Portside

Clone Wars in Taiwan; Casino Man Hedges Bets - Calls for Nuking Iran; R.I.P. Dark Knight Lou Reed; Busted for Shopping While Black; Teaching Economics Needs to Catch Up

The fact that the first round of talks on Oct.15 was hailed by Iran and the P5+1 as “positive” has energized opponents of the negotiations, who are moving to block any attempts at softening international sanctions against Teheran, while at the same time pressing for a military solution to the conflict.

Reader Comments: Eliseo Medina and UFW; American Exceptionalism; Income Gap;Atomic Bomb Near Mishap; Walmart; Govt Shutdown; Syria & Peace movement; South Africa; Iran; Prisons for Profit graphic; Announcements - National Teach-In on Syria -Oct 8; Che Guevara Assassination - Bay Area-Oct 19; Support CUNY Students; Organizing Boot Camps-United Students Against Sweatshops; Economic Bill of Rights for the 21st Century - New York-Oct 18; Job Opening at In These Times

Potential diplomatic breakthroughs in Syria and Iran are apparently unnerving Israel's right-wing leadership.

Obama's plan to bomb Syria with cruise missiles will do nothing to hasten the end of the conflict. Instead, it will likely prolong it. The US couldn't end the Iraqi civil war despite having over 100,000 boots on the ground. It is highly unlikely that Washington can end this one from 30,000 feet. The "limited" Tomahawk Cruise missile strikes with "no boots on the ground" are quickly expanding to "a broader strategy" to arm and strengthen opposition rebels.

Twenty-nine years ago the Turkish government was burning Kurdish villages and scattering refugees throughout the region. Some 45,000 people—mostly Kurds— lost their lives in that long-running conflict. Today, Turkey is negotiating with its traditional nemesis, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and trying to cut a peace deal that would deliver Kurdish support to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s push to amend Turkey’s constitution and prolong his rule.

Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East. Breaking all President Barack Obama’s rules of disengagement, the US is now fully engaged on the side of armed groups which include the most extreme Sunni Islamist movements in the Middle East. For the first time, all of America’s ‘friends’ in the region are Sunni Muslims and all of its enemies are Shiites.

NSA, Syria, Iran, Occupy, surveillance and more ...

In the face of Iran's economic crisis and declining living conditions, none of the current candidates on the ballot has put forward a tangible economic plan that addresses workers’ concerns. They have made references to difficulties and criticized the Ahmadinejad administration’s mismanagement and corruption, but they have not proposed or discussed any solutions to the workers’ plight.