Eric Margolis, internationally syndicated columnist and author of American Raj, discusses the fundamentally flawed Middle East countries created after the Ottoman Empire’s dissolution; the US’s first attempt at regime change in Syria in 1948, as told in The Game of Nations: The Amorality of Power Politics; a history of the Baath Party; the chance for regional autonomy in Syria instead of a bloody civil war; why the US insists on picking fights with Russia in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Syria; and...

Eric Margolis, internationally syndicated columnist and author of American Raj, discusses Pakistan’s potential for dissolution; the Lebanonization of Syria; why Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is urging India to get more involved in Afghanistan; India’s big-spending on Afghanistan’s ethnic minorities; and what a foreign military “trainer” really is.

Eric Margolis, internationally syndicated columnist and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses his article “Cuba Starts to Come Alive;” hanging out with Ernest Hemingway in pre-revolutionary Cuba; why meaningful reform will be delayed until the “old fossil” hardliners die off; how to liberalize the Cuban economy and property rights while preventing US domination; Midwest agricultural exports not subject to the embargo; how Venezuela filled the Soviet void and saved...

Eric Margolis, internationally syndicated columnist and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses his article “The Dangerous Mess in Syria Grows Murkier;” the foreign forces instigating regime change by supporting Syria’s rebellion; why fractured Arab nations – which are mostly colonial relics – can’t be made whole again; how Republican warmongering has finally gone too far, alienating the electorate and damaging the party; and the US’s waning international influence,...

Eric Margolis, internationally syndicated columnist and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses the many countries covertly and overtly supporting Syria’s armed resistance; the Western media’s one-sided anti-Assad coverage; how the US is hijacking the Arab Spring, toppling unfriendly dictators (while protecting compliant ones) and subverting genuine grassroots democratic revolutions; the near-total elimination of al-Qaeda, so that it exists mostly as a catchall name...

Eric Margolis, internationally syndicated columnist and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses the conflict in Syria, where Western-backed instigators and a legitimate domestic opposition face off against the Assad regime – which still enjoys widespread popular support; the consequences of Syrian regime change for Palestinians, Iran and Hezbollah; how Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are exporting homegrown Islamic radicals to fight in Syria (shades of 1980s...

Eric Margolis, internationally syndicated columnist and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses the mid-1980s declaration of Osama bin Laden’s mentor Abdullah Azzam that the mujahideen would go after US forces in Saudi Arabia after the Soviets were expelled from Afghanistan; taking a closer look at the “they hate us for our freedom” explanation of Islamic extremism; the angry know-nothing Republican presidential candidates (with two exceptions); and how the...

Eric Margolis, internationally syndicated columnist and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses his article “Nuclear Pots Call Iranian Kettle Black;” why Iran hasn’t developed nuclear weapons despite having incentives to do so; the US-sourced chemical and biological warfare agents used by Saddam Hussein against Iran in the 1980s; why Iran is far more likely to be “wiped off the map” by Israel than the other way around; and how Syria – as the last Arab state not...

Eric Margolis, internationally syndicated columnist and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses how a Libyan-style regime change in Syria could give the neoconservatives a backdoor-to-war with Iran; talk of securing Netanyahu’s legacy through a Churchill-like “moment of greatness” where he attacks Iran and saves Israel from another holocaust; behind-the-scenes fighting by British and French special forces in Libya; why Turkey is harboring an anti-Syrian “army” of...

Eric Margolis, internationally syndicated columnist and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses his healthy skepticism of all FBI sting operations, especially this latest Iranian assassination plot; the curious targeting of Saudi Arabia’s ambassador – hardly a powerhouse political figure; cooperation between the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia on getting rid of the Assad government in Syria; the long term neoconservative plan to break up Arab countries into stateless...