Recently, the world has focused on the fighting in Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine, all of which seem to be falling apart. Although the first two countries are in the Middle East and the last one is in the eastern part of Europe, they have the common problem that the state’s...
World War I, Rather than World War II, Is Key for Today’s Foreign Policy
The 100-year anniversary of the most important event in the 20th century passed recently with predictably scant notice in the American media. The anniversary can’t be that of the allied D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II, because that event happened only...
Dick Cheney’s Outrageous Statements
Unbelievably, former Vice President Dick Cheney, after being wrong on every foreign policy issue for more than a decade, has again crawled out of his Wyoming cave and begun outrageously sniping at Barack Obama’s performance in foreign policy. Although I am certainly...
In Iraq, Obama Needs To Have an Eisenhower Moment
Despite all of the hysteria surrounding the advances in northern Iraq of the brutal group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), no crisis exists for U.S. security, and the American people are wise in their skepticism of renewed U.S. military involvement in that...
The Worst Effect of the Afghan War
As prisoners are exchanged and the combat portion of the long and exhausting U.S. involvement in the war in Afghanistan winds down, the brazen lethal attack on the Karachi International airport by the Pakistani Taliban graphically highlights the principal unfortunate...
Messy Endgame in the Afghan War
President Obama has announced that all U.S. forces will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2016, just before he leaves office. By taking this action, Obama is finally saying "touché" to a military brass that he believed sandbagged him in...
Imperialism and Nigerian Schoolgirls
It took awhile to find the Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, and during that time officials from Western governments – likely the United States, Britain, and France – anonymously criticized the Nigerian government for being slow...
US Alliances Lead Asian Allies to Be More Antagonistic Toward China
President Barack Obama’s "pivot" to Asia is directed at strengthening U.S. Cold War era alliances to tacitly contain a rising China. However, that means that even minor disputes between American allies and China could drag the United States into a shooting...
Public Hysteria Over Boko Haram Is Counterproductive
Although the Nigerian radical Islamist group Boko Haram has long made even the al Qaeda groups look moderate slaughtering entire villages and shooting or burning to death 59 school boys it apparently took the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls to get...
Obama’s Cautious Approach to Foreign Policy
All in all, I don’t think Barack Obama has been a very good president. In a new updated version of my book, Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, being published this fall, I rank him 34th of 41 presidents rated. His further...


