international institutions that impact the daily lives of people living outside of the United States. Voting power in the IMF Board of Governors is proportional to the financial contribution of each state represented on the Board. The United States holds 16.7 percent of the votes, followed by Japan (6.24%), Germany (5.81%), France (4.29%), and the United Kingdom (4.29%). Click here for the complete ...
Keep Reading »"The United States Is Not Qualified to Intervene on Behalf of Democracy in the Region": Al-Jazeera Interview with Jadaliyya Co-Editor
This interview was conducted with Jadaliyya Co-Editor, Bassam Haddad, on the role of the United States in Syria. After five months of continuous suppression of protests in Syria, resulting in nearly 2000 deaths and more than 15,000 arrests, the Syrian regime is facing growing regional and international pressures to stop the violence and engage in serious dialogue with various segments of the Syrian opposition. Some have critiqued the United States for not doing more, or intervening further, in the Syrian ...
Keep Reading »Human Dignity in Jerusalem
The lengthy history of Jerusalem is distinguished by diverse episodes of both benevolent tolerance and inhumane intolerance. For several lengthy periods, such as most of the nineteenth century, a spirit of coexistence generally characterized the holy city. On too many other occasions, it witnessed sectarian persecution and cruel massacres. Two of the most horrific of these episodes took place after Jerusalem was captured following a prolonged siege, once by the Persians in 614 CE, and again by the ...
Keep Reading »On the Possible Recognition of A Palestinian State at the United Nations
There is much interest in what will happen regarding Palestine at the United Nations in September. Contrary to much of what has been written on this subject, this is not a matter of “declaring” Palestinian statehood. The PLO already declared the independence of Palestine in 1988. Like many things in life, this is something you can only do once. Moreover, this already proclaimed state of Palestine did not and does not enjoy sovereignty, jurisdiction or control over the territory it claims. Nor do either ...
Keep Reading »Rational Choice Theory Takes on the Arab Revolutions
In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, "How Tyrants Endure," political science professors Bruce Bueno De Mesquita and Alastair Smith offer a rational choice perspective on the Arab revolutions. It's a fairly short article, but given its large claims and the fact that Bueno De Mesquita does significant consulting for the Pentagon and CIA, it deserves some critical attention. Briefly, rational choice theory, of which Bueno De Mesquita is a major proponent, posits that individuals, including ...
Keep Reading »The Voice Is Obama's; The Hands are Bush's
President Obama’s June 2009 speech in Cairo was widely received as a sincere expression of his desire for a “new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world.” He acknowledged the historic injuries of colonialism, quoted the Qur’anic injunction to “speak always the truth,” recognized the plight of the Palestinian refugees, allowed for the possibility of Hamas participating in realizing the aspirations of the Palestinian people, and clearly called for a halt to Israeli settlement, even ...
Keep Reading »Democracy Now! Interview with Abdul-Ghani Al-Iryani on Saleh Departure
This is an interview conducted with Abdul-Ghani Al-Iryani on Monday, June 6, in regards to President Ali Abdallah Saleh's departure from Yemen. The interview addresses the events surrounding his departure to Saudi Arabia, highlighting the possibilities of regime change and the role US foreign policy. Transcripts of the interview follow the below video. Thousands of people in Yemen are rejoicing at the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The embattled leader is reportedly in Saudi Arabia for ...
Keep Reading »A Good Week for Bibi, a Bad Week for Barack, an Opportunity for the Palestinians
The past week in Washington was an extraordinary one. It witnessed an American president give two speeches in which he offered further concessions to Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of a country that is a client of the United States. Netanyahu challenged the President from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, effectively seeking and receiving Congress's stamp of approval on his strikingly extreme positions. This end-run around the US Executive Branch followed an invitation from the head of the Republican ...
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It should thus come as no surprise that the 9,400 Israeli settlers living in the Jordan Valley consume more than six times the quantity of water consumed by the more than 56,000 Palestinians in the area.click | email | tweet
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