Antiwar.com Weekly Newsletter for June 23, 2021

Your source for foreign policy news. 

June 23rd, 2021

US Could Slow Afghanistan Withdrawal Over Taliban Gains

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Monday suggested that the US is considering slowing down the pace of the Afghanistan withdrawal due to gains made by the Taliban in recent fighting against the Afghan government.

"The situation in Afghanistan changes as the Taliban continue to conduct these attacks and to raid district centers as well as the violence, which is still too high," Kirby told reporters. "If there needs to be changes made to the pace, or to the scope and scale of the retrograde, on any given day or in any given week, we want to maintain the flexibility to do that."

If the US decides to stick around longer than planned, it would only give the Taliban more reason to go on the offensive and could put US troops at risk of being attacked. Since the US-Taliban peace deal was signed in February 2020, no US troops have died in combat in Afghanistan.

By Dave DeCamp

The Inhumanity of Israeli Settler-Colonialism

On June 15, 2021, Israeli far-right nationalists took part in a flag-waving march through occupied East Jerusalem. The so-called March of the Flags beats the drums of colonialism - it is an open celebration of the anniversary of Israel's 1967 occupation of the city's eastern part. The Israeli government decided shortly after the end of the 1967 war to annex East Jerusalem into the State of Israel. Israel had already violated a 1949 UN decision to internationalize Jerusalem by moving its governmental offices from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

In June 1967, this was an official and de jure annexation, accompanied by the expulsion of Palestinians in the Old City and the expropriation of private land around the region. Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem and the consequent declaration of a "unified Jerusalem" as the "Jewish capital" of Israel prompted Security Council condemnation in Resolution 478 (1980) as a form of territorial acquisition by force. It is evident that the March of the Flags is patently unacceptable and illegitimate because it expresses support for a colonial endeavor which is both dehumanizing and illegal.

By Yanis Iqbal

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The US Could Be Using Iran's Election to Sabotage Nuclear Deal

Biden administration officials are downplaying the idea that Iran's presidential election will impact negotiations to revive the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA. But the election of Ebrahim Raisi, a judge under US sanctions who is close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, might give President Biden the excuse to blame the failure to salvage the JCPOA on Tehran.

While he's viewed as a hardliner, Raisi has endorsed the negotiations with the US and favors a revival of the JCPOA if the US lifts sanctions. The issue is, the Biden administration refuses to lift all Trump-era sanctions. The current government of Hassan Rouhani is negotiating what sanctions the US is willing to lift. Limited sanctions relief might not be acceptable to Raisi since Washington violated the deal in the first place.

By Dave DeCamp

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Students Fight the War Machine on College Campuses

It's no secret that college campuses have always been one of the most steadfast bastions of antiwar sentiment throughout America. Indeed, student resistance to illegal, imperialist wars from Vietnam to Iraq has been well documented. Countless students participated in draft card burnings, building occupations, and protests against these wars and other acts of aggression. But less examined is the history of student action against the more surreptitious aspects of the "military-industrial complex". I was able to research this relationship at my institution, Cornell University, in the process of pushing for Cornell's divestment from weapons manufacturers involved in the War in Yemen, and found an insidious partnership built on blood money. It prompted me to examine all aspects of the deep ties between universities and the war machine.

By Joseph Mullen

The Economic War on Iran Needs To End

The U.S. economic war on Iran hasn't ended, and one of the costs of that war has been the increasing authoritarianism of the Iranian government. The "maximum pressure" campaign is not solely responsible for empowering Iranian hard-liners and contributing to the rigged victory of Ebrahim Raisi, the head of Iran's judiciary, but it has significantly undermined reformists, impoverished middle class Iranians, stifled the political opposition, and strengthened the hand of the most repressive elements in Iran's government. US sanctions have oppressed and starved the Iranian people, and all of that was done ostensibly so that the Iranian government might give up additional concessions on issues that scarcely matter to the United States. Like other economic wars the US is waging, the economic war on Iran is purely destructive and serves no legitimate purpose.

By Daniel Larison

UK's New Aircraft Carrier Launching Airstrikes Against ISIS in Iraq

As part of its maiden voyage, the UK's new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is in the eastern Mediterranean, where it will join the US-led coalition in the fight against ISIS in Iraq. A UK naval commander said the carrier will be conducting the "lion's share" of operations against ISIS in Iraq for the next few weeks.

"At the moment, we're taking on the lion's share of that operation over Iraq, which is a fantastic, say, feather in our cap. But an achievement that 'A,' we're trusted and 'B,' that we're able to do that," Commodore Stephen Moorhouse, the commander of the Queen Elizabeth's strike group, said on Sunday.

By Dave DeCamp

Black Sea: US, Ukraine To Lead Naval Exercise With 32 Nations From Six Continents

Ray McGovern on the Biden-Putin Summit

Despite Pushing Them Together, the US Is Unhappy With Closer Russia-China Ties

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