The US is arming Arab allies in the Persian Gulf with a missile defense system to protect cities, oil refineries, pipelines and military bases from Iranian attack.

While welfare services for the poorest and most vulnerable in society face brutal cuts, there is never a shortage of money to finance our government's addiction to war.

Cindy Corrie has battled Israel for justice ever since her activist daughter Rachel was killed in Gaza in 2003. On the eve of a lawsuit verdict, she says her fight will carry on.

Former soldiers say the Israel army in the occupied territories subjects Palestinian children day-by-day to beatings, intimidation, humiliation, verbal abuse, night-time arrests and injury.

Bashar al-Assad's government faces a resourceful, well-armed and ruthless enemy whose Islamist supporters are receiving help from the West, says Robert Fisk.

The United States has increasingly managed to take control of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other 'humanitarian' organizations for its own foreign policy campaigns.

The absence of pro-peace voices in the media isolates Americans from realities of war, stokes irrational fears, and dehumanizes the victims as the faceless "Other."

When George W Bush seemed to be the problem, an understanding of US power – the nature of which remains remarkably consistent from president to president – was lost.

Al Qaeda is flourishing in the blowback from US invasions and occupations as it wages an accelerated campaign of relentless attacks and suicide bombings.

Media attacks on Assange do not even pay lip service to, let alone show interest in, the profound threats to press freedom that would come if Assange were extradited to and tried in the US.