James Mattis

In an unusual move by US Presidential standards, Donald Trump has decided to summon all 100 US Senators for a White House briefing on the situation in North Korea. The meeting is to take place on Wednesday. In addition to Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defence Secretary James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis will also be present.
While the move is legally unrelated to asking both Houses of Congress to declare a war (something Trump has not yet done), the gesture does imply a further march to confrontation with North Korea.

(ANTIWAR) Visiting Riyadh, Defense Secretary James Mattis continued to play up the idea of deeper US involvement in the Saudi war in Yemen, suggesting the US would substantially increase aide to Saudi Arabia, while playing up the idea that the deeper US involvement would be against Iran.

A Yemeni soldier looks at the graffiti of U.S. drone strike painted on a wall as a protest against the drone strikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, on Dec. 21, 2013. (Photo: Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)

A submarine missile is paraded across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea to celebrate the 105th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung, the country’s late founder and grandfather of current ruler Kim Jong Un. April 15, 2017. (AP/Wong Maye-E)

President-elect Donald Trump, center, listens to a member of the military in the stands as he watches an Army-Navy NCAA college football game at M&T Bank Stadium, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016, in Baltimore. (AP/Andrew Harnik)

Exclusive: Now that the neocons have housebroken President Trump, they are ready for a resumption of their “regime change” agenda, with Iran next in their crosshairs, reports Jonathan Marshall. By Jonathan Marshall The Trump administration’s growing use of military force…Read more →

RT | April 12, 2017 A professor who challenged the 2013 claims of a chemical attack in Syria is now questioning the Trump administration’s narrative blaming the Assad government for the April 4 attack in the Idlib province town of Khan Shaykhun. On Tuesday, the White House released a declassified intelligence brief accusing Syrian President […]

(COMMONDREAMS) Holding up photos of dead children as justification for potential war, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Wednesday that if the U.N. doesn’t take action in Syria, “we may.”

Exclusive: Powerful forces are arrayed against any significant changes that President Trump may try to make in foreign policy, a dilemma made worse by his own ineptness and staffing troubles, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry President Trump’s emerging foreign…Read more →

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford greets Defense Secretary James Mattis at the Pentagon (AP/Alex Brandon)