As Henry Kissinger turns 100 years old today, what can we say? Will we praise his diplomacy skills or will we choose to see what’s behind those potential praises? I invite you to do the latter.
Category Archives: US Foreign Policy
The Brutality and The Illegality of The War in Iraq, 20 Years Later
If you’re an empire, you can destroy another nation and continue preaching about international law and human rights. Twenty years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the country remains struggling and the war criminals unpunished.
Bombs Don’t Liberate
Both mainstream media and state-owned media have their agendas. Can we educate ourselves to notice them or do we continue attributing concepts like “propaganda” to “the other” and words like “liberation” to what our governments are doing?
The People of Pakistan Are Paying The Price For Our Ignorance
And although we have to do everything we can to help the people of Pakistan now, the bigger story is not about this country. This tragedy – a man-made disaster – is a harsh reminder that the people who are most contributing to our climate emergency are not necessarily the ones who are paying the price.
How Can We Actually Help Afghanistan?
We know that political turmoil – on top of devastation of a 20-year war – after the Taliban took power in August 2021 is a big factor in this crisis.
But we also know what one other factor that could immediately alleviate this suffering of the Afghan people is: these are the frozen funds that belong to the people of Afghanistan, and that are kept in mostly U.S. accounts. Hear about all this from the first civil society women’s delation that visited Afghanistan recently.
Noam Chomsky on Russia, Ukraine, China, US, and The State of The World
What would it take to negotiate a peace settlement in Ukraine?
What could Vladimir Putin see as a way out of this?
What role is the US currently playing here?
What’s happening with China?
And what’s the state of journalism and the mainstream media as the war in Ukraine is happening?
When an Empire Offers You a Moral Compass, You Can Pass
As the war in Ukraine has started, we have seen some absolutely hypocritical statements made by U.S. officials.
But they’re only hypocritical if we know a bit of the context here.
And when we do, we are much better equipped to construct our own moral compasses, without any help from the U.S. This is what I illustrate and explain much better in my episode.
What Would Peace in Ukraine Look Like?
If we believe that peace in Ukraine is possible, we have to ask what it would look like. What could a negotiated settlement between Ukraine and Russia be?
Listen to what Anatol Lieven from The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft has to say.
The War in Ukraine and Its Multiple “Yes, And”s (Part 2)
Can we talk about the war in Ukraine and its complexities without being shut down or accused of minimising its horrors?
I think that is possible indeed – yet not that easy.
In my second episode, I talk about (1) racism in the media, (2) the overtness of racist and xenophobic immigration policies when it comes to accepting refugees, and (3) the difference between what-about-ism and saying, “this, too” when it comes to the war in Ukraine.
The War in Ukraine and Its Multiple “Yes, And”s (Part 1)
Can we talk about the war in Ukraine and its complexities without being shut down or accused of minimising its horrors?
I think that is possible indeed – yet not that easy.
In my first episode, I talk about (1) NATO expansion, (2) the extreme right in Ukraine, and (3) what we have to know about how sanctions work.
The Exploding Head Blog & Podcast 