One of the most amusing things about Russia’s headlong plunge into Syria’s five-year conflict is the extent to which it effectively represented Moscow calling time on Washington’s strategy of seeking to bring about regime change in the Mid-East by intentionally destabilizing otherwise strong (if not always benign) governments.
A court of appeals in America has finally ruled that members of the Bush administration can be held accountable for war crimes committed in the name of the so called ‘war on terror.’ True Activist reports: Years ago, the case of Turkmen Vs. Ashcroft set the precedent that the Bush administration could be held accountable for the actions that it took to harm innocent people during the war on terror. However, the case has been in limbo for several years as constant appeals have been filed against the ruling.
Submitted by Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org,
Christmas is a time for giving and that is what Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is asking of her citizenry. With almost $300 billion in debt, and almost 1 in 10 dollars of revenue going to pay interest, and already facing the highest tax rates in North America, The Star reports that Ontario officials are asking that 'patriots' voluntarily donate their tax refund or write a cheque to defray the province's massive debtload.
If ever there was a clearer indication of America's "need for war" it was the latest Durable Goods orders data, which confirmed, absent defense spending, the US economy is in a tail-spin. However, as NYTimes reports, foreign arms sales by the United States jumped by almost $10 billion in 2014, about 35 percent, even as the global weapons market remained flat and competition among suppliers increased, thanks to multibillion-dollar agreements with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.