Doug Bandow

President George W. Bush has been using his last weeks in office making the case that he was not a disaster as president. There’s not much else for him to do – after all, no one cares what he thinks about the issues. Everyone, even those who voted for John McCain, are waiting for Barack … Continue reading “Assessing the Bush Administration: A Foreign Catastrophe at Every Turn”

On Monday US Marines raised the Stars and Stripes over America’s $700 million embassy in Baghdad. Opined Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, America’s first ambassador to the new Iraq: “It is from the embassy that you see before you that we will continue the tradition of friendship, cooperation and support begun by the many … Continue reading “An American City on the Euphrates: US as Iraq’s Friend or Overlord?”

For a decade Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting that the US is going to fall apart. He says D-Day will be in 2010. For years he was ignored, but now he’s being sought out by the media and invited to Kremlin receptions. Could America’s time be over? Despite the burst of interest in … Continue reading “Coming Soon: The Disunited States?”

"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”