Documents approved by Cheney in 2001 show that the main motive for invading Iraq was the fear Saddam Hussein might manipulate oil markets by temporarily interrupting oil sales.

Surely this goal could have been achieved with some sort of a deal.

The article also cites proof that the US planned, before the invasion, to rule Iraq as a colony with oil extraction as the priority.

Every country needs to aim for independence from oil supply, by developing renewable energy supply as an urgent national priority. When fossil fuel companies and their pet politicians block this, they are effectively working against their own country.

Rwanda has deported a journalist who linked Twitter bullying to the president's office.

Rwanda's President Kagame seems to have done a good job of managing the economy, but he tramples human and political rights.

US citizens: tell the FERC, stop approving oil and gas infrastructure.

Comparing how Putin and Obama threaten Americans.

'US Foreign Policy Blowback': How US Disregard for Intl Law Set Stage for Crimean Crisis.

To be fair to Obama, I should point out that Putin has done some of the same bad things.

• Putin's FSB (formerly the KGB) is not snooping much on Americans, but it is surely snooping on Russian dissidents and journalists.
• The US intervened in Afghanistan in alliance with one group, against others. The Soviet Union, in which Putin worked for the KGB, did the same thing.
• I presume Russia's constitution has some equivalent of the Bill of Rights, and Putin is trashing it energetically by repressing Russian journalists and dissidents.
• Putin probably has a list of Chechen terrorist suspects to kill.

US a No-Show for UN Talks on Covert Drone Wars.