- February 23, 2025
Global Affairs
Remaking the Middle East: How the US Grew Tired and Less Relevant
By Ramzy Baroud US Secretary of State John Kerry is often perceived as one of the “good guys”, the less hawkish of top American officials, who does not simply promote and defend his country’s military adventurism but reaches out to others, beyond polarizing rhetoric. His unremitting efforts culminated partly in the Iran nuclear framework agreement […]
Misreading the Refugee Crisis
By Ramzy Baroud So far this year, “nearly one quarter of a million migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe”, reported Al Jazeera’s Inside Story, citing the International Organisation for Migration. The situation is indeed bleak, not only because the number of refugees is constantly on the rise, but also because Europe appears rather disinterested […]
Western Legacy in Libya Leaves a Hole Filled by Migrants Fleeing for Europe – Interview with Ramzy Baroud
By Sputnik International The scale of the crisis in the Mediterranean can’t be ignored. Two thousand migrants have died already this year on their journey to Europe. Fifty migrants remain unaccounted for after their rubber dinghy sank, this came just days after 200 migrants were presumed dead after their boat capsized off the coast of […]
War Begets War Refugees: The Moral Bankruptcy of Italy and NATO
By Ramzy Baroud On April 26, 2011, a meeting that can only be described as sinister took place between the then Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and French President, Nicolas Sarkozy. The most pressing issue discussed at the meeting in Rome was how to deal with African immigrants. Sarkozy, who was under pressure from his […]
No ‘Crisis in Islam’: Just Apathy of So-called ‘Historians’
By Ramzy Baroud On the “BBC This Week” program, historian Tom Holland labored to counter the argument that the so-called Islamic State should not be labeled as such: “The Islamic State”. Holland’s logic in the program seemed more philosophical, concerned with dialectic and logic of language, and hardly situated in any proper historical context. His […]
The B Vocabulary: The Western Left and Its Sterile ‘Field of Ideas’
By Ramzy Baroud Over the year, I realized that the term ‘left’ is not exclusive to a political ideology, but a mode of thinking championed mostly by self-tailored ‘leftist’ western intellectuals. I grew to dislike it with intensity. But that has not always been the case. My father was a communist, or so he called […]
Beyond the Middle East: The Rohingya Genocide
By Ramzy Baroud “Nope, nope, nope,” was Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s answer to the question whether his country will take in any of the nearly 8,000 Rohingya refugees stranded at sea. Abbott’s logic is as pitiless as his decision to abandon the world’s most persecuted minority in their darkest hour. “Don’t think that getting […]
An Interview with Ramzy Baroud: The Rise of Religious Powers and the Failure of the Left in The Middle-East
Souad Sharabani: In the past three decades or so, Communists, trade unionists and secular nationalist movements like pan Arabism were replaced by religious and ethnic dividers as the forces that mobilize, galvanize and divide the people in the Middle-East. We see the same results in every country with different circumstances. What are the factors that […]
The Collapse of the Obama Doctrine: Yemen War as an Opportunity?
By Ramzy Baroud To suggest that the United States policies in Yemen were a “failure” is an understatement. It implies that the US had at least attempted to succeed. But “succeed” at what? The US drone war had no other objective aside from celebrating the elimination of whomever the US hit list designates as a terrorist. But […]
Netanyahu the Mythbuster: ‘Special Relationship’ No More
By Ramzy Baroud Imagine if an American presidential candidate made a plea to his supporters on election day with the following statement: “The Republican administration is in danger. Black voters are going en masse to the polls. Liberal NGOs are bringing them on buses.” Even in a country where Chris Matthews is a media celebrity […]
Islamic State as a Western Phenomenon?
Not only is IS to a degree an alien movement in the larger body politic of the Middle East, it also seems to be a partly western phenomenon, a hideous offspring resulting from western neocolonial adventures in the region, coupled with alienation and demonisation of Muslim communities in western societies. By “western phenomenon”, I refrain […]
Parking Space Terrorism: Time for Action after Killing of Three US Muslims
By Ramzy Baroud The murder of three American Muslims at a University of North Carolina condominium on Tuesday, 10 February, was no ordinary murder, nor is the criminal who killed them an ordinary thug. The context of the killings, the murder itself and the media and official responses to the horrific event is a testimony […]
Lessons that Hollande Failed to Learn from Bush’s Blunders
By Ramzy Baroud Francois Hollande is not a popular president. No matter how hard the “socialist” leader tries to impress, there never seems to be a solid constituency that backs him. He attempted to mask his initial lack of experience in foreign affairs with a war in Mali, after his country enthusiastically took on Libya. […]
War Begets War: It’s Not about Islam; It Never Was
By Ramzy Baroud It is still not about Islam, even if the media and militants attacking western targets say so. Actually, it never was. But it was important for many to conflate politics with religion; partly because it is convenient and self-validating. First, let’s be clear on some points. Islam has set in motion a […]
‘I Can’t Breathe’: Racism and War in America and Beyond
By Ramzy Baroud America’s ruling elites are blatant in their intentions of maintaining “white privilege” at home and economic dominance by military means abroad. Their “democracy” in both of these regions is a ruse, and it is yet to deliver any degree of social justice and equality to the millions of disadvantaged Americans which are […]
‘Defined Voices’: Giap, Wallace, and the Never-Ending Battle for Freedom
By Ramzy Baroud “Nothing is more precious than freedom,” is quoted as being attributed to Vo Nguyen Giap, a Vietnamese General that led his country through two liberation wars. The first was against French colonialists, the second against the Americans. And despite heavy and painful losses, Vietnam prevailed, defeating the first colonial quest at the […]
Rohingya Population Control: The Onslaught in Burma Continues
By Ramzy Baroud On April 21, the BBC obtained disturbing video footage shot in Burma. It confirmed extreme reports of what has been taking place in that country, even as it is being touted by the US and European governments as a success story pertaining to political reforms and democracy. The BBC footage was difficult […]
The Pain of Bangladesh: T-shirts Made with Blood and Tears
By Ramzy Baroud As they spoke to a BBC correspondent in their run-down room which they call home in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a man sobbed as his 12-year-old daughter sat close to him. His face, wrinkled before its time, was a picture of utter anguish. It could only be understood by a parent whose child was […]
Hungering for Freedom at Guantanamo: Obama’s Legacy of Broken Promises
By Ramzy Baroud The Guantanamo Bay prison is a glaring attestation to the state of political indecision which the United States has experienced since President Barack Obama’s first day in office. While his second term is unlikely to deliver much of the ‘change’ he had so industriously promised, skeletal men continue to sink into utter […]
Ignoring Genocide: Rohingya People Deserve to Live
By Ramzy Baroud One fails to understand the unperturbed attitude with which regional and international leaders and organizations are treating the unrelenting onslaught against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, formally known as Burma. Numbers speak of atrocities where every violent act is prelude to greater violence and ethnic cleansing. Yet, western governments’ normalization with the Myanmar […]
No Security Firms for African Refugees: Opportunities and War in Mali
By Ramzy Baroud The British security firm G4S is set to rake in massive profits thanks to crises in Mali, Libya and Algeria. Recognized as the world’s biggest security firm, the group’s brand plummeted during the London Olympics last year due to its failure to satisfy conditions of a government contract. But with growing unrest […]
The War in Mali: Stability at Stake in West Africa
By Ramzy Baroud ‘Many of us may not be able to point to Mali on a map,’ began National Public Radio show host Neal Conan last Thursday, “but this landlocked nation in West Africa has emerged as a crisis.” The buzzword is, of course, Al Qaeda. Although it is the least urgent component of the […]
Humanitarian Disaster at Sea – Little Girl with Green Jacket
By Ramzy Baroud Has the sea always been so cruel? The little girl was dressed in blue pants and a green jacket. Her hair was finely kempt in a ponytail, probably interwoven by her mother. Thursday was meant to be a special day for her, a fact that was highlighted by the carefully chosen details […]
At Stake in Mali: Refugees at Every Border
By Ramzy Baroud ‘We don’t even know who to be afraid of anymore,’ said Hama Ould Mohammad Bashir, a refugee from Mali (New York Times, July 18). ‘There are a lot of armed people, coming and going all the time.’ The humanitarian crisis in Mali is developing at an alarmingly fast pace. While there are […]
Rohingya People Killed as the World Watches
By Ramzy Baroud The Muslim Rohingya people of Burma – also known as Myanmar – have long undergone systematic discrimination in a country with a bleak human rights record. However, the latest pogrom of violence and ethnic cleansing against the minority group has crossed even traditional bounds of cruelty. The campaign against the extremely poor […]
Sudan Conflict: War is Not an Option
By Ramzy Baroud In a statement published last July, Amnesty International called on UN member states to control arm shipments to both Sudan and South Sudan. It accused the US, Russia and China of fuelling violations in the Sudan conflict through the arms trade. While China was reportedly supplying the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) with […]
Mess in Mali: The Logic of Unintended Consequences
By Ramzy Baroud The intentional misreading of UN security council resolution 1973 resulted in Nato’s predictably violent Operation Odyssey in Libya last year. Not only did the action cost many thousands of lives and untold destruction, it also paved the way for perpetual conflict – not only in Libya but throughout north Africa. Mali was […]
Balandi is America’s My Lai
By Ramzy Baroud Like Vietnam, Afghanistan is a lost cause, and more troops will do nothing but push the US deeper into the quagmire. Some of us warned about the Vietnamisation of Afghanistan as early as the first months of the war in 2001. The Afghans are a proud people with a long and formidable […]
Costly ‘Freedom’ in Afghanistan: On Morbid Wars and Logic
By Ramzy Baroud The Afghans are a proud people with a long and formidable history of resistance to foreign occupation. The fact that they have always prevailed, however, should not distract from the horror they still routinely experience. The latest atrocious episode against Afghans took place on March 11 in the village of Balandi, when […]
Cold War in Warm Waters: US-China’s Dangerous Contest for Asia-Pacific
By Ramzy Baroud On two occasions in my life I found myself living close to the South China Sea. The sea became my escape from life’s pressing responsibilities. But there is no escaping the fact that the deceptively serene waters are now also grounds for a nascent but real new cold war. China takes the […]
