A U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere in the Middle East is long overdue.
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies, The Progressive
On February 7, 2024, a U.S. drone assassinated an Iraqi militia leader, Abu Baqir al-Saadi, in the heart of Baghdad. This was another escalation by the United States in a major new front in the U.S.-Israeli war in the Middle East, centered on the Israeli genocide in Gaza, but also including ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Syria, and the United States and United Kingdom’s bombing of Yemen.
This latest attack followed the U.S. bombing of seven targets on February 2, three in Iraq and four in Syria, with 125 bombs and missiles, killing at least thirty-nine people.
At the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been touring capitals in the region, playing the United States’ traditional role as a dishonest broker between Israel and its neighbors.
What Israel and the United States have proposed, but not made public, appears to be a second temporary ceasefire, during which prisoners or hostages would be exchanged, possibly leading to the release of all the Israelis held in Gaza, but in no way leading to an end to the genocide. If the Palestinians freed all of their Israeli hostages as part of a prisoner swap, it would remove the only obstacle that seems to be restraining Israel from an even more catastrophic escalation of the genocide.
Recent Posts
“This Militaristic Approach Has Been a Failure”: Meet Hala Rharrit, First U.S. Diplomat to Quit over Gaza
May 3, 2024
Take Action Now The Biden administration’s financial, military and diplomatic backing of Israel’s assault on Gaza has sparked dissent within the U.S.…
Will Southern Autoworkers Reverse Decades Of Union Decline?
May 3, 2024
Take Action Now Automakers rely on non-union plants in the South to drive down wages across the country. A UAW victory in Tennessee and an upcoming…
CNN Airs Outrageous Anti-Palestine Protest Segment
May 3, 2024
Take Action Now This segment from Dana Bash on the Palestine protest movement is one of the most shameful things ever seen on cable news. by Jack…
Antisemitism: The Big Lie Smearing Campus Protesters
May 2, 2024
Take Action Now Students are being slandered by politicians, the media, and campus administrators. By Richard (RJ) Eskow, The Zero Hour…