War

Submitted by Roberty Parry via ConsortiumNews.com (h/t Contra Corner blog),

When Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed recently in a US drone strike, we noted that experts cautioned that it would make local insurgents even less likely to participate in long-stalled peace efforts, and it would likely lead to an escalation of Taliban retaliation efforts.

Mullah Akhtar Mansour, Taliban militants' leader

The Irish government has said that the global boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement represents a “legitimate” means of protest “intended to pressure Israel into ending the occupation.” This is another blow to the Israeli campaign to criminalize Palestine solidarity activism, following an announcement by the Netherlands last week supporting its people’s right to join the BDS movement against Israel.

Having pledged to end the wars of his predecessor, President Obama came into office almost eight years ago as an anti-war candidate but instead has now been at war longer than any other American president. Mr. Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, has made endless promises of "bring the troops home" or "no boots on the ground" but will have a longer tour of duty as a wartime president than Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon or his hero Abraham Lincoln.

A senior Iranian official has said that the ceasefire in Syria had been imposed in order to save foreign-backed militants from a total defeat. According to Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the truce, which was brokered by the US and Russia and went into effect across Syria on February 27, actually helped the terrorist groups recover from their losses.