Month: August 2016

For all the hand-wringing about the threat to liberty and constitutional government posed by the major party presidential candidates, there is little discussion of how this threat is due to the political class’s long history of supporting expanded presidential power. There is also little talk of how the imperial presidency is just as much a … Continue reading “Election 2016: Liberty Loses No Matter Who Wins”

Peshmerga forces recovered significant territory near Gwer on Sunday.

A journalist and the nephew of a Nineveh’s governor were among those killed in Iraq.

Palestine is increasingly absent from Arab consciousness, at least at the official and media levels. For years, the discussion has veered elsewhere, to other regions and various other concerns, as Arab regional alliances are no longer driven by the “question of Palestine.” Whether one blames that neglect on the so-called Arab Spring, or explains it … Continue reading “Of Hajah Zainab – Is Palestine Still the Central Issue for Arabs?”

Perhaps former CIA acting director Michael Morell’s shamefully provocative rhetoric toward Russia and Iran will prove too unhinged even for Hillary Clinton. It appears equally likely that it will succeed in earning him a senior job in a possible Clinton administration, so it behooves us to have a closer look at Morell’s record. My initial … Continue reading “Mike Morell’s Kill-Russians Advice”

Donald Trump is a reckless fool. But the U.S. defense establishment is M.A.D. And herein lies one of the darker problems with the Trump candidacy, and the reason why so many establishment conservatives are awkwardly distancing themselves from America’s leading narcissist – if not running screaming into the night in fear for their lives (and … Continue reading “The Nuclear Breakfast Menu”

Operations leading up to an invasion of Mosul have, so far, displaced about 100,000 people.

Coverage of the breakdown of the partial ceasefire in Syria illustrated the main way corporate news media distort public understanding of a major foreign policy story. The problem is not that the key events in the story are entirely unreported, but that they were downplayed and quickly forgotten in the media’s embrace of themes with … Continue reading “How Media Distorted Syrian Ceasefire’s Breakdown”

How far away from warmongers’ endorsements is far enough? No, really, pressed the author of a recent article in The Nation, Bernie Sanders should tell Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to stop being so lovey-dovey with Henry Kissinger. Sen. Sanders has a mixed record on war, but is generally correctly identified as less-hawkish-than-Hillary (high praise … Continue reading “Will Henry Kissinger Endorse Hillary Clinton?”

Originally posted at TomDispatch. How, I’ve often wondered, can people who have spent their lives working in an institution, particularly in the military or some other part of the national security state, retire and suddenly see that same institution in a different and far more negative light?  Once outside, they become, in essence, critics of … Continue reading “Why It’s So Hard for Members of the Military to Speak Out”