A massive new US embassy complex in a tiny Middle East nation is raising eyebrows

Source: US embassy in Beirut on Twitter

A massive new US embassy complex in a tiny Middle East nation is raising eyebrows

Sprawling over a 43-acre site, the complex in the Beirut suburb of Awkar is almost two-and-a-half times the size of the land the White House sits on and more than 21 soccer fields.

Plans for the embassy complex were announced in 2015 and it is reported to have cost $1 billion.

Lebanon is part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Best Way To Protect US Troops in Syria

Last week saw a sharp increase in attacks on US troops occupying northeastern Syria, with a drone strike against a US base blamed on “pro-Iran” forces and a US counter-strike said to have killed at least 19 people. After the US retaliation, another strike by “pro-Iran” forces hit a number of US sites in Syria. It may be just a matter of time before there are more strikes against the 900 US troops based in Syria against Syria’s wishes. One US contractor was killed last time. Next time it could be many more Americans.

The Best Way To Protect US Troops in Syria

What About the Unprovoked U.S. Aggression Against Iraq?

Referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an editorial in Saturday’s Washington Post exclaims that Ukraine’s “struggle is also a crucible for Europe and an assault against the most basic precept on which the Western system rests: the impermissibility of unprovoked wars of aggression.”

In a follow-up editorial today, the Post calls for an international tribunal to try Vladimir Putin and his “henchmen” for waging a “war of aggression” against Ukraine. The Post quotes the Nuremberg tribunal: “To initiate a war of aggression … is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

What About the Unprovoked U.S. Aggression Against Iraq?

Iran’s Su-35 Aircraft Procurement Is More Dangerous Than You Think

Iran’s Su-35 Aircraft Procurement Is More Dangerous Than You Think

Related:

The Difficulty of Disrupting Iranian Drones

Russia and Iran Are Building a Trade Route That Defies Sanctions

In all of this, some analysts see echoes of an idea that dates back more than a century and is reckoned to be the foundation of geopolitical thinking. It focused on the struggle between an oceangoing world power—the UK then, the US today—and the land giants of Eurasia. [Heartland Theory]

‘Lying, cheating, stealing’ ex-CIA chief parties with anti-Iran terrorists again

By Kit Klarenberg

On December 17, former US secretary of state and CIA director, Mike Pompeo, headlined an Organization of Iranian American Communities summit in Washington in support of the so-called “uprising” in Iran, amid his push for Republican candidacy in the 2024 elections.

‘Lying, cheating, stealing’ ex-CIA chief parties with anti-Iran terrorists again