Ivan Eland

The media often reports overseas developments but doesn’t always explore their underlying causes, which, in many cases, conveniently lets the U.S. government off the hook. The recent internecine violence in Somalia provides a classic example. The U.S. media has focused to date almost exclusively on the rising Islamist movement in Somalia and U.S. "covert" assistance … Continue reading “A US-Made Mess in Somalia”

President Bush has scolded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for visiting Syria. In the president’s opinion, shared by others, the U.S. government should speak with just one voice overseas. Yet that view flies in the face of both the text and the spirit of the Constitution. Before the rise of the post-World War II imperial presidency, … Continue reading “Kudos to Pelosi for Visiting Syria”

The conventional wisdom for dealing with Iran is demanding repeatedly that the Iranians end their uranium enrichment program and slapping on new sanctions. Although the December 2006 United Nations Security Council sanctions that banned countries from exporting nuclear and missile materials and technology to Iran probably were prudent, widening the sanctions outside the nuclear and … Continue reading “Making Iranians Rally
‘Round the Flag”

The Bush administration, desperate for justifications to buy a little more time with the American people for its failed adventure in Iraq, markets the idea that if the United States rapidly withdraws from Iraq, the "terrorists will follow us home." A closer examination of this assertion – like the rest of the administration’s fearmongering – … Continue reading “The Terror Threat in Perspective”

In its newly released annual report on the status of human rights around the world, the U.S. State Department disparages a long list of nations about their violations of individual freedoms. The report notes that countries in which power is concentrated in the hands of unaccountable rulers, whether totalitarian or authoritarian, continue to be the … Continue reading “China Returns Fire on US Human Rights Abuses”

The bulk of expert opinion predicts that the Bush administration’s escalation strategy in Iraq will fail. The void created by the administration’s lack of a backup plan for that outcome has been filled with proposals from pundits, academics, and think-tank analysts, who recommend containing Iraq’s civil war. Most of these analysts suggest removing U.S. troops … Continue reading “Containing Iraq’s Civil War
Is Not the Answer”

While media attention has been focused on the U.S. quagmire in Iraq, an equally failed war in Afghanistan has received little coverage. As in countless militaristic U.S. nation-building fiascoes, “mission creep” in Afghanistan is leading to another foreign policy disaster. Although the escalation in Afghanistan has not been announced publicly, a reliable source with connections … Continue reading “More Mission Creep in Afghanistan”

As President Bush continues his Nixonesque policy of "exiting" Iraq by escalation and intimidation, both Republican and Democratic politicians are also imitating the Vietnam-era rhetoric of blaming the citizens of the chaotic country and their neighbors for the mess. In fact, the politicians are blaming everyone but themselves for this monumental policy failure. As Nixon … Continue reading “Iraq: Enough Blame to Go Around”

President Vladimir Putin of Russia recently bluntly lashed out at U.S. foreign policy. At an international security conference with U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in attendance, referring to U.S. actions in the international arena, Putin said, “Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations – military force.” He … Continue reading “A Foreign Policy Only
Tarzan Could Love”

Each year, one of the most important events in the nation’s capital is the release of the federal budget. Yet the media provides insufficient coverage because the budget is technical, unglamorous, and requires hard work sifting through mounds of data to uncover the key truths. It is much sexier to cover whether Condi Rice’s star … Continue reading “Hundreds of Billions – for What?”