Daniel Larison

John Quincy Adams delivered his address celebrating American independence two hundred years ago this week, and in that speech he famously told his fellow Americans that their country does not go abroad "in search of monsters to destroy." This was just one part of his paean to American independence, which was then not yet half … Continue reading “Casting Off the Imperial Diadem”

The U.S. has no compelling reason to keep tens of thousands of troops in the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Syria, and it should follow the withdrawal from Afghanistan with complete withdrawals of the forces currently located in these countries. There is a growing body of arguments advocating for ending the US military presence in the … Continue reading “The US Military Presence in the Middle East Needs To End”

The U.S. economic war on Iran hasn’t ended, and one of the costs of that war has been the increasing authoritarianism of the Iranian government. The "maximum pressure" campaign is not solely responsible for empowering Iranian hard-liners and contributing to the rigged victory of Ebrahim Raisi, the head of Iran’s judiciary, but it has significantly … Continue reading “The Economic War on Iran Needs To End”

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been an alliance without a purpose for thirty years, and every few years it latches on to the latest big security issue to justify its continued existence. In the 1990s, Balkan interventionism and peacekeeping filled the void left by the demise of the Soviet Union and collapse of … Continue reading “Farewell to NATO”

U.S. Iran policy is marred by many flaws, and some of the worst are threat inflation, imperial arrogance, and hypocrisy. Alarmist media reporting routinely overstates the threat that Iran poses to the US and the world, and hawkish politicians and pundits are only too eager to use this alarmism to agitate for more aggressive policies … Continue reading “Flaws in US Iran Policy”

The Biden administration hasn’t followed through on its commitment to end U.S. support for the Saudi coalition war on Yemen. Almost four months since Biden announced the end to US support for Saudi coalition "offensive operations," the administration refuses to tell Congress what kind of support it has halted and what it has continued. A … Continue reading “Lift the Criminal Blockade on Yemen”

Whenever the U.S. or one of its client states launches attacks on others or commits war crimes against a civilian population, they claim they are acting in self-defense. This takes a legitimate exception to the U.N. Charter’s prohibition on the use of force and twists it into a catch-all justification for criminal aggression and violations … Continue reading “Crying ‘Self-Defense’ To Cover Up War Crimes”

Withdrawing from war zones usually doesn’t end our government’s role in a war. U.S. forces are often just relocated to a neighboring country and expected to continue the same mission from a new base. Shortly before leaving office, Trump ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Somalia, where they have been working with the government … Continue reading “The Troops Move, But the Wars Continue”

The Israeli government has gone out of its way in recent weeks to confirm that it is an apartheid state. In one of the latest egregious examples of this oppressive system, Israeli police attacked Palestinians inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque last Friday on one of the most important days of Ramadan using stun grenades, tear gas, … Continue reading “Israeli Apartheid Is On Display”

Broad economic sanctions are a form of warfare, and the U.S. is by far the most frequent economic belligerent in the world. Our government’s overuse and abuse of sanctions has increased by leaps and bounds in just the last two decades. Sanctions designations increased significantly during the Obama years, and then they exploded under Trump … Continue reading “Sanctions Are War”