Sheldon Richman

Trump has vetoed Congress’s effort to keep him from going to war against Iran unilaterally. Nothing remarkable there. We’ve come to expect such things from the fraud who posed as antiwar. What’s interesting is that Trump has reminded of what a narcissist he is. That fact is so much a part of the landscape that … Continue reading “L’etat C’est Moi! (I Am the State!)”

Anyone old enough to think about "America’s" role in the world ought to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. For example, one ought to be able to argue firmly against U.S. intervention in other countries without feeling obliged to downplay or deny the real crimes that the tyrant du jour … Continue reading “The Nonintervention Principle”

Americans’ free-speech and other rights are being violated by state laws aimed at stifling the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Movement against Israel’s illegal rule of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both conquered over half a century ago. Twenty-eight states have enacted anti-BDS laws or executive orders that prohibit state agencies and state-financed … Continue reading “Anti-BDS Laws Violate Our Freedom”

The fundamental flaw at the heart of Trump’s Palestine/Israel plan, presumptuously titled Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People, is that Trump – like his predecessors – believes that the Israelis are the aggrieved party and the Palestinians are the not-fully-human aggressors inherently unworthy of even the … Continue reading “Trump Would Make Palestinian Subjugation Permanent”

Trump’s long-dreaded diktat to the Palestinians is now public. (See details here and here if you have the stomach for them.) The so-called plan of the century – the “Vision” – is pretty much what the early reports described, so I have little to add to what I wrote before. (My articles are here, here, … Continue reading “Trump Lays an Egg: The Israel/Palestine Vision”

If you wonder what the post-Trump Republican Party will look like, take a glimpse at Tom Cotton, one of the US senators from Arkansas (where I live). Cotton has waged a relentless campaign for war against Iran and has supported every horror produced by the US foreign-policy establishment for the last 20 years. He makes … Continue reading “Warmonger Cotton Accuses Antiwar Think Tank of Anti-Semitism”

While an eerie, surreal calm has fallen over US-Iranian relations, I wouldn’t assume we’re out of the woods yet. Trump had no reason to be confident that Iran’s response to his most recent escalation of violence would be little more than symbolic. Although he’s accepted that response more or less passively for now, with Trump, … Continue reading “Trump’s Escalation Imperils Innocents”

Speaking before Sheldon Adelson’s Israeli-American Council the other day, Trump took a shot at Jewish Americans who he says don’t "love Israel enough." "We have to get the people of our country, of this country, to love Israel more," Trump said. "We have to get them to love Israel more because you have people that … Continue reading “But Mr. Trump, Is Israel Lovable?”

Israel’s champions owe us an explanation. First, they insist that Israel is and always must be a Jewish state, by which most of them mean not religiously Jewish but of the “Jewish People” everywhere, including Jews who are citizens of other states and not looking for a new country. To be Jewish, according to the … Continue reading “To Be or Not To Be a Jewish State: That Is the Question”

For most of the opinion-making class in America today, war is the default position. Representatives of establishment newspapers and TV news operations are not likely to grill someone who favors U.S. military intervention somewhere – anywhere. He or she will have no burden of proof to sustain. But those who oppose a new war or … Continue reading “America’s War Culture”