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The Coup, the Nakba, and the Black Rain
Tehran’s rain turned black the other day, a fitting weather report for a civilization still drunk on the very fossil fuels it’s now setting on fire. After the first week of US–Israeli strikes on refineries and oil depots, the Iranian Red Crescent warned residents that the downpour sluicing off balconies and satellite dishes was “highly […]
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On the Brink in Hormuz: How the Iran War Exposes a Dying Order
Not so long ago, the Iran war could still be treated as a “shock” to the system—a sudden, violent anomaly that spooked traders, sent a few charts vertical, then, we were told, would be absorbed. Oil would spike and settle. Gasoline would lurch higher and then ease. Fertilizer prices would jump and “normalize.” Shipping would […]
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Is It about the Oil?
“No War for Oil” is one of the most popular slogans in the many emergency demonstrations sprouting up around the world in response to the criminal kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores from their residence in Caracas, Venezuela and their forced removal to detention in the US. For many outraged by the naked military […]
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Candid Imperialism: Trump, Racketeering and Venezuelan Oil
It usually takes archival digging, the golden gaffe, an ill-considered remark, and occasional spells of candour by those in power, to admit that the United States has, in common with other imperial powers, brutal ambitions. An example of the latter was General Smedley Butler, who, at his death in 1940, had become the most decorated […]
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Failures of U.S. Middle East Policies
United States foreign policies are marked by intermittent failures, often accomplishing the opposite of what is intended — Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq are examples. A difference between U.S. policies in the Middle East and State Department walkthroughs in other regions is that the Middle East policies have been consistent failures, worse than adversaries relish. Immediately […]
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Surprising Rising Seas “Must Reads”
Sea levels are surging along the US coastline, exceeding 30-year expectations. Scientists are confused, concerned, searching for answers. In that regard, an excellent new series by The Washington Post d/d April 29th, 2024, “Must Reads” is an eye-opening view into the impact of global warming in real time with real people and real images. For […]
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The Death of Paris ‘15
The Paris climate agreement of 2015 set the standards for how nation/states must approach the net zero target year 2050 by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in stages, starting with major reductions by 2030. Paris ’15 is dead. According to a new report by Global Energy Monitor of San Francisco, at least 20B barrels of oil […]
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Oil, Natural Gas, and Capitalism
The great powers — the leading players in the imperialist system — have always required a source for the energy to drive their economic engines. They needed energy resources to build and empower their military might; they needed energy to grow their national economies and power their vessels of trade and transportation. Indeed, their socio-economic […]
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Does the U.S. Really Need Mideast Oil—or the Mideast—Anymore?
When my husband and I were flying to Beirut, Lebanon to co-edit the English-language Daily Star, we noticed our tickets were paid by ARAMCO (since 1988, “Saudi Aramco,” then one of the world’s largest American oil companies. That was a factor the publisher somehow neglected to explain, along with the pro-West bias of this influential […]
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The Economic Incentive: Blocking Israel’s Supply Chain
If demography is destiny, as Auguste Comte tells us, then economics must be current, pinching reality. The Israel-Gaza conflict is invigorating a global protest movement against the state of Israel which is seeing various manifestations. From an economic standpoint, Israel can be seen as vulnerable in terms of global supply lines, potentially at the mercy […]
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