Category: USA

A nuclear nightmare in the making

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NATO, Missile Defense and Russian Insecurity. And what if you look at it from their side now?

By David Krieger and Steven Starr

In the aftermath of the Cold War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), has become increasingly powerful. It was created in 1949 as an alliance of Western military forces to protect against the perceived military threat posed by the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc countries.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, NATO has expanded by adding former Soviet bloc countries, moving to the borders of Russia. It has also engaged in military actions, notably in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya.

For the past several years, the US and NATO have been pursuing the deployment of an integrated missile defense system in Western, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, as well as in surrounding waters. The Russians have protested vigorously that the planned system will undermine its nuclear retaliatory potential and thereby its security. Read More »

India is unwilling to be drawn into US-China conflicts

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By Shastri Ramachandaran

Deputy Chief of the People’s Liberation Army Ma Xiaotian’s visit to New Delhi for Sino-Indian defence dialogues today is an affirmation that neither country will allow periodic irritants to derail bilateral talks.

Ma’s visit shows a resolve on the part of the two countries to ensure that differences do not become an obstacle to keep up communication by sticking to scheduled exchanges. There is a realization in both capitals that any rift between the two neighbors would be exploited by powerful forces which are unhappy with the growing cooperation and trade links between the Asian giants. Read More »

Obama calls Israel aid opponents ‘extreme’

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By Stephen Zunes

An ad on my Facebook page from barackobama.com reads, “Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and Newt Gingrich say they would start foreign aid to Israel at zero. Reject their extreme plan now!”

This struck me as odd for two reasons:

First, it is disingenuous and misleading. The actual position taken by these Republican presidential candidates is that all foreign aid should initially start at zero as means of reducing the deficit, to be immediately followed by the resumption of aid on a case-by-case basis. As they themselves have acknowledged, they would immediately resume aid to Israel and perhaps even increase it. Ironically, U.S. “aid for Israel” goes almost exclusively to U.S. arms manufacturers, with which the Republican candidates have a close relationship.Read More »

Poor USA: What a choice!

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By Johan Galtung

The Occupy Movement is a sign of US sanity.  Leaderless makes it less vulnerable, immensely consciousness-raising, not insisting on any one single analysis or remedy–for the time being.  People so concerned that they sacrifice some personal comfort–gaining togetherness and a sense of meaning, a gift for a democracy.

And what a sign of US insanity their touch with authority was: no leading politicians eager to preach or learn or both, but tear gas, pepper spray, evictions.  In the 1960’s Vietnam era, Sec. of Defense Robert McNamara ultimately left his office to talk sense into demonstrators.  It worked-the other way around.  That the social worker from Chicago, Obama, did not, is a shame.Read More »

On (Im)Balance and Credibility in America: Israel/Palestine

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By Richard Falk

I could not begin to count the number of times friends, and adversaries, have give me the following general line of advice: your views on Israel/Palestine would gain a much wider hearing if they showed more sympathy for Israel’s position and concerns, that is, if they were more ‘balanced.’ Especially on this set of issues, I have always found such advice wildly off the mark for two main reasons.Read More »