The hysteria over Crimea’s secession from Ukraine and incorporation into the Russian Federation still has the Washington policy wonks all a-twitter. We even have the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (a.k.a. AIPAC) calling for US ground troops to be sent to...
The Pentagon, Libya, and Tomorrow’s Blowback Today
Originally posted at TomDispatch. Be careful what you wish for. In 2011, a Libyan rebellion began against autocrat Muammar Gaddafi. It undoubtedly reflected the wish of many Libyans for a new world of their own without his heavy hand or that of his secret police and...
Russia in Crimea: Not ‘Munich 1938’ Yet Again
Western hysteria surrounding Russia’s seizing of Crimea is rooted in a larger problem with U.S. foreign policy – "the Munich 1938 syndrome." Ever since British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain allowed Adolf Hitler to take over German-speaking portions of...
55 Killed, 44 Wounded Across Iraq As Abu Ghraib Prison Is Shut Down
The End of Ideology?
On our TV talk shows and op-ed pages, and in our think tanks here, there is rising alarm over events abroad. And President Obama is widely blamed for the perceived decline in worldwide respect for the United States. Yet, still, one hears no clamor from Middle America...
Your Doctors Are Worried
Your doctors are worried about your health – in fact, about your very survival. No, they’re not necessarily your own personal physicians, but, rather, medical doctors around the world, represented by groups like International Physicians for the Prevention of...
Continental Drift: Europe’s Breakaways
Happy families are all alike: every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina The opening to Tolstoy’s great novel of love and tragedy could be a metaphor for Europe today, where “unhappy families” of Catalans, Scots, Belgians,...
Militants Shut Down Iraq Dam Again; 57 Killed, 19 Wounded
Washington, the Great Betrayer
The US government’s attempt to utilize social media in an effort to subvert the Cuban government dramatizes how and why such efforts are not only doomed to failure, but also why they have nothing whatsoever to do with the cause of liberty. Last month, the Associated...
AFRICOM Becomes a ‘War-Fighting Combatant Command’
Originally posted at TomDispatch. Let me explain why writing the introduction to today’s post by TomDispatch Managing Editor Nick Turse is such a problem. In these intros, I tend to riff off the ripples of news that regularly surround whatever subject an author might...