The Trump White House is refusing to rule out a draft, and also won’t rule out sending current all-volunteer troops into Iran, and look at the hue and cry that has arisen from the likes of former Trump backer Rep.Margery Taylor Greene: “Not my son! Over my dead body!!!!” With conscription, most mothers and fathers would be saying the same thing. More
The Iran war is a war of choice. But that doesn’t tell us much, does it? All wars are wars of choice. The questions are: was it a necessary choice? Was it a good choice? Was it a rational choice? Were the consequences considered? Who made the choice and why? We still don’t know the answers to these questions. More
Just as Egypt snatched a diplomatic victory from the jaws of military defeat in 1956 by shutting the Suez Canal, so Iran has now closed off the Middle East’s other critical choke point by firing its Shahed drones at five freighters in the Straits of Hormuz (through which 20% of global crude oil and natural gas regularly passes) and at petroleum refineries on the southern shore of the Persian Gulf. Iran’s drone strikes have blocked more than 90% of tanker departures from the Persian Gulf and shut down the massive Qatari refineries that produce 20% of the world supply of Liquified Natural Gas, sending natural gas prices soaring by 50% in much of the world and by 91% in Asia — with the price of gasoline in the U.S. heading for $4 a gallon and the cost of oil likely to reach a staggering $150 per barrel in the near future. Moreover, through the conversion of natural gas to fertilizer, the Persian Gulf is the source for nearly half the world’s agricultural nutrients, with prices soaring by 37% for urea fertilizer in markets like Egypt and threatening both spring planting in the northern hemisphere and food security in the global south. More
In the second year of Donald Trump’s second term, beginning with the kidnaping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 2, 2026, followed by the war of choice he has waged against Iran alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the U.S. president has continued his demolition of the 80-year-old global order set up by Washington in the aftermath of the Second World War. More
This week on CounterPunch Radio, Erik Wallenberg and Joshua Frank talk to journalist Sam Kimball about Israel’s illegal occupation of Syria, Zionist expansion in Lebanon, and the US/Israel war on Iran.
Read Sam Kimball’s piece, Zionist Expansion: A First-Hand Account of Israel’s Illegal Occupation of Southwestern Syria.
Support the CounterPunch Investigative Fund.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
In this episode of Counterpunch Radio, Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt speaks with Emanuel Ovadia, a researcher and educator on radical Jewish traditions in the Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region. Emanuel shares stories of Muslim-Jewish relations, the politics of language, and the Jewish radical traditions outside of the typical “Ashkenormative” European or American Jewish left. We discuss how the multi-lingual, transnational, and transcultural history of the region debunks zionist myths of Jewish supremacy, and the importance of uplifting the cultural memory of ancestors who may have been assimilated into “Israeli” or other colonial identities across the SWANA region. You can find Emanuel’s quarterly zine, Gazoz De Frambuaz, and his Instagram at https://linktr.ee/gdframbuaz.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Joshua Frank and Erik Wallenberg are joined by Brian Jones to discuss his new book, Black History Is for Everyone, out now with Haymarket Books.
In Black History Is for Everyone, Brian Jones offers a meditation on the power of Black history, using his own experiences as a lifelong learner and classroom teacher to question everything—from the radicalism of the American Revolution to the meaning of “race” and “nation.”
Brian Jones has taught many ages and grades in New York City’s public schools and the City University of New York. He served as the inaugural director of the Center for Educators and Schools at the New York Public Library and was the associate director of education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He is also the author of The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History.
Buy a copy of Black History Is for Everyone.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
