Portside

The European debt crisis has little to do with poor budgeting and everything to do with crony capitalism.

There are myriad ways that a peaceful resolution of the Syrian civil war can be derailed, but the pieces for an agreement are on the table. Failure to put them together will accelerate the destabilizing effects of the war in neighboring countries and deepen the misery of the Syrian people.

Book Review: Inside Syria:” The Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect “ by Reese Erlich Forward by Noam Chomsky, Prometheus Press, New York 2014 The book covers Syrian history without bogging the reader down. This is, after all, a report on the on-going civil war. But Erlich does not glide over the important details, including how the U.S. camel first put its nose under the tent.

Unless the institutions of international finance are wrested from the control of a few wealthy nations, and unless there are checks on the ability of the U.S. and its allies to devastate a country's economy over a disagreement on foreign policy, those figures bode for some serious trouble ahead.

Hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, a right-wing Republican, has found allies among former President Bill Clinton's team in his efforts to reap super profits by squeezing the economic life out of Argentina. Argentina is but the latest victim of "Wall Street vultures," who prey upon economically distressed countries by buying up the bonds of debt-strapped countries for "pennies on the dollar" and then demand payment in full.

As Iraq tumbles into yet another civil war, it is important to remember how all this came about, and why adding yet more warfare to the current crisis will perpetuate exactly what the “Great Loot” set out to do: tear an entire region of the world asunder.

True, the neo-Nazis and immigrant bashers will make a lot of noise, but they offer nothing but hate as an economic solution. The left has a better one, and they are back.

Events appear to be moving toward a political solution to the East-West standoff over Ukraine. But as Clausewitz once noted: "Against stupidity, no amount of planning will prevail." Conn Hallinan looks at the possibility of a resolution to the standoff in Ukraine.

Conn Hallinan remembers Carl Bloice— Foreign Policy In Focus columnist, longtime journalist and lifetime advocate for the dispossessed.

While the U.S. and its allies may rail against the recent referendum in the Crimea that broke the peninsula free of Ukraine, Scots will consider a very similar one on Sept. 18, and Catalans would very much like to do the same. So would residents of South Tyrol, and Flemish speakers in northern Belgium.