Is the U.S. Empire Collapsing?: U.S. Can’t Keep Relying on Other Countries to Pay for its Imperial Excesses

Asad Ismi Empires collapse usually due to a combination of military overreach and economic weakness, and, judged by these criteria, the U.S. imperial order seems headed for an imminent fall. Washington’s occupation of Iraq has been a disaster. Even after two years, the U.S. military has failed to subdue the Iraqi resistance. A recent report […]

Viva Chavez: U.S. Fails (Twice) to Overthrow Venezuela’s Elected President

By Asad Ismi Even as the U.S. military invaded and occupied Iraq, mainly to plunder the world’s second largest oil deposits, Venezuela, the world’s fourth largest oil exporter, slipped out of Washington’s grip. On April 13, Hugo Chavez, the leftist president of Venezuela, celebrated his defeat of a U.S.-sponsored military coup which took place a […]

Lula Bows to Wall Street: Brazil’s New “Leftist” President Moves Right to Keep U.S. Happy

By Asad Ismi Forty years after Brazil’s last leftist government was overthrown in a U.S.-backed military coup, the left appeared to have regained power there on January 1 when Luiz Inacio (“Lula”) da Silva, the candidate for the left-leaning Workers’ Party (PT), was inaugrated as President. Lula won the national elections last October in a […]

Nigeria’s Corporate Killers

By Asad Ismi Multinational oil companies operating in Nigeria are complicit in human rights violations according to a recent report released by Human Rights Watch. The report titled “Nigeria: The Niger Delta: No Democratic Dividend,” points out that “…oil companies are seen by the residents of the Delta [Nigeria’s main oil producing area] to have […]