An Afghan taxi-driver in Vancouver told one of us a decade ago that this day would come. “We defeated the Persian Empire in the eighteenth century, the British in the nineteenth, the Soviets in the twentieth. Now, with NATO, we’re fighting twenty-eight countries, but...
The Hawks Who Want War With Iran Are Working Overtime
Just as talks between the United States and Iran were taking place last week in Vienna, a cyberattack was carried out on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility. Reports are that the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, was behind the attack that blacked out the facility just...
Ten Problems With Biden’s Foreign Policy – and One Solution
The Biden presidency is still in its early days, but it’s not too early to point to areas in the foreign policy realm where we, as progressives, have been disappointed – or even infuriated. There are one or two positive developments, such as the renewal of Obama's New...
Trump and Biden’s Secret Bombing Wars
On February 25th, President Biden ordered U.S. air forces to drop seven 500-pound bombs on Iraqi forces in Syria, reportedly killing 22 people. The US airstrike has predictably failed to halt rocket attacks on deeply unpopular US bases in Iraq, which the Iraqi...
Biden’s Reckless Syria Bombing Is Not the Diplomacy He Promised
The February 25 U.S. bombing of Syria immediately puts the policies of the newly-formed Biden administration into sharp relief. Why is this administration bombing the sovereign nation of Syria? Why is it bombing "Iranian-backed militias" who pose absolutely...
What Planet Is NATO Living On?
The February meeting of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Defense Ministers, the first since President Biden took power, revealed an antiquated, 75-year-old alliance that, despite its military failures in Afghanistan and Libya, is now turning its military...
Is Biden Committing Diplomatic Suicide Over the Iran Nuclear Agreement?
As Congress still struggles to pass a COVID relief bill, the rest of the world is nervously reserving judgment on America’s new president and his foreign policy, after successive U.S. administrations have delivered unexpected and damaging shocks to the world and the...
Biden Should Stop Payment on US Funds to Sisi’s Egypt
Under Donald Trump’s presidency, Egypt, as well as Saudi Arabia, Israel, the UAE, and other repressive regimes, had virtually free reign to commit unchecked human rights abuses without worry that they might be chastised or lose U.S. diplomatic and financial support....
The Decline and Fall of the American Empire
In 2004, journalist Ron Susskind quoted a Bush White House advisor, reportedly Karl Rove, as boasting, "We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality." He dismissed Susskind’s assumption that public policy must be rooted in "the...
Will Biden End America’s Global War on Children?
Most people regard Trump’s treatment of immigrant children as among his most shocking crimes as president. Images of hundreds of children stolen from their families and imprisoned in chain-link cages are an unforgettable disgrace that President Biden must move quickly...


