Mistaking Omniscience for Omnipotence

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Given how similar they sound and how easy it is to imagine one leading to the other, confusing omniscience (having total knowledge) with omnipotence (having total power) is easy enough. It’s a reasonable supposition that, before the...

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The Two Snowdens

Controversy continues to follow Edward Snowden around, with the American people nearly evenly divided on whether he is a hero or a traitor even as the Obama Administration and Congressional leaders insist that he is a criminal and there will be no clemency for him. It...

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A Deal With Iran – or War With Iran?

If Bibi Netanyahu succeeds in closing down Obama's diplomatic path to Iran, only the road to war remains open. Which is exactly what Bibi wants. For what terrifies Tel Aviv, and rattles Riyadh, is not a U.S. war with Iran, but the awful specter of American...

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Veterans Day, 95 Years On

Originally posted at TomDispatch. It was exactly 95 years ago: the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the moment when major hostilities in the charnel house that was World War I ended. In 1919, November 11th officially became “Armistice...

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I Should Be Dead

Today I am a somewhat overweight, bearded suburban dad entering a comfortable middle age, but it was not always thus. Seven short years ago I was a lean, clean-shaven, heavily armored combat medic in Iraq, and today, November 11th, everyone is apparently required by...

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‘Peace Scare’ in Geneva

Entangling alliances lead to war, and nothing underscores this axiom more dramatically than the recent failure to come to some sort of agreement with Iran on limiting its nuclear program. The United States long ago concluded "with high certainty" that Iran...

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