On Thursday the Trump administration issued its National Security Strategy of the USA. In the midst of unfinished wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and a looming war against Venezuela and perhaps elsewhere in Latin America, the NSS articulates what the Trump people want the world to believe about how it intends to pursue “US interests.” Peace activists should read it; not because it is necessarily a useful forecast of how the Trump people will act in the world, but because it projects the world-vision of the gangsters now running our country.
Several features of the changes in the NSS from the Biden era to now are not surprising, but still of great interest. One is the Trump pivot away from Europe and towards asserting leadership of what we might call “the fascist international.” Russia and China are no longer existential enemies, but potential trading partners. Resurgent militarism in Europe is no longer welcomed as supplementing US leadership in NATO, but is now seen as a destabilizing force regarding especially its continuing support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
The retreat, if it really is one, from attempting to rule the world ideologically and militarily – now relying primarily on economic strength – will be good news to much of the world, but the NSS singles out Latin America as an exception to any such retreat. The “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine is clear: what we say goes in the Western Hemisphere. And money will be made.
Finally, the NSS incorporates the Trump movement’s doctrines of White Nationalism into its view of world politics and the anticipated US role in the world. It anticipates a US-led network of right-wing and fascist states. International institutions emerging from World War II and intended to keep order within a fractious world will be replaced by “spheres of influence” and the “balance of powers,” while somehow maintaining international investment opportunities.
Peace activists should give some study to the “new world order” and consider how it can be defeated and liberated. Is our goal to restore the Obama-Biden era of “international rules,” or to aspire to something greater that really meets our needs?
SOME ESSAYS ILLUMINATING THIS WEEK
Ilhan Omar: Trump Knows He’s Failing. Cue the Bigotry.
By Rep. Ilhan Omar, New York Times [December 4, 2025]
---- On Tuesday, President Trump called my friends and me “garbage.” This comment was only the latest in a series of remarks and Truth Social posts in which the president has demonized and spread conspiracy theories about the Somali community and about me personally. For years, the president has spewed hate speech in an effort to gin up contempt against me. He reaches for the same playbook of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and division again and again. At one 2019 rally, he egged on his crowd until it chanted “send her back” when he said my name. Mr. Trump denigrates not only Somalis but so many other immigrants, too, particularly those who are Black and Muslim. While he has consistently tried to vilify newcomers, we will not let him silence us. He fails to realize how deeply Somali Americans love this country. We are doctors, teachers, police officers and elected leaders working to make our country better. Over 90 percent of Somalis living in my home state, Minnesota, are American citizens by birth or naturalization. Some even supported Mr. Trump at the ballot box. [Read More]
A Ceasefire in Name Only: Gaza’s Prolonged Purgatory
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, Middle East Monitor {December 6, 2025]
---- In the case of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, transgressions have become the lingua franca of the parties, though Israel remains, by far, the perpetrator par excellence. The latter’s departures from the agreement have been so vicious as to prompt the observation that they are pursuing a mutilated reading of the agreement, essentially a “reducefire”. The deaths of 347 Palestinians in Gaza since October 10, including 136 children, do not point to cooling restraint. … What is becoming apparent is that the ceasefire has led to a state of affairs where Israeli forces have been permitted enormous latitude in the way it inflicts violence on local Gazans. The UN Women’s Chief of Humanitarian Action, Sofia Calltorp, reveals how Gazan women told her “again and again: there may be a ceasefire, but the war is not over. The attacks are fewer, but the killings continue.” Agnès Callmard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, goes so far as to declare that the ceasefire has created “a dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal.” What has in fact happened is a mere reduction of “the scale of [Israel’s] attacks” and the meagre allowance of humanitarian aid into the Strip. [Read More]
(Video) “Making America White Again”: Trump Further Restricts Immigration, Ramps Up ICE Raids
From Democracy Now! [December 4, 2025]
---- Immigrant rights advocate Murad Awawdeh joins us to discuss Donald Trump’s nationwide anti-immigrant crackdown and how it’s manifested in Trump’s hometown of New York City, where hundreds of New Yorkers recently blocked a federal immigration raid targeting street vendors from West Africa before it even started. “This has never been about vetting. This has never been about security and safety. It’s about cruelty,” says Awawdeh about the Trump administration’s persecution of immigrants. “His war on immigrants and his mass deportation agenda is all to lead to making America white again.” [See the Program]
NEWS NOTE
US Watchdog Rips Failed Nation-Building Effort in Afghanistan in Its Final Report
By Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com [December 4, 2025]
---- The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a US government watchdog established in 2008 to oversee US reconstruction spending in Afghanistan, has issued a scathing final report on the US’s failed nation-building effort. SIGAR will be closed down on January 31, 2026, and was required to issue a final report summarizing its findings over the years. The report said that from 2002 through mid-2021, the US government spent $144.7 billion on Afghan reconstruction, far more than it spent to help rebuild 16 European nations after World War II under the Marshall Plan in inflation-adjusted terms. The report said the US also spent $763 billion on “warfighting” in Afghanistan, though the true cost of the US War in Afghanistan exceeds $2.3 trillion, a total that accounts for veteran care, interest paid on debt incurred to fund the war, and other factors. [Read More]
MAMDANI FOR NEW YORK
(Video) Mahmood Mamdani on Zohran’s rise, colonialism, and US political change
From Aljazeera [“UpFront”] [December 6, 2025]
[FB – Zohran Mamdani’s father is an historian and a writer of interesting books. Here he talks with Marc Lamont Hill about his latest book and ALSO about being the father of the next mayor of New York.]
---- How do the legacies of empire continue to shape politics today? In his new book, Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State, Mahmood Mamdani examines how colonial rule shaped Uganda’s political institutions and the leaders who emerged from them. Mamdani also reflects on political change closer to home: His son, Zohran Mamdani, is poised to become the first Muslim mayor of New York City – a victory he says reveals deep generational shifts in US politics. This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks with renowned scholar Mahmood Mamdani about colonial legacies, multipolarity, and what these shifts mean for global politics today. [See the Program]
CFOW NUTS & BOLTS
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. Weather permitting we meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, at 12 noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) The Northwest Yonkers Neighbors for Black Lives Matter holds a Monday afternoon vigil at 5:30 pm at the corner of Warburton Ave and Odell. The CFOW newsletter can be read on Substack, and is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com, and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook group. Another Facebook group focuses on the climate crisis. If you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email for the link. If you would like to support our work by making a CONTRIBUTION, please make out your check to “Frank Brodhead,” write “CFOW” on the memo line, and send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks.
REWARDS!
This week’s Rewards for stalwart newsletter readers brings back the amazing guitar player Django Reinhardt. First up is “Minor Swing” with his partner Stephane Grappelli. I think you will also like “J’Attendrai” and “I’ve Got Rhythm.” Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW WEEKLY READER
FEATURED ARTICLES & ESSAYS
‘This Is Illegal,’ He Said, Spreading His Arms. ‘This Is Illegal.’
By M. Gessen, New York Times [December 4, 2025]
---- We are living in an upside-down world. Here is an example. When the U.N. Security Council endorsed President Trump’s so-called peace plan for Gaza, including what looks like indefinite U.S.-backed Israeli control in the territory, it contradicted decades of the U.N.’s own resolutions and the rulings of the International Court of Justice. … On the day the U.N. Security Council put its seal of approval on Trump’s plan, Israel was launching airstrikes on Gaza. The next day, Gaza health officials said 76 Palestinians had been killed. Altogether, since the U.S.-brokered deal went into effect, Gaza health officials say, more than 350 Palestinians have died, most of them at the hands of Israeli forces. Israeli authorities continue to restrict the movement of humanitarian aid, so that only a small fraction has been getting in. And yet world leaders and Western media refer to what is happening in Gaza as a cease-fire, and the activists — who are peacefully opposing the carnage — are facing sanctions. This is the upside-down state of our world. [Read More]
The Israel lobby is melting down before our eyes
By Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss [December 2, 2025]
---- The American Jewish community is today in open crisis over its historic support for Israel. Prominent Jews are finally attacking the lobby, a political structure created 60 years ago by leading Jewish groups to make sure there was no daylight between the Israeli and U.S. governments. The crisis was catalyzed by the insurgent victory of New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who broke a rule of American politics. You can’t be an anti-Zionist and be taken seriously in American politics. The Israel lobby spent tens of millions to defeat Mamdani, led by Bill Ackman and Mike Bloomberg, yet Mamdani still beat Andrew Cuomo twice. After the general election last month, the Jewish establishment spoke with fearful force. Mamdani’s election is “grim” and “ominous,” the Conference of Presidents said. … If the lobby thought it was knocking Mamdani down, it failed. Two weeks after the election, Mamdani went to the White House and spoke of Israeli “genocide,” and Trump did nothing to contradict him. It’s about time we heard that word in the White House. Mamdani’s courage set off the new Israel-critical discourse, but it has been enabled by a broader social movement. Young Americans are turning against Israel over its anti-Palestinian policies of genocide and apartheid. [Read More]
THE WAR ON PALESTINE
The Gaza Genocide Has Not Ended. It Has Only Changed Its Form
By Hassan Abo Qamar, The Nation [December 2, 2025]
---- When the bombs stopped falling endlessly on Gaza, the silence that followed for several days felt unnatural. We were not used to it after two years of waking up to the sounds of bombing and sleeping under its shadow. After two years of genocide, the American president’s deal has not fully ended the suffering, though it has paused some of it. Since the truce went into effect on October 11, at least 357 people have been killed, and over 900 injured, mostly by Israeli bombs. The world calls this “peace,” yet in reality “peace” here does not mean the end of anything; hunger, fear, and death remain, while the occupation continues to strangle Gaza through crossings, restrictions, and deliberate obstruction of recovery. … The truth is simple: Gaza has been denied the right to heal. Rubble remains, patients still suffer, prisoners have not returned home, and the occupation’s grip tightens even in times of “peace.” A real ceasefire would mean opening borders, rebuilding what was destroyed, and allowing life to return. But this is not happening. What we see is engineered stagnation—punishment disguised as calm. [Read More]
“Gazafication” of the West Bank
By Kathy Kelly, Znet [December 5, 2025]
---- Israel and its partners continue waging genocide against Palestinian people. Those who, so far, have survived the hideous attacks since October 7, 2023, now face ongoing jeopardy. Hemmed in by yet another military border, over two million Palestinians in “East Gaza” live amid rubble, unexploded ordnance, decaying corpses, starvation conditions, and the uncertainties of inhabiting makeshift homes without sewage, sanitation, clean water, or protection against harsh winter weather. A saddening certainty was hammered home when not a single country stood up for them at the United Nations on November 17, 2025, when the Security Council resolved to accept President Trump’s plan for Gaza’s future. Israel and the U.S. will not be held accountable, in the near term, for war crimes and relentless ethnic cleansing. Anticipating what some call the “Gazafication” of the West Bank, human rights groups are calling on the Israeli military to stop attacking the area’s neighborhoods and refugee camps. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Along Israel’s expanding Yellow Line, the war in Gaza never ended,” by Ruwaida Amer, 972 Magazine [Israel/Palestine] [December 5, 2025] [Link]; and “A story of a 1930s uprising against British colonialism is key to understanding Gaza today,” by Jonathan Cook [December 5, 2025] [Link].
WAR ON VENEZUELA?
Entire Chain of Command Could Be Held Liable for Killing Boat Strike Survivors, Sources Say
By Nick Turse, The Intercept [December 2, 2025]
---- Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is under increasing fire for a double-tap strike, first reported by The Intercept in early September, in which the U.S. military killed two survivors of the Trump administration’s initial boat strike in the Caribbean on September 2. The Washington Post recently reported that Hegseth personally ordered the follow-up attack, giving a spoken order “to kill everybody.” Multiple military legal experts, lawmakers, and now confidential sources within the government who spoke with The Intercept say Hegseth’s actions could result in the entire chain of command being investigated for a war crime or outright murder. [Read More]
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
COP30 Was Underwhelming, But a Path Away from Fossil Fuels Already Exists
By Daphne Wysham and Trina Chiemi, Foreign Policy in Focus [November 28, 2025]
---- It appeared to be a grim déjà vu when the final gavel dropped in Belem, Brazil and the COP30 text once again avoided naming fossil fuels. But this apparent diplomatic failure obscured something more consequential: after hours of fraught, last-minute negotiations, countries reaffirmed the “United Arab Emirates consensus” from COP28 — the only UN agreement to date to reference a fossil-fuel phaseout. And the pathway it implies is already taking shape. In April, Colombia and the Netherlands will convene governments in Santa Marta, Colombia for the first global summit dedicated explicitly to the transition away from fossil fuels. … Methane is responsible for roughly a third to a half of today’s warming, and because it is short-lived, rapid reductions can deliver measurable cooling within a decade. Without binding limits on fossil methane, the world cannot meet its climate goals, no matter how fast renewable energy grows. This is the real lesson of COP30: pledges are not a plan. Tripling renewables, doubling efficiency, and slashing methane can transform global energy systems — but only if they are backed by binding rules, border measures, and enforcement. The EU methane regulations represent the first serious attempt at such enforcement. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES
Labeling dissent as terrorism: New US domestic terrorism priorities raise constitutional alarms
By Melinda Hass, The Conversation [December 3, 2025]
---- A largely overlooked directive issued by the Trump administration marks a major shift in U.S. counterterrorism policy, one that threatens bedrock free speech rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights. National Security Presidential Memorandum/NSPM-7, issued on Sept. 25, 2025, is a presidential directive that for the first time appears to authorize preemptive law enforcement measures against Americans based not on whether they are planning to commit violence but for their political or ideological beliefs. … This seventh national security memorandum from the Trump White House pushes the limits of presidential authority by targeting individuals and groups as potential domestic terrorists based on their beliefs rather than their actions. The memorandum represents a profound shift in U.S. counterterrorism policy, one that risks undermining foundational American commitments to free speech and association. [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Are Most Americans Even Paying Attention?
By Elie Mystal, The Nation [December 5, 2025]
---- It has been another week of unfettered moral depravity in the United States. Donald Trump held a Klan rally lightly disguised as a cabinet meeting where he railed against Somali immigrants. Pete Hegseth defended the cruel and illegal boat strikes that have murdered at least 83 civilians. Marco Rubio put forward a “peace plan” for Ukraine that amounts to giving Vladimir Putin everything he’s ever wished for. And saddest of all? Most people probably don’t even know any of it happened. One of the most disturbing stories I saw this disgusting week highlighted new research from Pew showing that news consumption is on the decline across all political parties and age groups. The report, which was focused on adults under 30, found that only 15 percent of people in that age group follow the news “all or most of the time.” When they do, it should surprise no one, they consider the “news” to be whatever they come across on social media. I can hardly blame them. [Read More]
Inside Kennedy’s Methodical Quest to Shake Up America’s Vaccine System
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Christina Jewett, New York Times [December 4, 2025]
---- The health secretary has walled himself off from government scientists and empowered fellow activists to pursue his vaccine agenda. An examination of Mr. Kennedy’s tenure atop the nation’s massive health agency shows how, in ways not previously known, he has methodically laid the groundwork to overhaul American vaccine policy, following a blueprint he laid out in books, speeches and podcast appearances during his years as the leader of a movement attacking the system he now oversees. He has walled himself off from the government scientists and other civil servants he distrusts while elevating longtime allies to help carry out his vaccine agenda. … Mr. Kennedy’s efforts will be on full display Thursday and Friday when those advisers — handpicked by the health secretary after he fired the old group — meet to reconsider the suite of vaccines given to young children. Unraveling the vaccine schedule would mark a radical and, experts say, dangerous shift. Public health officials warn that if Mr. Kennedy succeeds, measles and other infectious diseases will come roaring back, jeopardizing the health of all American children. Six medical organizations have taken Mr. Kennedy to court, accusing him of “a clear pattern of hostility toward established scientific processes” that has resulted in chaos throughout the health care system. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
Mayday: The Case for Civil Disobedience
By Noam Chomsky, New York Review of Books [June 17, 1971]
[FB – Today the New York Review of Books offered from its Archives this essay by Noam Chomsky about the May Day demonstration in Washington, DC in 1971. A participant in the action, he reviews the 1971 war context, the disparaging coverage from the mainstream media, and the actual importance of the action. One of Chomsky’s major essays, and I believe one of the last by Chomsky published by the NYReview of Books. A participant myself, I think Chomsky grasps accurately the spirit and significance of the demo as part of the sustained opposition to this hated war. His views may be useful in helping us to think about our own protests and opposition to war & fascism.]
---- In view of the continuing American aggression in Indochina, is it right to proceed to some form of civil disobedience? A reasonable counterargument is that this form of dissent will, in fact, hamper Congressional efforts to end the war and will build support for the President. Judgments in such arguments are necessarily imprecise, but it seems to me that nonviolent civil disobedience is likely to have the opposite effects, as, I believe, it has had in the past. It seems to me that, in spite of the short-run effects, only continuing demonstrations of vocal and committed opposition have forced the issue of the war on the consciousness of the public and impelled Congress to undertake such slight measures as it has. Had it not been for the demonstrations, the draft resistance, and other antiwar actions of the past years, had America been “cooled” from the outset in the desired way, there would have been few restraints on executive power, with consequences that are not difficult to imagine. [Read More]
Operation Condor: A Network of Transnational Repression 50 Years Later
By Peter Kornbluh, The Nation [December 3, 2025]
---- A half century ago, the inauguration of Condor launched a rampage of state-sponsored terrorism across the Western Hemisphere and beyond. “Operation Condor,” as the CIA identified it in Top Secret reports, became a multinational agency of “cross-border repression,” as investigative journalist John Dinges has written in his comprehensive history, The Condor Years, “[whose] teams went far beyond the frontiers of the member countries to launch assassination missions and other criminal operations in the United States, Mexico and Europe.” During Condor’s active period of operation between 1976 and 1980, Dinges and other investigators documented at least 654 victims of transnational kidnappings, torture and disappearance. Most of those human rights crimes were committed in the Southern Cone region. But a sub-directorate of Condor codenamed “Teseo”—for the heroic warrior king of Greek mythology—established an international death squad unit based in Buenos Aires that launched 21 operations in Europe and elsewhere to assassinate opponents of the Southern Cone military regimes. [Read More]
