It is America’s longest overseas war and shows no clear sign of ending despite a shaky peace deal underway between the Trump administration and Taliban militants. A phased withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan over the next year could yet be derailed, resulting in continued American military operations in the South Asian country – nearly two decades after President GW Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001.
It is difficult to avoid the impression that the denouement of the Kosovo political saga is approaching at an accelerated pace. On September 4 an important meeting will be held in Washington, with President Trump’s attendance at some stage strongly suggested. Its purpose is to sort out the finer details of what should soon be unveiled as a “comprehensive and legally binding” settlement between Serbia and its province of Kosovo. Kosovo has been illegally occupied by NATO since 1999 and was spurred on in 2008 to unilaterally proclaim its “independence.”
President Trump called it “historical” citing previous peace agreements in the region (the last one being between Jordan and Israel in 1994) while his son-in-law, awkwardly, heaped praise on him in a White House moment which made the president look like a belligerent tyrant of an African state and Jared Kushner his overpaid media consultant flown in for the event.
As the United States sinks deeper into a multi-faceted global crisis that no politician seems able or even willing to address, one hears more and more often demands for radical change in who runs the country and to what end. Of course, Donald J. Trump offered such a dramatic shift in priorities four years ago, but he has been unable to deliver due to his own inability to execute and the ill-conceived machinations of those whom he has chosen as advisers.
One of the more bizarre indications that Trump Washington is interested in the Arctic was made a year ago when he said he would like to buy Greenland, a vast territory that is administered by Denmark.
Since its illegal formation in 1993 in contravention of the Charter of the United Nations, the Hague Tribunal, also known as International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and by its acronym ICTY, has served as a battering ram for knocking down international law and, just as importantly, procedure (and here).
More than two years ago, in May 2018, the Trump administration unilaterally walked away from the international nuclear accord with Iran signed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. President Trump derided the deal as the “worst ever” and proceeded to re-impose crippling U.S. sanctions on Iran.
One of the comments made following Trump’s decision to relocate some 12,000 troops from Germany was made by retired Admiral James (‘Zorba’) Stavridis, who in 2009-2013 was U.S. Supreme Allied Commander Europe (the military commander of Nato).
Many voices have been quick to enter the chorus of commentators hypothesizing the manifold possible causes of the devastating explosions which occurred on the afternoon of August 4 in Beirut which has led to mass anarchy and the surprising resignation of the government on August 11th.
After years of calling President Trump a dictator he finally gave the people what they wanted, with his administration taking a page right out of the Communist Party textbook on how to run the internet inside of one’s own country.
