Category: Uncategorized

‘Taliban cannot win on the battlefield, it’s time for them to join the peace process’: NATO and US-forces top commander Gen. Nicholson in Afghanistan – Afghanistan Times

VIDEO: Full statements and press conference of RS Commander Gen John Nicholson and US Envoy to Kabul Hugo Llorens – YouTube

TRANSCRIPT: Press conference statement by General John Nicholson on Afghanistan – Centcom

TRANSCRIPT: Remarks by U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens on the U.S. Afghanistan Policy – U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan

Tillerson says US may not win in Afghanistan but neither the Taliban, Trump will pressure the Taliban to negotiate peace and end war – New York Post

Tillerson pushes Pakistan to get Taliban to the negotiating table – Bloomberg

VIDEO: Sec’y of State Rex Tillerson takes questions after President Donald Trump’s Afghanistan announcement – YouTube

Secretary of State statement on the United States’ engagement in South Asia: ‘We stand ready to support peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban without preconditions’ – state.gov

Trump not making women’s rights a precondition of Afghan, Taliban talks: Tillerson – washingtonexaminer.com

Russia urges US to clarify its stance on contacts with Taliban without preconditions, Lavrov read more

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

If you happen to be a dystopian novelist, as TomDispatch regular John Feffer is, then you’re in business these days.  Back in 2015, when Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency was just heating up and Feffer was writing Splinterlands, read more

Russia boosts air campaign to help recapture key Syrian city Deir el-Zour – ABC News

During the past five days Russian planes made 316 sorties and carried out 819 strikes, ISIS terrorists pulling strongest units to Deir ez-Zor for last stand: Russian MoD – RT News

Central Syria almost liberated from terrorists, while Aleppo Province is already free from them: Russian General Staff – Sputnik International

Syria war: Russian jets ‘destroy IS convoy near Deir al-Zour’, Russia’s defence ministry said at least 200 jihadists died – BBC News

VIDEO (English subtitles and transcript): Syria briefing by Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy – Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation

VIDEO: Russian air force destroys 200+ ISIS terrorists heading for Deir ez-Zor, Syria: Russia’s MoD – YouTube

Syrian Army secures strategic town Hamimah near Deir Ezzor from ISIS (VIDEO) – almasdarnews.com

Rebel spies exterminate ISIS gathering in Deir Ezzor, 8 jihadists killed – almasdarnews.com

ISIS’s Baghdadi is believed to have moved to eastern Deir Ezzor: source – almasdarnews.com

Syrian Army takes ISIS-held town Huwaysis near strategic gas field in central Syria – almasdarnews.com

Syrian read more

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

Pardon Me!
High Crimes and Demeanors in the Age of Trump
By Tom Engelhardt

Let me try to get this straight: from the moment the Soviet Union imploded in 1991 until recently just about every politician and mainstream pundit in America assured us that we were the planet’s indispensable nation, the only truly exceptional one on this small orb of ours.

We were the sole superpower, read more

U.S. takes tough lines as NAFTA negotiations begin: ‘We feel that NAFTA has fundamentally failed many, many Americans and needs major improvement’ – Yahoo News

VIDEO: NAFTA 2.0 press conference with US, Canada and Mexico representatives – United States Trade Representative

TRANSCRIPT: Opening statement of USTR Robert Lighthizer at the first round of NAFTA renegotiations – United States Trade Representative

Full text of the Trump administration’s Summary of Objectives for NAFTA Renegotiation – ustr.gov

Canada and Mexico rebuke Trump at tense start of NAFTA talks – FT.com

What the U.S., Canada and Mexico want from a new NAFTA – US News

Address by Canada Foreign Affairs Minister Freeland on the modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – Canada.ca

U.S. trade vets say Canada’s NAFTA demands a ‘long shot’ – torontosun.com

Prioridades de México en las negociaciones para la modernización del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte – Secretaría de Economía | Gobierno

The A team across the table: The top US, Canada and Mexico negotiators – Bloomberg

read more

William S. Geimer

Author: Canada: The Case for Staying Out of Other People’s Wars

Blog: DearVirtualEditor.com

A number of important matters are being ignored in the latest furor of North Korea. One is the fact that the U.S. created North Korea and South Korea, and then rejected the only democratic option for unification. The U.S. made these moves with little or no regard for the wishes of the Korean people, and at the cost of millions of their lives. To date, it has been clear that Korea is no read more

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

Ever since 2001, when President George W. Bush launched an endless “global war” not on al-Qaeda but on a phenomenon, or perhaps simply a feeling (“terror”) and those who could potentially induce it, America’s all-too-real conflicts have become, as TomDispatch regular Rebecca Gordon writes today, ever more read more

James Loewen’s books include Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong, Lies My Teacher Told Me and Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. Earlier this year, he spoke at a symposium in Richmond on Confederate monuments and memorials, available on C-SPAN. And a couple of years ago he wrote an article in the Washington Post called “Why do people believe myths about the Confederacy? Because our textbooks read more