Maj. Danny Sjursen, USA (ret.)

According to Transparency International’s 2019 Corruption Perception’s Index, the US is the world’s 23rd least swindling state. A bit better than Bhutan, but not quite as honest as Uruguay or the United Arab Emirates. So much for "We’re number one! We’re number one!" Still, I think the index was rather generous to Uncle Sam. Maybe … Continue reading “America’s Expeditionary Kleptocracy: A Banana Republic and Its Banana Wars”

Dream with me. Imagine an America where even marginal accountability reigned. A land of appropriate consequences for war-criminal cheerleaders. A country where going 0 for 4 on "freedom" wars – Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria – got pundits and policymakers sent down to the minors. Heck, one might make some strategic moves in a town like … Continue reading “‘I Pity The Fool’: Mr. Max Boot on Joe Biden’s Foreign Policy ‘A-Team’”

This is the fourth segment in the author’s backstory series – "Lebanon: Bellwether, Battleground, and Bastard Child" – in the wake of the August 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion. Check out parts one, two, and three, plus stay tuned for upcoming segments at Antiwar.com. There’s been a lot of nonsense passing as truth in post-blast … Continue reading “Lebanon: Inconvenient Truths About Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, and the Shia ‘Street’”

This is the third segment in the author’s backstory series – "Lebanon: Bellwether, Battleground, and Bastard Child" – in the wake of the August 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion. Check out part one and two, plus stay tuned for upcoming segments in Antiwar.com "A Syrian military communiqué said two Syrian soldiers were killed and 10 … Continue reading “Lebanon: The Top Ten Myths About the Country and its Conflicts (Part Two)”

This is the second segment in the author’s backstory series – "Lebanon: Bellwether, Battleground, and Bastard Child" – in the wake of the August 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion. Read part one here. Stay tuned for upcoming segments in Antiwar.com "Lebanon is less a country than a heartbreak. Its conflicts seem not only beyond cure … Continue reading “Lebanon: The Top Ten Myths About the Country and Its Conflicts”

When I was a kid, "Beirut" became a cultural shorthand for any chaotic and violent urban setting. In the 1990s, my hometown rappers – the Wu Tang Clan – repeatedly shouted out the Lebanese city (plus one of its civil war antagonists, the P.L.O. – Palestinian Liberation Organization); but so did Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, … Continue reading “Lebanon: Bellwether, Battleground, and Bastard Child of the Mideast”

Sometime during my "brief" spell as an imperial-accomplice, zombie-flicks became all the rage. So did tweeting and texting, by the way – which I learned the hard way when a phone bill ran to several hundred bucks after returning from my first failed war-surge. Turns out my data plan was almost as inadequate as the … Continue reading “I Was Wrong: Congress Isn’t Cowardly; It’s Evil!”

In America’s Emerald City these days, if there’s even a hint of a war-wind-down, imperial-deescalation, or military budget-cuts, Washington’s (non-dribbling) Wizards have a ready response: Russia! Indeed, these military’s magicians have a far-simpler and more effective playbook than the city’s aptly-named NBA franchise. Since President Donald Trump’s election year, basketball’s Wizards are a meager 148-162; … Continue reading “The Russians Are(n’t) Coming!: Paul Reveres, the Washington Hawks Are Not”

Planet Earth circa 2020: this is Orwell’s world; we’re just living in it. Who better to resurrect in this pandemic-protest moment than a leftist so lefty he ditched a life of relative English privilege to fight Franco’s fascists in the Spanish Civil War – only to turn communist dogma’s fiercest critic and earn the ire … Continue reading “All Civilian Lives Are Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others”

File it in the rapidly-brimming "biggest-stories-of-2020-you-haven’t-heard-about" folder. Amidst the madness merger of pandemic and protests – both of which Trump’s minions have blamed on China – there’s been scant attention paid to a brewing conflict between two of the world’s nine nuclear-armed powers (accounting for some 430 warheads between them). One is a rather flighty … Continue reading “Modi’s ‘New’ India: Notch or Knot on China’s Belt (and Road Initiative)”