Doug Bandow

"Peace on Earth," people ritualistically intone every Christmas. It’s a wonderful platitude. But utterly meaningless, at least in the US. Without question the American government is the most aggressive, belligerent, and warlike on earth. That doesn’t mean Washington is the worst, most murderous regime in existence. There are wars, like America’s invasion of Panama, and … Continue reading “Peace on Earth: Once a Year?”

President-elect Barack Obama took only a few days after his election victory before tossing his most liberal supporters overboard. While loading up his administration with war-hawks of various stripes, including Vice President-elect Joe Biden and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, he left antiwar activists weeping in their blogs. The President-elect attempted to reassure his supporters … Continue reading “What Foreign Policy Agenda Will President Barack Obama Set?”

War seems so simple. Take the tragic case of Zimbabwe, suffering under the odious Robert Mugabe. The economy is collapsing; people are starving; disease is spreading. When the people tried to vote him out of office, his thugs brutalized everyone in his way. All that matters to him is retaining power. What to do? "Has … Continue reading “Force: The Real ‘F’ Word”

From Colony to Superpower: US Foreign Relations Since 1776 George C. Herring Oxford University Press 1040 pp. Today the United States is the essential nation, the unipower, the sole superpower, the country whose government, like God, worries if a sparrow falls to earth somewhere around the globe. The result of Washington’s determination to meddle in … Continue reading “From Colony to Superpower“

Barack Obama is nothing if not an accomplished politician. Despite a background as a community activist, conventional liberal stance in the Illinois state senate, extraordinarily liberal voting record in the US Senate, and celebrated anti-Iraq war position, as president-elect he has raced to the center. In doing so he has reassured Americans worried that he … Continue reading “A Return to Liberal Warmongering? Peace Advocates Must Continue the Battle”

John McCain’s defeat has set off a scramble to control the Republican Party’s ideological soul. The GOP should learn from Sen. McCain’s mistakes. Despite his reputation as a foreign policy guru, his neoconservative instincts invariably led him astray. His embarrassing embrace of Georgia’s unstable Mikheil Saakashvili highlighted McCain’s poor judgment, though the Republican Party’s problem … Continue reading “Learning from John McCain’s Mistakes: Supporting Aggression in the Caucasus”

The Bush administration’s time is draining away. President George W. Bush apparently believes that history will vindicate his policies, but a positive legacy is not likely to be. On the domestic side his record is a horrid mishmash of wild spending, massive corporate bailouts, civil liberties violations, and executive aggrandizement. On foreign policy the president’s … Continue reading “Barack Obama Takes Charge: Time to Leave Iraq”

Eight years ago George W. Bush was elected president after promising to implement a more "humble" foreign policy. He reacted against the Clinton administration’s preference to intervene militarily when there were no conceivable American interests at stake – Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo – and advocated a more traditional and limited U.S. role in the world. … Continue reading “The American People Render Their Electoral Judgment: Time to Finish Off the Neoconservatives”

Over the last eight years the Bush administration has sacrificed American lives, resources, and influence at every turn. President George W. Bush, with the avid support of Sen. John McCain and most of the Republican Party, took the US into an unnecessary war in Iraq, increased the number of America’s enemies and the threat of … Continue reading “Conservative Fantasies: A World Never More Dangerous”

Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy Bruce Fein Palgrave/Macmillan, 2008 238 pp. The presidential election is almost upon us, and the candidates have been talking about all sorts of critical issues, such as who wears a flag pin, pays for travel for a candidate’s children, associates with bad people, … Continue reading “Constitutional Peril“