Month: September 2016

On September 27, Democrats in the House and the Senate introduced a bill that would prevent the president of the United States from using nuclear weapons in a first strike without a declaration of war from Congress. For many of us — at least those of of us too young to remember much or any … Continue reading “First Strikes Are Still Part of US Nuke Policy”

Mahmoud Abbas was not present at my first meeting with Yasser Arafat during the siege of Beirut in the First Lebanon War. That was, it may be remembered, the first meeting ever between Arafat and an Israeli. Some months later, in January 1983, a meeting was set up between Arafat and the delegation of the … Continue reading “Abu-Mazen’s Balance Sheet”

The Israeli lobby wins again! That’s the obvious takeaway from President Barack Obama’s historically large, but not quite unprecedented $38 billion “aid package” to Bibi Netanyahu’s supposedly intransigent government. In Israel, the ten-year deal is seen as a solid, but not complete victory for Bibi. In the U.S., the deal looks like it’s the cost … Continue reading “Obama’s Gift to Israel – and Lockheed”

50 people were killed in recent violence.

The year was 1956: the icy winds of the cold war were blowing across the political landscape. And it was a presidential election year, pitting the internationalist Republican Dwight Eisenhower against Adlai Stevenson, the darling of the Democratic party’s left wing. The “isolationist” faction of the GOP, led by Sen. Robert A. Taft, had been … Continue reading “Libertarianism and War”

A former Australian minister came under fire while on the front lines in Iraq.

America used to be truly exceptional. In some respects it still is. But whereas today’s America may be exceptional in terms of material wealth and human capital, the exceptionalism of past was in thought. It was in the way people felt about themselves, their neighbors, the state, and how they were all related. In many … Continue reading “America’s Exceptional Past”

Militants released a video showing dozens of people being executed. However, the age of the video is unknown.

It’s the timing that should amaze us (were anyone to think about it for 30 seconds). Let’s start with the conflict in Afghanistan, now regularly described as the longest war in American history. It began on October 7, 2001, and will soon reach its 15th “anniversary.” Think of it as the stepchild of America’s first … Continue reading “Killing People, Breaking Things, and America’s Winless Wars”

For all Hillary Clinton’s reputation as a policy wonk, her debate performance consisted almost entirely of personal attacks. And while our media is out there proclaiming a Clinton "victory," their evaluation merely shows how distanced they are from ordinary Americans, who don’t revel in nastiness. Trump, on the other hand, although he allowed himself to … Continue reading “The Debate: Trump’s Three Points for Peace”