Ivan Eland

In the Republican and Democratic presidential debates, President Barack Obama’s ultimate rejection of using force against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, for using chemical weapons against his own people, keeps being raised as an issue. In all cases, the debate moderators have been pushing the candidates to call out the president for being "weak." In the … Continue reading “US Foreign Policy Needs To Regain Some Old-Fashioned Subtlety”

January 17 is the 25th anniversary of the beginning of Desert Storm – George H. W. Bush’s first Gulf War against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to liberate Kuwait from his clutches, only to return it to its previous despotic rulers. The victory appeared to be smashing, as American military propaganda dazzled the world with footage of … Continue reading “Desert Storm Anniversary Reminds Us That Even Victorious Wars Are Problematic”

In America, the public, some politicians, and even President Obama have a vague awareness that U.S. government policies affect the recruitment of terrorists by radical groups. However, going too far with such self-awareness leads to excessively unsettling conclusions that would demand radical changes in U.S. foreign policy. Thus, as a nation, we generally avoid going … Continue reading “Not Just Trump Is a Recruiter of Terrorists”

The United Nations top official on human rights recently told the U.N. Security Council that the U.S.-supported, Saudi Arabian-led coalition of Sunni nations fighting Shi’ite Houthi rebels in Yemen bore a disproportionate responsibility for attacks on civilians. Since the civil war in Yemen began in March 2015, more than 2,700 civilians have been killed and … Continue reading “US Should Stop Supporting Likely Saudi War Crimes”

In the U.S. Constitution, the nation’s founders originally conceived of a very limited federal government that protected, rather than usurped, the liberty of its people (not just its citizens), and also defended those same people, their territory, and way of life from foreign threats. The massive federal government today regularly infringes on people’s rights in … Continue reading “Bad Government Decisions That Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time”

Legal scholars don’t agree on whether Donald Trump’s demagogic proposal to temporarily ban any of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims from entering the United States would be constitutional. That disagreement says more about the sorry state of the constitutional law profession than it does about the quality of Trump’s proposal. Over the course of American … Continue reading “Trump’s Ban on Muslims Is Unconstitutional and Obscures Real Solution”

Predictably, the 2016 presidential field didn’t exactly give a rousing endorsement of President Barack Obama’s prime time speech on fighting terrorism. The reactions ranged from the superficial – Donald’s correct but irrelevant observation that Obama’s use of the presidential podium in the oval office was "odd" – to the downright scary: Chris Christie’s retro solution … Continue reading “Obama’s Speech on Terrorism”

As the crazy protracted carnival of the presidential election rolls forward with ever more outrageous rhetoric, spin, downright lies, and "gotcha" moments, it bears remembering what’s on television usually has little to do with reality. For example, despite the blanket television coverage of the killing 129 Parisians by Islamist terrorists, the average American’s chances of … Continue reading “Does It Even Matter Who Wins the Presidency in 2016?”

In contrast to most Republican candidates, who have given us general platitudes about "getting tougher on terrorism" or vague promises to use more ground troops in Iraq or Syria, Hillary Clinton has proposed a more concrete program for battling ISIS; unfortunately most of it is bad. The centerpiece of her proposal is to set up … Continue reading “Hillary’s Plan To Combat ISIS Won’t Work”

In the wake of the heinous attacks on civilians in Paris, the French are now prone to repeating the same mistakes the United States made after the even more barbaric 9/11 attacks. The natural reaction of politicians – whether they be Democratic, Republican, or Socialist as in the case of President Francois Hollande in France … Continue reading “The Endless Cycle of Terrorism”