US Opinion and Commentary

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Trump Travel Ban 2.0: Still Harmful and Unnecessary

Posted March 6th, 2017 at 3:01 pm (UTC-4)
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By Barbara Slavin The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a revised version of its travel and immigration ban that addresses some of the flaws of a blocked first attempt but will still harm US interests even if it doesn’t survive the courts. The purported aim of the executive order is “protecting the nation from foreign […]

Rising Xenophobia Hurts All Americans

Posted February 28th, 2017 at 4:59 pm (UTC-4)
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By Barbara Slavin Among many disturbing crimes in recent weeks, the shooting death of an Indian émigré engineer near Kansas City on February 22 stands out as a warning about rising xenophobia in the United States Adam Purinton, 51, of Olathe, Kansas, who has been charged with the murder of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, apparently took him […]

New Policy Toward North Korea Urgently Needed

Posted February 21st, 2017 at 10:51 am (UTC-4)
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By Barbara Slavin While the Trump administration has focused on perceived threats from Muslim and Latin American immigrants, a more serious challenge for United States policymakers is North Korea’s advancing missile and nuclear programs. On February 12, the North Koreans fired what experts said was an intermediate-range ballistic missile known as the Musudan.  It flew […]

Trump and More Trigger Protests Like It Was 1968

Posted February 13th, 2017 at 11:34 am (UTC-4)
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By Barbara Slavin From Bucharest to Baghdad to Birmingham, England and its namesake in Alabama, people are filling streets, squares and town halls to demand more transparent, accountable and welcoming government. The protests have become a regular occurrence in the United States since the inauguration of President Trump on January 20. But they are spreading […]

Back to the ‘Axis of Evil’ on Iran

Posted February 7th, 2017 at 1:39 pm (UTC-4)
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By Barbara Slavin When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes to the White House next week, he is likely to find common ground with its new occupant on at least one topic: Iran. Tough rhetoric by the Trump administration, coupled with new sanctions over missile tests and Iran’s inclusion in a controversial travel ban, signals […]

Trump’s Executive Order on Refugees — Separating Fact from Hysteria

Posted January 30th, 2017 at 1:52 pm (UTC-4)
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So, what did Trump do? Did he implement his promised Muslim ban? No, far from it. He backed down dramatically from his campaign promises and instead signed an executive order dominated mainly by moderate refugee restrictions and temporary provisions aimed directly at limiting immigration from jihadist conflict zones.

An Unwarranted Sanction Against Iran

Posted January 30th, 2017 at 1:44 pm (UTC-4)
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By Barbara Slavin With the advent of the Trump administration, many Iran analysts feared the new president would scrap the landmark nuclear deal that curbs Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. Little did we know that U.S.-Iran relations were about to be set back more dramatically as collateral damage in a counter-productive presidential […]

This Is What Democracy Looks Like

Posted January 23rd, 2017 at 12:37 pm (UTC-4)
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By Barbara Slavin This analyst has been to a demonstration or two going back to the Vietnam War, when tens of thousands of people used to congregate in Washington to protest U.S. military intervention in that faraway Asian nation. Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington was of a different order of magnitude – larger by a […]

Donald Trump, U.S. President

Posted January 20th, 2017 at 5:14 pm (UTC-4)
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Just as the Constitution proscribes, the peaceful transfer of power from the 44th President of the United States to the 45th took place at 12:00pm January 20, 2017.

In his inaugural address, Donald J. Trump maintained the “Make America Great Again” campaign mantra that helped sweep him into office. And he took the theme of “transfer of power” a step further, saying “we are transferring power from Washington, DC and giving it back to you, the American people.”

He re-emphasized “America first” and promised to follow “two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American.”

A new chapter in U.S. history is about to be written.

Trump Inauguration Could Be Eclipsed by Protests, Lawsuits

Posted January 17th, 2017 at 10:09 am (UTC-4)
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By Barbara Slavin This will be an inauguration like no other. As Donald Trump prepares to take the oath of office on Friday, the mood in Washington is expectant, anxious and defiant. A new Gallup poll shows that Trump – unlike any other president-elect in modern history – has actually lost popularity since the election. […]

The CIA’s Trump Challenge

Posted January 11th, 2017 at 1:17 pm (UTC-4)
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If the intelligence is sound, then everyone is entitled to articulate their own interpretation of the data. They are not, however, entitled to their own facts — even as they reserve the right to question the sources from which said facts are derived.

Trump Will Inherit the Biggest NATO Buildup in Europe Since the Cold War

Posted January 10th, 2017 at 2:23 pm (UTC-4)
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The second-most dangerous thing in international politics is to draw a red line without truly meaning it…[b]ut the very most dangerous thing is to blur a red line that really is there. Donald Trump’s persistent soft talk invites the Russians to misconstrue what’s on the other side of that line.

Israel Between Obama and Trump

Posted December 29th, 2016 at 3:20 pm (UTC-4)
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Acknowledging that United States policy will likely change on January 20, Secretary of State John Kerry nonetheless delivered an emphatic defense of the Obama administration’s decision to abstain from a vote on a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s settlement policy.

In a speech Wednesday at the State Department, Kerry said the U.S. declined to exercise its veto because it “cannot, in good conscience, do nothing, and say nothing, when we see the hope of peace slipping away,” referring to Israel’s expansion of West Bank settlements and their impact on a “two-state solution.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Kerry’s speech “disappointing” and said “Israel looks forward to working with president-elect (Donald) Trump” to repeal the resolution.

Trump and Netanyahu traded tweets of support ahead of Kerry’s speech, leaving little doubt that a new chapter in U.S. relations with Israel and the Middle East is about to be written.

Bring Back Balanced Power to Washington

Posted December 28th, 2016 at 11:26 am (UTC-4)
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The American people want their power back. The American people no longer trust their government….They’re tired of watching a money-gobbling, D.C. machine crank out policies that don’t work, don’t help, and don’t line up with what the Constitution says the federal government should and should not be doing.  

President-elect Trump, Trust Your Spies

Posted December 27th, 2016 at 11:47 am (UTC-4)
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The CIA and the myriad other agencies that should make the American President the world’s best-informed head of state cannot become scapegoats for any bad decisions or ill-conceived instincts. The consequences would be altogether catastrophic for his presidency and for the very security of the United States.