February 28, 2019 Peace can never be achieved this way a) The issue is about peace, not only nuclear weapons. The US has not been willing to sign a peace agreement after all these years. After some kind of peace process and treaty has been achieved, you can turn to the specific issue of nuclear weapons. b) Making peace takes time, thorough preparations, lots of … Continue reading Why the Kim-Trump Summit was a – predictable – fiasco
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 In Reporting in New York … Continue reading Of course, they deceive you
31. december 2018 Præsident Trump har hér i de sidste uger af 2018 sendt nogle signaler om en fredeligere verden. Og han kom til det Hvide Hus med den helt fornuftige idé om at få et bedre forhold til Rusland. Han har sagt at han synes at de militære udgifter er alt alt for høje og at han vil diskutere med Rusland og Kina … Continue reading Så USA skal forlade Syrien?
5. januar 2019 To samtaler med Frederikshavns Lokalradio, der ledes af den utrætteligt, snart 80-årige Arne Hansen, en af Danmarks vigtigste mediemennesker, der ser verden fra det lokale til det globale og altid har et dybt humanistisk perspektiv. Lyt her. Continue reading Mørke og lyse perspektiver ved indgangen til 2019
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 time to deliver … Continue reading So Trump thinks the military expenditure level is ‘crazy’
That’s what New York Times told us on August 6, 2018, here. How sad for a West that no longer believes in its own core values but goes increasingly authoritarian. In the name of the common good, we get the common bad. 1. What a weak, nervous and insecure society it is that cannot tolerate but has to censor a man like Alex Jones. 2. … Continue reading Apple, Facebook, Spotify and YouTube remove Alex Jones and Infowars content
Jan Oberg Comment A US war game/scenario being reported by The Intercept is pretty revealing for the lack of even the slightest re-thinking of what the Global War On Terror (GWOT) is really all about. The US military’s game is about violence-for-violence, tit-for-tat. The main result from this – anti-intellectual – attitude and policy is that there are about 80 times – yes, times – … Continue reading Main creator of terrorism is US war on terror, not terrorists
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 … Continue reading Why is the UN still so important – while it must also be reformed?
Here is the background article. Funnily, or perhaps not so strange, there is some denial of this story too. Perhaps it wasn’t intended that it should end up in the public domain? And here my comments to this ill-considered escalation. Continue reading Readying B-52 bombers – for what?
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.
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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. Continue reading New sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea
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 concept developed by Robert Jay Lifton, a former TFF Associate.
Today I stumbled upon an article in the Omaha World Herald by Washington Post’s David Ignatius under the headline “The Star-Crossed History of CIA Paramilitary Action.”
I’m not going to discuss that article but would like to call your attention to this sentence – that Ignatius does not even dwell on:
One knowledgeable official estimates that the CIA-backed fighters may have killed or wounded 100,000 Syrian soldiers and their allies over the past four years.
I fail to understand it. I read it again. I’d urge you to do likewise.
A debate on PressTV between Jan Oberg and Jim Walsh, MIT Here is a link to a partial transcript Continue reading The BAN Treaty – it’s significance and why some have isolated themselves from civilisation
Comment on Iran’s PressTV Continue reading The BAN Treaty – Iran and other countries
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 morally defensible in this case, … Continue reading Intellectual nonsense about Syria
“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 … Continue reading The future of U.S.-Europe relations
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 1989. I also say a … Continue reading NATO should be dissolved – 8 arguments
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 … Continue reading Discussing Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia
Försvarsminister Peter Hultqvist och ÖB Micael Bydén skriver på DN Debatt om “Risk för desinformation om militärövningen Aurora” Och det är då just vad de själva sysslar med. Inte ett ord om att det krävs två till att konflikta med varandra. Inte ett ord om NATO:s expansion stick i stäv med givna löften till Gorbachev. Inte ett ord om den USA-drivna regimförändring i Kiev, relaterad … Continue reading Svenska försvarsmaktens desinformation
By Jan Oberg Proud to join “Middle East With Naskah Zada” at her program in New York and talking about the reasons that peace has become so ‘unpopular’. Touching also upon international law, the new Cold War and the increasing U.S. involvement in Syria. Continue reading Lost peace and fake news
Just a thought… Continue reading What foreign policy if the US had no weapons?
I had the pleasure and honour to comment on the Iranian defence minister’s views on the nuclear deal, on a nuclear-free Middle East, terrorism and more. Continue reading Iran on nuclear deal and nuclear-free Middle East
“The Debate” of April 16, 2017 on Iran’s PressTV between Richard Millett and myself is important to me. I think it will be for you too in the sense of clarifying two approaches and positions on Syria. Its focus is on the difference in media coverage of the terrible events in Khan Seykhoun and al-Rashideen but there is much more to it. I’ll keep on … Continue reading Syria – two perspectives illustrated
TFF LiveApril 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! Continue reading The US/NATO confrontation with Russia is dangerous
Videoinspelning av Jan Öbergs föredrag i Stockholm februari 2017 Inspelningen är uppdelad i två delar: Del 1: Vittnesrapport från Aleppo60 min. Del 2: Debatt och vägar till fred i Syrien45 min. Bakgrund10-14:e december 2016 vistades Jan Öberg i Aleppo. Med sin unika erfarenhet från staden ifrågasätter han den gängse massmediarapporteringen, argumenterar för ett nytt sätt att se på konflikter på och ger förslag till den … Continue reading “Vittnesrapport från Aleppo, en annorlunda konfliktanalys och vägar till fred i Syrien”
TFF PressInfo # 405 Lund, Sweden – February 24, 2017Failed 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 blame the patient for a life … Continue reading Keep focus on Aleppo and global dimensions of Syria
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 … Continue reading Discussing NATO with a former U.S. Ass. Sec. of Defence
Der var en gang sikkerhedspolitik var vigtigt og krævede sagkundskab
Jeg er gammel nok til at huske danske politikere, der have kundskab om forsvar, sikkerhed og fred som f.eks. Lasse Budtz, Kjeld Olesen, Gert Petersen, Bilgrav-Nielsen, Jytte Hilden, Poul Hartling, Anker Jørgensen, Preben Wilhjelm. Nogle af dem skrev bøger om international politik.
Jeg kendte flere af dem, sad i Sikkerheds- og Nedrustningspolitiske Udvalg, SNU, igennem 1980erne hvor der foregik en sober omend ikke revolutionerende debat baseret på kundskaber. Ingen nævnte nogensinde at Danmark burde deltage i krig.
Sådan er det ikke idag.
Hverken i politikken eller medierne bliver man noget ved musikken på at kunne noget om disse ting. Og det behøves måske heller ikke? Danmark lader sig jo helt underdanigt styre udefra på disse områder.
Forsvarsminister Hjort Frederiksen kan – som man har set for nylig i Clement og i dag på Danmarks Radios hjemmeside – kun gengive hvad hans embedsmænd har fortalt ham at han skal sige. Sådan ser det i alle tilfælde ud.
Og idag gælder det at ministeren deltager i NATOs forsvarsministermøde 15-16. februar.
De ting er bleve sagt ungefär sådan i et halvt århundrede. Og dét i sig selv udgør en slags sikkerhedsrisiko for Danmark.
Continue reading “Hjort Frederiksens Danmark og Honeckers Østtyskland”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. … Continue reading I wonder about Aleppo…
Human rights is not my field but we have to speak up against Trump’s personal endorsement of it. This is nothing new, the US has used it all the time. But isn’t it tragic that almost 70 years after torture was prohibited in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we see 141 countries still using torture – according to Amnesty International. Here my short comment … Continue reading On Trump endorsing torture
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. Continue reading From Obama to Trump
Den 29. november fortæller Danmarks Radio på sin hjemmeside at det var et antal sammenfaldende og beklagelige menneskelige fejl, der forårsagede at danske F-16 fly i september var medvirkende til at dræbe mellem 60 og 80 syriske soldater – eller “mindst 15” som den amerikanske rapport herom angiveligt udtrykker det – og såre over 100. Hvilke menneskelige fejl? Hvor? I Danmark, USA … Continue reading Udefinerede menneskelig fejl da danske F-16 var med til at dræbe snesevis af syriske soldater. Ikke andet?
I’ve felt deeply touched by Johan Grimonprez’ brilliant and frightening documentary “Shadow World” which is based on Andrew Feinstein’s book with the same name. I want to share it with my readers and here is all about the book and the movie. It was shown in November 2016 by Swedish Television with Swedish text but is due to be taken down a couple of month later. It will … Continue reading “Shadow World” – on your tax money
October 26, 2016 Yet another example of how tension build up in this New Cold War situation – instead of doing what we did during the first Cold War: trying confidence-building measures. Today too BBC announced that the US will deploy – permanently – 300 US soldiers to norther Norway, a break with Norway’s policies since it became a NATO member. And Reuters brought the … Continue reading NATO-Russia games
Last night I had the opportunity to discuss nuclear weapons with an experienced, high-ranking security analyst who has been both a military, a scholar, an assistant secretary of defence, presidential adviser, a corporate man and now a think tank member, Lawrence J. Korb. We were discussing the issues touched upon in this and this article. I would assume that the debate – facilitated by Iran’s PressTV in … Continue reading U.S. nuclear policies – two world views
Here is my take on the July 15 coup in Turkey – why it happened the way it did and what is the least unlikely hypothesis – followed by some examples of regional and international consequences this coup is bound to have. And it ends: NATO comes across as a very tired alliance that should have been closed down or re-invented itself 25 years ago … Continue reading Turkey’s coup – Another example of the West’s disintegration
In an open letter – hardly mentioned by the Western mainstream press, a group of high-level and rather “Realpolitik” US diplomats, scholars, military and politicians urge President Obama to take concrete steps to intensify the co-operation with Iran. There are obviously concerned that the U.S. shall be perceived as an obstacles for the implementation of the JCPOA, or the Iran Nuclear Deal that, on Thursday the 14th, … Continue reading Obama is urged to make closer ties with Iran
Published on July 8, 2016, the day of the NATO Summit in Warsaw. It’s the 5th in the TFF Series “The New Cold War” Russia and NATO have offensive capacities and MIMACs (Military-Industrial-Media-Academic Complex) but NATO’s is a much larger potential threat to Russia than the other way around Why does an alliance with such an overwhelming superiority shout and scream and see ghosts on … Continue reading Fearology and militarism – But the real enemy is us
By Jan Oberg
The third article in the TFF series on The New Cold War
We are witnessing a remarkable increase in tension between the US/NATO and Russia these years – and it can not only be explained by whatever we choose to think happened in Ukraine and Crimea. We find a totally new effort on both sides to use social and other media to tell how dangerous “they” are to “us”. There is a clear tendency to “fearology” – to instill fear in the citizens on both sides about the capabilities and intentions of the other side.
We find deeply concerned articles about the possibility of war between the two parties – a quarter of a century after the Berlin Wall tumbled.
Why is the new tension rising in Europe between US/NATO and Russia so manifestly dangerous and – with the exception of the Cuban Missile Crisis worse than during the First Cold War?
On a series of indicators, the political Western world – US/NATO/EU and Christian (Orthodox, Protestant, Catholic with sects) – is becoming weak relative to other players in the global society.
The West has engaged in a series of wars that turned into very costly fiascos – from what followed from Sykes-Picot which turned 100 in May 2016 over Vietnam to the destruction of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.
The West is still the largest economic bloc and the 28 NATO members cover about 70% of the world’s mind-boggling US $ 1700 billion military expenditures. Africa as a continent, BRICS countries – China in particular – are making progress, also in fields where the West has failed; for instance, China has lifted 400 million Chinese out of poverty in a couple of decades. The wealthy West has done nothing of the sort over centuries but produced a grotesquely, perversely unequal income distribution.
The West leaves, a multi-polar world comes Jan Øberg – Video lecture – Part 1/3 Continue reading “Peace, Conflict, Democracy”
On June 15, 2016 I participated in a discussion with Mike O’Hanlon from the Brookings Institution on CCTV America – China’s international TV station in the U.S. with up to 75 million viewers. The discussion was lead by Anand Naidoo.You can watch it here. Continue reading NATO’s confrontational policy
TFF PressInfo # 373: What Obama should do in Hiroshima tomorrowArticles by Jonathan Power & Richard Falkhttp://bit.ly/1U8PEq3 With an intro by Jan Oberg. Continue reading On Obama’s visit to Hiroshima – TFF PressInfo # 373
Er public service og fri presse = frihed til at være så propagandistisk som man lyster?
DR2 udsendte fredag den 26. februar 2016 kl 00:15 en time-langt fransk dokumentarfilm”Iran – “Iran – A-Bombe for enhver pris.” Fra 2011!
Underteksten: “Et af Vestens vigtigste forsvarsmål lige nu er at sætte en stopper for Irans atomprogram, og…”
Man må spørge i hvilken verden DR2’s programredaktører befinder sig.
Et 5 år gammelt program, der naturligvis intet siger om den atomaftale, Iran indgik i 2015.
Et program, der er tendentiøst, foreholder seerne visse vigtige fakta og farer med usandhed på flere punkter samt benytter tvivlsomme kilder; et program som er markant pro-vestligt, pro-israelsk (det afsluttes med en sekvens om det truede Israel) og i hvilket kun én iransk ekspert – i eksil i USA – kommer til orde.
Ingen der så dette program kunne få andet indtryk end at Iran er et gennemkriminelt land, der som det hedder i den direkte løgnagtige filmtitel for enhver pris ville have et atomvåben.
Intet om alt det, der kunne tale imod at dette var et våbenprogram. Ingen interview med en anerkendt ekspert og forfatter som f.eks. Gareth Porter – intet om andre landes atomvåben etc.
Filmen igennem gøres der ikke forskel på atomprogram (til energiformål) og atomvåbenprogram.
Og det er velkendt at Frankrig har modarbejdet Iran på dette område og repræsenterede Israels interesser ved de forhandlinger, der afsluttedes sidste år.
Commenting on NATO S-G Jens Stoltenberg’s wish for dialogue with Russia – a bit odd after all the other provocative initiatives he has spearheaded the last good year or so. I felt like saying something more general about this outdated paradigm – and why it is dangerous for us all – referring also to the Russell-Einstein Manifesto of 1955. You may also see it as … Continue reading NATO outdated – Abolish war
Don’t underestimate him, count him out or think he is crazy.
NBC’s “Meet the Press” half-hour interview with Donald Trump is interesting. He has passion and a very fast mind, he seems to have integrity in the sense that he cannot be bought for money by others and he doesn’t mind having standpoints that conservative republicans find odd or surprising.
He is clearly eclectic and pragmatic rather than a theoretician, ideology-bent politician – and seems to build a lot on his entrepreneur experience and sense of reading people.
His vision – “making America great again!” – may be frightening and wrong and it is based on strength, on military but even more on economic strength.
The interesting thing is that he is much more realistic about the internal and external weaknesses of today’s U.S. than the rest of the political elites and decision-makers in Washington who seem all to be in denial of the empire’s relative decline.
Continue reading “Don’t underestimate Donald Trump”With the breaking news on the nuclear deal announced today – undoubtedly a piece of world history – I wrote up TFF PressInfo # 329 with the above title. It’s written, as others before it on this issue, with an emphasis on the characteristics of this conflict that is both obvious and never mentioned: the a-symmetry of it all, the de factor relations and the … Continue reading “Congratulations and thank you, Iran!”
My comments to Iran’s PressTV in the morning of July 14, before the nuclear deal with Iran was announced. This is a taped interview with a summary text: “This is a triumph for talks, for diplomacy, for dialogue instead of warfare and it is an important movement for the world not only for Iran or for the Middle East, or for Europe, it is for … Continue reading Iran nuclear achievement “victory for civilization”