The American Military’s Repetition-Compulsion Complex. By Ann Jones.

Even if the referendum was born out of political manoeuvring within Iraqi Kurdistan, it has now built up its own momentum as Kurds rally around their red, white and green flag. By Patrick Cockburn.

Kyiv should cease negotiations with Right Sector and declare its armed forces illegal, prosecuting those who continue to fight under its banner while allowing qualified former members to enroll in the National Guard and other state security organs as individuals. By Kimberly Marten, Olga Oliker. (Sept. 14, 2017)

There's a playbook for committing atrocities and being absolved of them. It wasn't written by George W Bush, now a retired painter of dogs in the US state of Texas, but it was popularised and legitimised by his administration at the dawn of the 21st century. And the world today, with its multiple bloody wars on terror fought by allies and foes of Washington alike, sometimes begrudgingly together, reflects this bequeathment.

The concept would be familiar to anyone who has watched the Spiderman movies.

More than 100,000 were dragged into these camps. Many never made it out alive. By Mark Oliver.

This widely overlooked conflict changed world history forever. By Erin Kelly.

In supporting a watered-down version of North Korea sanctions, China and Russia had a stern warning for the U.S.: Don’t try to overthrow Kim Jong Un’s regime.

As the rules prohibiting the use of force are crumbling, we risk returning to a world where might is right and war is legal.

There is now a discernible pattern to US manipulation of the UN Security Council when it wants UN endorsement for US-NATO acts of aggression. It is a formula which led to the destruction of Iraq and Libya, and in 1950-1953 led to the destruction of North Korea and most of South Korea. This deadly trajectory is once again becoming visible, and the code is revealed in the three words: “all necessary measures,” which are deciphered to mean US-NATO aggressive war.

NORTHKOREA-MISSILES/PUTIN:Putin warns N. Korea situation on verge of 'large-scale conflict'

Ukrainian military observers have claimed that the number of Russian tanks and heavy armaments spotted in the east of Ukraine has increased tenfold since fighting began in the region in 2014. Moscow has long denied a military presence in two Ukrainian regions close to its border, Donetsk and Luhansk, where uprisings following the ousting of Ukraine’s pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych three years ago quicky descended into war between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army.

Author Harry Leslie Smith remembers the prelude to the second world war – and there are worrying echoes now

Israel and North Korea are on opposite sides of the Asian landmass, separated by 5,000 miles as the ICBM flies. But Israelis feels close to the nuclear standoff between Washington and Pyongyang. They have faced this sort of crisis before, and may again. Some history: In the mid-1970s, it became clear to Israel that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was working on acquiring nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them. Saddam had already demonstrated an uninhibited brutality in dealing with his internal enemies and his neighbors. He aspired to be the leader of the Arab world. Defeating Israel was at the top of his to-do list.

The operation to liberate Raqqa from ISIS, launched by YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on June 6, continues at full force in its 73rd day.

The Saudi military coalition – which receives logistical support, weapons and political backing from the US and UK – has been accused of killing hundreds of children in Yemen, according to a confidential UN report. The report, which has yet to be made public and could still be changed, says that 51 per cent of all child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year were the result of the Saudi-led military operation. It says the deaths were “unacceptably high”.

During the latter stages of the American Civil War, the H.L. Hunley made history by becoming the first combat submarine to sink an enemy ship. The Confederate crew never returned from its mission, sparking a mystery that’s lasted for over 130 years. An exhaustive new analysis suggests these pioneering submariners didn’t drown or suffocate as commonly believed, but instead died from the shockwave triggered by their very own weapon.

Longtime contrarian continues to be a fly in the establishment's ointment. By Robert W. Merry.

The history—and limitations—of the international refugee regime. By Rana B. Khoury.

My name is Kainoa Little, and I am a Shoreline, Washington-based conflict photographer. I was in Mosul in April and May 2017, documenting Iraqi forces as they fought Islamic State militants to liberate the city. I tried and failed to find newspapers and wire services who would purchase my photos. But the soldiers had fed me and given me a seat in their Humvees, and the refugees had tolerated my presence on some of the worst days of their lives. They very rightly expected that I would tell their story.

Why future conflicts could be full of “light.” By Sebastien Roblin.

Famed historian Alfred McCoy predicts that China is set to surpass the influence of the U.S. globally, both militarily and economically, by the year 2030. By Jeremy Scahill.

“Despite assurances to the contrary, Israel has always been involved in the Syria conflict. Israel’s repeated claims that ‘it maintains a policy of non-intervention in Syria’s civil war,’ only fools US mainstream media.” By Ramzy Baroud.

The site "Monitor" American specialist in the Middle East, published an article, written by US politician Bruce Riddle, on the war in Yemen. The Middle East and South Asia adviser to the National Security Council said in his article that the war was costly for Saudis. According to a new Harvard study, the war in Yemen costs $ 200 Million daily to Saudi Arabia. In the report published on the American website, he pointed out that "there is no better place than the Yemeni battlefield to sink the Saudis further after an indefinite period. If the United States can also be plunged into the crisis, why not?

As President Donald Trump vents his frustration with the United States' "losing" strategy in Afghanistan, the "notorious mercenary" and Blackwater founder Erik Prince has seized the moment to offer his favored alternative: privatize the war. "A private air force and a bombing app! From the people who brought you Blackwater; an even more disturbing idea."

The border standoff began when India opposed China’s plan to extend a border road through a disputed plateau which Bhutan says is its Doklam region and China claims as part of its Donglang region.

By Reza // For nearly 20 years, the legendary Afghan resistant Massoud led his people, first against the Russians, and later against the Taliban, in order to liberate his country. Fifteen years after his assassination on September 9, 2001, this is my tribute to a man of rare intelligence and profound sensibility.

Raytheon will compete with Lockheed Martin to produce the Long Range Standoff weapon.

South Korea's air force has staged a live-fire drill simulating the destruction of North Korea's leadership, hours after Pyongyang launched a missile over Japan. Just before 6 a.m. South Korea time Tuesday, North Korea fired an unidentified missile from near the capital Pyongyang, towards the northeast. It flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, making it the first North Korean projectile to successfully pass over Japanese territory since 1998.

Dima Fedotof

Trump and Crown Prince Salman. By Patrick Cockburn.

It was crude stuff. President Trump called on 55 Muslim leaders assembled in Riyadh to drive out terrorism from their countries. He identified Iran as a despotic state and came near to calling for regime change, though Iran held a presidential election generally regarded as fair only two days previously. He denounced Hezbollah and lined up the US squarely on the side of the Sunni against the Shia in the sectarian proxy war that is tearing apart the Middle East. By Patrick Cockburn.

As the Globe and Mail’s senior international correspondent, Mark MacKinnon has been witness to the tears and panic of multiple terrorist attacks. He writes that we have gotten used to such attacks and each new onslaught carries a message.

The 50 year cover-up of a mass murder of U.S. servicemen orchestrated by Israel and its friends. By Philip Giraldi.

On June 8, during Israel’s preemptive Six-Day War, an act of aggression, not self-defense against regional Arab states, the IDF did the unthinkable… By Stephen Lendman.