Archiv: foreign policy establishment


30.05.2026 - 17:50 [ American Prospect ]

The Miller Doctrine

(May 27, 2026)

Yet proposals that skirt the edges of international law didn’t come out of nowhere. The U.S. under George W. Bush created legal mechanisms following the September 11th attacks to torture hundreds of people in CIA black sites and then at Guantanamo Bay. The Obama administration’s targeted drone strikes were assassinations by another name. The Biden administration further eroded international norms and subverted its own policies by financing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, in violation of the Leahy Law, which prohibits foreign military assistance to nations that violate human rights.

“Seems like Miller is sort of taking what he was already willing to do during the first term and then combining that with what Israel has been doing in the way it has just been completely ignoring any kind of international law, Geneva Conventions, any of it in its conduct in Gaza and Lebanon, to then influence U.S. foreign policy,” Annelle Sheline, a research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said in an interview.

In other words, Miller and the Trump administration have been able to steamroll what was left of international law; they just had to figure out how to do it.

30.05.2026 - 17:17 [ New York Times ]

The Agony Around the Democrats’ Mysterious, Ridiculous Autopsy

(May 22, 2026)

Rarely has a document been at once as mysterious and anticlimactic as the Democratic National Committee’s autopsy of what went wrong in the 2024 election, which, after much drama and angst, was finally published on Thursday.

The committee’s chair, Ken Martin, promised a full audit of party operations when he was running for his seat, and again when he won it. Last July, officials said it would be out in the fall. Fall came and went, and in December, Martin said it wouldn’t be released at all. By hiding it, Martin made the report an object of suspicion and fascination.

22.05.2026 - 00:51 [ Times of Israel ]

Gaza war and Israel go unmentioned in Democrats’ 2024 election autopsy report

Axios reported in February that the top Democrats who worked on the report concluded that Harris “lost significant support because of the Biden administration’s approach to the war in Gaza.”

If that’s the case, it’s not reflected in the document that CNN published on Thursday morning.

22.05.2026 - 00:43 [ CNN ]

Read the DNC’s 2024 autopsy obtained by CNN

CNN is publishing a copy of a report into why Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election conducted at the request of Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin.

This version of the report – better known as the 2024 autopsy – was written by Democratic strategist Paul Rivera. The DNC withheld the report until presented with CNN’s reporting about much of its contents. The copy published by CNN includes annotations in red that the DNC added to its version of Rivera’s report. CNN has not modified the report and does not vouch for the accuracy of any statements within the report or the DNC’s annotations.

13.05.2026 - 14:30 [ Asia Times ]

Trump-Xi meet as petroyuan rises on Iran war’s tide

As US credibility crumbles across the Gulf, China’s petroyuan fast emerging as the currency of Asia’s post-war energy order

28.04.2026 - 05:48 [ New York Times ]

Israel Found the Hamas Money Machine Years Ago. Nobody Turned It Off.

(December 16, 2023)

Israeli leaders believed that Hamas was more interested in governing than fighting. By the time the agents discovered the ledgers in 2018, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was encouraging the government of Qatar to deliver millions of dollars to the Gaza Strip. He gambled that the money would buy stability and peace.

Mr. Levy recalled briefing Mr. Netanyahu personally in 2015 about the Hamas portfolio.

25.04.2026 - 17:57 [ New York Times ]

The Race for Congress: Latest 2026 Polls

Recent polling on the congressional generic ballot shows Democrats with a modest advantage. The party out of power typically gains ground in midterm elections, and these early surveys suggest this may be taking shape ahead of 2026. Democrats lead in the vast majority of recent polls, though by single-digit margins. However, with redistricting efforts underway in several states, the national vote share that Democrats need to retake the House will depend on the extent of these changes.

04.04.2026 - 07:36 [ Spencer Ackerman / Forever-Wars.com ]

So You Lost A War To Iran

(March 31, 2026)

Iran, despite the decapitation of its leadership, has dealt the United States a strategic defeat in the classical sense. It will end the war in a stronger position than when it came under attack. The United States will end the war in a weaker position than before it launched its war. The rest is details.

(…)

Welcome to strategic defeat—or, I should say, welcome back, considering the whole War on Terror and all, and the Vietnam War. Only this time the consequences of defeat for the Americans are set to be far more severe.

31.03.2026 - 18:36 [ Tucker Carlson ]

Former Interim President of Israel Avraham Burg Speaks Out on Netanyahu’s Killing Spree

(March 24, 2026)

Avraham Burg, former speaker of the Knesset and interim president of Israel, on why Netanyahu can never settle, only kill.

27.03.2026 - 12:05 [ Deutsche Bank Research Institute ]

What Iran means for the dollar: a perfect storm for the petrodollar

(March 24, 2026)

The world saves in dollars in large part because it pays in dollars. The dollar‘s dominance in cross-border trade is arguably built on the petrodollar: globally traded oil is priced and invoiced in USD. This arrangement can be traced to a deal struck in 1974 where Saudi Arabia agreed to price oil in USD and invest surpluses in USD assets, in exchange for US security guarantees. Because oil is a core input to global manufacturing and transport, there is a natural incentive for global value chains to dollarize, and global surpluses to accumulate in USD.

The foundations of the petrodollar regime have been under pressure even before this conflict. Most Middle East oil is now sold to Asia not the US; sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran has already been trading off dollar rails; Saudi Arabia has been localizing defence, and experimenting with forms of non-dollar payment infrastructure such as Project mBridge.

The current conflict may expose further fault lines, by challenging the US security umbrella for Gulf infrastructure and the maritime security for global trade in oil. Damage to Gulf economies could encourage an unwind in their foreign asset savings held largely in dollars. In this context, reports that the passage for ships through the Strait of Hormuz may be granted in exchange for oil payments in yuan should be closely followed. The conflict could be remembered as a key catalyst for erosion in petrodollar dominance, and the beginnings of the petroyuan.

27.03.2026 - 11:54 [ Middle East Eye ]

War on Iran could be ‚catalyst‘ for erosion of US petrodollar, Deutsche Bank says

The petrodollar helps keep borrowing costs down for US consumers and Washington, giving them big advantages over peers

19.03.2026 - 16:14 [ 8pmNews.com ]

“Stop Us From Getting Into A War”: Joe Kent Reveals Charlie Kirk’s Final Warning In Bombshell Tucker Carlson Interview

The most striking moment of the interview came when Kent recounted his final meeting with Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA founder who was instrumental in the current administration’s rise and the selection of JD Vance as Vice President.

“The last time I saw Charlie Kirk on this Earth was in June, in the West Wing,” Kent told Carlson. “He looked me in the eye and he said… ‘Joe, stop us from getting into a war with Iran.’”

According to Kent, Kirk—who was assassinated on September 10, 2025—was one of the few top-tier advisors vocally urging the President to avoid a Middle Eastern conflagration and to “rethink” the unconditional nature of the U.S.-Israeli partnership.

19.03.2026 - 16:05 [ Independent.co.uk ]

Former counterterrorism chief says he was blocked from investigating Charlie Kirk’s killing

Joe Kent publicly announced his resignation as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center on March 17, stating that he “cannot in good conscience” support the U.S.’s war with Iran.

Kirk was shot dead during a public appearance in Utah on September 10, 2025. A day after his resignation, Kent appeared on The Tucker Carlson Show, where he claimed that his investigation into the killing was blocked.

19.03.2026 - 13:58 [ Tucker Carlson / Youtube ]

Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump’s Counterterrorism Director

Joe Kent is a former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center and the President’s principal counterterrorism advisor, who served 20 years in the U.S. Army with 11 combat deployments fighting terrorist networks with the 75th Ranger Regiment, Army Special Forces, and U.S. Army Special Operations Command, earning six Bronze Stars. Joe is also a Gold Star husband whose first wife, Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, also served and was killed while fighting ISIS in Syria in 2019.

19.03.2026 - 13:51 [ Semafor.com ]

Exclusive: FBI investigates intelligence aide who resigned over war

Trump aides and allies denounced Kent as a leaker immediately after his resignation became public.

Kent wrote in his resignation letter that Iran poses “no imminent threat to our nation” and accused Trump of initiating the war “due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

The FBI and the White House declined to comment.

19.03.2026 - 13:38 [ The Young Turks / Youtube ]

Joe Kent: Trump Is LYING To You

Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, talks to Tucker Carlson about Iran and his resignation letter. Ana Kasparian discusses on The Young Turks.

19.03.2026 - 13:30 [ CNN ]

Takeaways from former Trump administration counterterrorism chief Joe Kent’s extensive interview

“There was no intelligence that said, hey, on whatever day it was, March 1st, the Iranians are going to launch this big sneak attack, they’re going to do some kind of a 9/11, Pearl Harbor, etc. They’re going to attack one of our bases. There was none of that intelligence,” Kent said.

Trump and the the White House have repeatedly cited an imminent threat posed by Iran as an impetus for launching strikes against the country.

Kent further argued that the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who died last month in joint US and Israeli strikes, had been moderating the country’s nuclear program.

17.03.2026 - 17:38 [ Taylor and Francis Online ]

Stephen Miller and the cultural politics of fascist subjectivity

(March 11, 2026)

Miller’s very being evokes the cold mechanization of a machine, a body turned against itself, moving without rhythm, empathy, or grace. His presence feels engineered: cold, scarred, and hollowed out, the body made into an instrument of command. It is as if a war within himself has long since been lost, a war against vulnerability, imagination, and the capacity to feel. What remains is a man armored against life itself.

17.03.2026 - 17:20 [ theAtlantic.com ]

The Wrath of Stephen Miller

(January 7, 2026)

Trump has described Miller as sitting “at the top of the totem pole” inside the White House.

“He oversees every policy the administration touches,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told us. “I can’t tell you the number of times a policy matter is discussed in the Oval and Trump will say, ‘Where’s Stephen? Tell him to get that done.’”

To critics, Miller is the smirking embodiment of everything they view as dangerous and authoritarian about the Trump administration. He has been called a Nazi, a neo-Nazi, a white supremacist, a kapo, and Lord Voldemort. Posters of Miller—pursed lips, furrowed brow—have been plastered around the nation’s capital, stamped with CREEP and FASCISM AIN’T PRETTY. His own uncle has denounced him, writing at one point that if Miller’s immigration policies had been implemented a century ago, their family—which fled anti-Jewish pogroms in Europe—“would have been wiped out.”

17.03.2026 - 17:10 [ BBC ]

‚Trump‘s psyche‘: The aide driving president‘s most controversial policies

(February 9, 2026)

„By what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland?“ Miller asked. „Nobody is going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.“

He went on to assert that there are „iron laws of the world“.

„We live in a world, in the real world… that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,“ he said.

It was heady stuff coming on the heels of America‘s surgically precise use of military force in Venezuela. And, for a president who a few days later would tell the New York Times that the only limit on his global powers are „my own morality“ and „my own mind“, it may have been warmly received.

17.03.2026 - 16:52 [ New York Times ]

America, Alone

Operation Epic Fury is accurate branding for the war, Peter Baker writes. By the president’s own description, everything he does is epic — the most, the biggest, the best. And Trump is certainly driven by fury. Anger is at the heart of much of his work. He chose the name himself.

Here’s one (epic) paragraph of Peter’s analysis:

Anger defines Mr. Trump’s decade on the political stage. Anger at foreigners who come to this country and change its nature. Anger at allies who take advantage of America. Anger at Democrats who cross him. Anger at Republicans who cross him. Anger at appointees he deems insufficiently loyal. Anger at prosecutors, F.B.I. agents, judges, journalists, law firms, elite universities, cultural figures, corporate leaders, pollsters, central bankers and the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

17.03.2026 - 16:27 [ Joe Kent / X ]

After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today. I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran.

Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.

It has been an honor serving under @POTUS and @DNIGabbard and leading the professionals at NCTC.

May God bless America.

17.03.2026 - 16:21 [ New York Times ]

Joe Kent, a Top U.S. Counterterrorism Official, Resigns Over the Iran War

Mr. Kent is the first Trump administration official to quit in opposition to the conflict. He said pressure from Israel had pushed the president into war against Iran.

11.02.2026 - 21:35 [ Vanity Fair ]

The Mogul and the Monster: Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Decades-Long Relationship With His Biggest Client

(June 8, 2021)

During the 1990s, both Epstein’s and Wexner’s profiles grew on the world stage. In 1991, Wexner cofounded a philanthropic organization of Jewish billionaires known as the Mega Group, which uses some of its vast resources to shape Middle East policy. In 2003, Wexner’s foundation commissioned GOP messaging guru Frank Luntz to advise American Jewish leaders on how to rally support for Israel. “For a year—a SOLID YEAR—you should be invoking the name of Saddam Hussein and how Israel was always behind American efforts to rid the world of this ruthless dictator and liberate their people,” Luntz’s recommendation stated.

Epstein kept close in that circle of influence.

05.02.2026 - 21:05 [ theIntercept.com ]

DNC Votes Down “Overwhelming Popular Position” Calling for Arms Ban to Israel

(August 26, 2026)

The resolution had been met with resistance from DNC Chair Ken Martin, despite polls showing overwhelming opposition to Israel’s military actions in Gaza from Democratic voters. The weapons ban resolution was put forward by a first-time DNC member to represent the views of younger party members.

“While it’s disappointing that DNC leadership wasn’t able to recognize that this is an overwhelming popular position, a 90-10 issue within its base, it started a conversation,” the resolution’s author, 26-year-old DNC member Allison Minnerly, told The Intercept. “As we approach 2026, it’s not going to go away, the more we delay having a hard conversation like this one.”

05.02.2026 - 21:02 [ Prospect.org ]

The Idiocy (Both Moral and Strategic) of the Democratic National Committee

(August 28, 2026)

It did vote for a resolution essentially restating the Biden administration’s position on the war: calling for a two-state solution, for the release of hostages, for an end to the conflict. That resolution said nothing, however, about America’s ongoing provision of the arms with which the Netanyahu government is waging its war.

The resolution that was adopted was authored by DNC Chair Ken Martin. The one that was squelched was authored by Allison Minnerly, a 26-year-old DNC member from Florida who’s a voter mobilization organizer. Her resolution was backed by most of the DNC’s young members, including the leaders of the College Democrats of America and the High School Democrats of America.

05.02.2026 - 20:05 [ CNN ]

The Epstein storm could topple a world leader — but it’s not Trump

His premiership hung by a thread Thursday after a revolt by MPs in his Labour Party further damaged a 10 Downing Street operation staggering from crisis to crisis.

Starmer tried to clarify his earlier statement in parliament on Wednesday that he knew about the friendship between former Cabinet minister Peter Mandelson and Epstein — but still made him ambassador to Washington.