Because of ignorance, lack of honouring basic journalistic standards and political correctness vis-a-vis owners and governments. February 23, 2019 Of course, the freedom of the free Western mainstream media means the freedom to deceive, use fake and omission as much as they like. Here is a well-informed article by Marc Cook in the media-analytical, critical FAIR – Fairness and Accuracy […]
And why I am switching balances from the most noble and important – but momentarily meaningless – job to something more rewarding… February 1, 2019 Just yesterday, I posted this extremely important and modest appeal – the Basel Appeal – on our foundation’s homepage, The Transnational, here. It was disseminated to social media, among others, my FB profile, TFF’s and […]
By Jan Oberg December 6, 2018 How interesting! President Trump tweets on December 3, that he believes that the present level of military expenditures are ‘crazy’ – and he wants to talk with China and Russia about reducing them. I was asked by Russia Today to comment on that and here is what I said – being granted long enough […]
Verdensbanken har netop udsendt en rapport om uddannelsen i Østen længst væk fra os – for dem er det jo et ret så nært Østen. Regionen har 7 af de 10 bedste uddannelsessystemer i verden og ”bedste” betyder at uddannelsessystemet når ud til flest muligt fra grundskolen og opad, satser på lighed og giver de socialt mindre velstilledes børn en […]
Why is the UN still so important – in spite of having had its Charter violated repeatedly during the last 25 years? Why should we not – cynically – side with the cynical and powerful countries that want to undermine and marginalise the world’s finest organisation with the most Gandhian-like document ever signed by governments? What is the real UN and what does its Charter really say? Here I try to cover some of the answers in this 6 min video produced as Facebook Live on October 24, 2017.
With his speech today – half an hour ago – U.S. President Trump has taken a huge step into uncharted territories. (Here on video). One that implies a 60-75% risk of leading to a US attack on Iran. Behind him stands the hardline militarists whom he has himself appointed. Secondly, neo-conservative individuals and think tanks who have brought the world only a series of failed wars and unspeakable human misery since the invasion of Afghanistan. Third, the Military-Industrial-Media-Academic Complex, MIMAC, that is outside real democratic control and pushes relentlessly for ever-increasing armament and wars and serves the public all kinds of weird, fake images of what threatens the US. Further, pro-Israeli and pro-Saudi lobby organisations and extremely wealthy individuals who buy political influence and thereby destroy the very foundations of democracy and free opinion formation. • Against these numerically tiny elites stand virtually the rest of the world, including NATO allies and the EU.
Does the U.S. have anything constructive and benign to offer the world anymore? In this comment on PressTV I list a series of arguments against these new sanctions which were passed by the US Senate two days later.
I read dozens of articles every day about various conflict zones, commentaries, war reports and – the few times it happens – possibilities of peace. I read about Syria in particular as I have since I visited Damascus and Aleppo in December 2016. It’s important that one does not, over time, develop the disease called “psychic numbing” – an excellent […]
A debate on PressTV between Jan Oberg and Jim Walsh, MIT Here is a link to a partial transcript
Comment on Iran’s PressTV
There should be a lower intellectual level to the statements by a US Secretary of Defence. There should be a debunking of the unethical behaviour that repeatedly state that there is only a political solution to Syria and continue to use only violence. There should be a discussion about international law here. There should be a discussion of what is […]
“The Debate” with Jim Walsh, MIT and Jan Oberg, TFF Lund, Sweden – May 30, 2017 Last night “The Debate” on PressTV was devoted to the future of European-US relations in the wake of the NATO Summit, President Trump’s words and omissions and the – historic – words, in particular, of Chancellor Angela Merkel immediately after. Undoubtedly, we are at a turning point in these relations in general and for the NATO alliance in particular. To discuss these issues – past, present and future perspectives – were Jim Walsh, senior research associate at MIT’s Security Studies Program, Massachusetts, and Jan Oberg, director of TFF, Lund. Thanks to PressTV’s excellently structured program and interviewer we touched upon a series of aspects and dimensions around which we found both agreements and slight disagreements – all in a sober tone fit for public education and personal reflection. We hope this debate will stimulate your own thoughts about the future of war, security and peace. We’d be grateful for your sharing it to media people, students and other academics as well as to decision-makers in the field that you may know. See it here – The Debate
This is TFF Live on Facebook – the live broadcast I do now and then because live broadcasts have a much larger dissemination than articles, images, texts and Youtube videos. You may find more here. I argue why I believe NATO belongs to the past and should have been dissolved when the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact dissolved in […]
Here I am with my friends Donald, Bibi, Sara and Melania… And speak a little about the stupidity of scapegoating Iran for everything, of giving Saudi Arabia even more weapons – and being bribed by it – of creating the preconditions for more warfare and about the fact that NATO is setting up shop in Kuwait and there are plans to have a Gulf NATO – something you can read much more about in my analysis Trump in Riyadh – A Gulf NATO to gang up against Iran and Syria. It’s a TFF PressInfo and you can subscribe to them too so they wing into your mailbox – very irregularly and not too often… write to PI@transnational.org – and they are free of course and many of the best things in life.
TFF Live April 12, 2017 The secretaries of state, Tillerson and Lavrov meet today. We seem to enter a stage of what must appropriately be perceived as a frosty new Cold War. In the worst of cases this can lead to a new Cuban Missile Crisis. God forbid!
TFF PressInfo # 405 Lund, Sweden – February 24, 2017 Failed conflict analysis To analyse a conflict is as necessary as the diagnosis for the doctor: You either get to a solution/treatment or you don’t. If the diagnosis is deficient, you don’t. You instead risk killing the patient. And it’s deficient of you stare only at “evil” cells and […]
A 30 min debate about NATO, Ukraine, Crimea, Yugoslavia, Syria the eternal enemy images and the – obsolete – philosophy on which NATO builds. Time for something new, I argue in the debate with former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defence under Reagon, Mr. Lawrence J. Korb who at the time was in command of 70% of Pentagon’s budget. Here in TFF PressInfo # 403 is a little longer text about this debate and there is also a little about my experience and policy vis-a-vis the media.
By Jan Oberg I shot this simple video out of the window on December 13, 2016. I wonder about Aleppo and say #keepfocusonaleppo © Jan Oberg 2016 Here in the Sheikh Najjar Industrial City outside Aleppo lived and worked 40,000 people. It had 50% of Syria’s industrial capacity. Today – after the occupation by Western-backed militants and terrorist groups – this is what is left. I wonder why the Syrian government did not destroy this industrial city between 2000 and 2012. We are told that all this destruction is caused only by that side and the dictator kills his own. I wonder where the terrorists used the weapons and spent the money they got from NATO countries – Turkey in particular – Saudi and Qatar since they did not do any of this destruction here – according to Western media and the White Helmet reporters and a series of humanitarian organisations. I also wonder where the Western left is? Solidarity with the workers who lived here? No many among them defend this and want to arm this or that group even more. The more I study, the more I wonder. And something doesn’t seem right.
Commenting with David Swanson, leading and sharp peace intellectual, on the inauguration of Trump – also about the legacy of Barrack Obama. For Iran’s international PressTV. Posted on TFF’s blog.
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