PRESS ROOM

Sisi “understands that it’s going to be a different ballgame than it was under Trump,” said William D. Hartung, the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy.

“I think his ideal play would be to give a warm, personal embrace to Biden, do some small things that are of interest to the US and be able to carry on with his repression against his own people,” Hartung said.

Last month, a coalition of almost 30 advocacy groups penned a letter urging Congress to disapprove the sale.

"The planned arms sales to the UAE, a party to the conflicts in Yemen and Libya, would fuel continued civilian harm and further exacerbate these humanitarian crises," the groups said.

"Delivery of the sales would undermine US national security interests by fuelling instability, violent conflict, and radicalisation in the Middle East and North Africa and would also send a signal of impunity for the UAE’s recent conduct, which includes likely violations of international law."

The letter was signed by prominent groups, including the Center for International Policy, Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and Win Without War.

We have a complicated country and Barack Obama was a complicated president. In terms of presidential performance and temperament, Obama was one of our best. His inheritance from the mediocre George W. Bush was wretched, and, in view of the ugly racist opposition that he faced, Obama played his political and economic hand better than could be expected. The fact that this graceful and elegant man was succeeded by the loathsome and pathetic Donald J. Trump is the ugliest of ironies.

They’ll have their work cut out for them. “Americans are looking for a complete, fundamental shift in US foreign policy,” said Yasmine Taeb, a senior fellow at the progressive Center for International Policy, who’s leading the left’s critique of and engagement with Biden’s team. “I hope they recognize that the vast majority of the American people have rejected establishment foreign policy and the trajectory that we’ve been on for decades.”

"In order for progressives to be able to hold the Biden administration accountable, not only do we need to have an organized and coordinated outside strategy, but need to also advance progressives in key foreign policy positions in the administration.”

Eric Garris and Scott Horton let me write pretty much anything I want. Maybe it shows. OK, we all know it does. That’s rarer than it might seem. Outside of the occasional tease about my vague left-leanings from that Antiwar.com CEO-editorial director combo, they’ve a knack for finding, guiding, and then trusting folks like me – and those better than me. Over the last 25 years – it’s quarter-century anniversary season – the site has served as home station, salon, and sanctuary for a range of tough thinkers and fascinating personalities.

President-elect Joe Biden has made so many excellent appointments to his Cabinet, particularly in the areas of the economy and health, that it is stunning to see such a worrisome appointment to the Pentagon. The nomination of retired Army General Lloyd J. Austin III will lead to an unnecessary battle over his required waiver as well as his confirmation. The opposition should not be dismissed as the usual progressive voices against a leading member of the military-industrial community, which Austin represents, but the need to maintain civilian control of the military as the Founding Fathers wished.

“They have exploited these connections to keep the bombs flowing. How well equipped will General Austin be to resist these pressures? Will he tip the scales in favor of his former company?” says William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the progressive Center for International Policy. “These are questions that should not need to be asked—these kinds of potential conflicts should not be present in an independent secretary of Defense able to make the right decisions on arms to Saudi Arabia and other key security issues.”

William Hartung, the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, told The Intercept that picking Austin was “tantamount to making the position of Secretary of Defense the Secretary of Defense Contractors.”

“The potential for conflicts is huge,” Hartung said. “Raytheon is deeply involved in controversial programs from unworkable missile defense projects to nuclear weapons — the new nuclear-armed cruise missile — to precision-guided bombs that have killed untold numbers of civilians in Saudi Arabia’s brutal war in Yemen. If Gen. Austin were to recuse himself from decisions on programs and policies involving Raytheon he could not carry out large parts of his job as defense secretary.”

If you have a moment, how about joining two retired officers, Bill Astore and me, Danny Sjursen, as we think about this country’s catastrophic forever wars that, regardless of their deadly costs and lack of progress, never seem quite to end?

"The Tigray conflict has involved a lot of finger-pointing between Ethiopia's federal government and TPLF, making it difficult to verify each party's report about the events that took place during the conflict."

"The UAE continues to arm, train and pay the salaries of militias that have engaged in systematic human rights abuses. The United States should refrain from selling the UAE arms of any kind until it stops stoking the conflict in Yemen and enter into a peace agreement to end the war."