Syrian rebels, in a stalemated conflict with the autocratic Bashar al-Assad, predictably are trying every trick to suck more help out of the United States. They are using the same tactic that developing nations used against U.S. policymakers during the Cold War to get...
Strengthening Alliances in East Asia Is the Wrong Way to Go
Risking an explosion of public anger in Okinawa, the U.S. Marine Corps is sending crash-prone MV-22 Osprey aircraft, which take off and land like a helicopter but fly like an airplane, to the islands. The white-hot opposition to the aircraft on the islands goes much...
Against Stereotype, Budget Hawks and War Hawks Edition
French President Francois Hollande, by reputation, is an unlikely budget hawk; as a candidate for office, he ran against austerity measures. But the realities of governing sometimes complicate politicians’ promises. After taking office, the euro crisis is now forcing...
Anti-American Violence Should Provoke Rethink
The attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four U.S. diplomats, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, is the latest example of tragic blowback from the U.S. government’s interventionist foreign policy in the Islamic world. That it...
Politics Subvert the All-Important Rule of Law
One of the most important issues in the 2012 election is a non-issue because both parties want to ignore it: punishment for Bush-era human rights violations by torture. Nevertheless, in a country where the rule of law (that is, we are all supposed to be equal before...
Obama Should Extend His Compassion
The Obama administration’s Treasury Department recently partially lifted some economic sanctions against Iran for 45 days to allow selected nonprofit groups to collect funds for victims of huge earthquakes in that country. These monetary donations are exempt from U.S....
Call Israel’s Bluff
The Israeli government, like other special interests prowling in Washington, is playing the American election to get what it wants. Ultimately, the Israelis want a promise that the United States will attack Iran over its nuclear program. The Israelis recently have...
Left and Right Call for Escalation in Syria
For some time, Sen. John McCain and the Wilsonian neoconservatives have been beating the drum to escalate the U.S. intervention in Syria. Now, from the other side of the political spectrum, the Wilsonian progressives are calling for the same solution. The hawks on the...
Quagmires Are Often Just a Few Steps Away
Despite its massive annual federal budget deficits and national debt, the American superpower continues to meddle in faraway countries that pose little direct threat to U.S. national security. Examples of those nanny-like interventions have recently occurred in Syria...
US Pivot to Asia Promises More of the Same
The United States claims to be pivoting its martial involvement toward Asia, but one can truly discern the U.S. military’s priorities by looking at where it warehouses military weapons for war. When these stockpiles are examined, it looks like the future will be...


