Philip Giraldi

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is a contributing editor to The American Conservative and executive director of the Council for the National Interest.

Terrorism Experts on Parade

On Friday night and Saturday morning I scanned the newspapers and watched the usual after-the-fact nonsense on television in the wake of the horrific terror attack in Norway. The late edition of Friday’s Wall Street Journal featured a lead editorial blaming “jihadis” for the slaughter, an attack that was, per the editorial writer, launched because … Continue reading “Terrorism Experts on Parade”

Hillary Cracks the Whip

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was at it again last week. She was in Turkey attending a NATO gathering dealing with what to do about the succession in Libya, based on the perhaps erroneous assumption that Muammar Gadhafi is on his way out. Clinton and NATO decided, based on their own admittedly partial view of … Continue reading “Hillary Cracks the Whip”

Apparently, We Are All Belarusians

How many Americans would be able to find Belarus on a map? I fancy myself as pretty well informed on foreign affairs, but it took me two tries to locate it. Yet Belarus is apparently so important that the United States Congress is currently preparing to pass a Belarus Democracy Reauthorization Act of 2011 in … Continue reading “Apparently, We Are All Belarusians”

All’s ‘Fare’ in War

Even governments can learn from their mistakes. The United States went into Iraq and Afghanistan with Army and Marine divisions and the result has been disastrous, with hundreds of thousands dead and Washington on the verge of bankruptcy. Nor has the result been satisfactory, with Iraq firmly in the Iranian orbit and Afghanistan so corrupt … Continue reading “All’s ‘Fare’ in War”

Winners and Losers

John Bolton, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, is again calling on the United States to attack Iran even though he acknowledged that doing so would likely ignite a much larger regional war. But, characteristically, he dismissed the costs as worth it, a phrase reminiscent of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s defense … Continue reading “Winners and Losers”

Something Rotten This Way Comes

The issue of Israel is of critical importance to the antiwar movement, as frequenters of this website are surely aware. This is because Israel and its lobby in the United States have succeeded in so intertwining their interests with those of the United States that whenever Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sneezes four hundred congressmen say … Continue reading “Something Rotten This Way Comes”