Sheldon Richman

Joe Biden, who says the buck regarding Afghanistan stops with him in the White House, claims that the Taliban’s final takeover of the capital, Kabul, provoking mass panic reminiscent of Saigon, 1975, happened more quickly “than anticipated.” If that’s true – spoiler alert: it ain’t – then we taxpayers should demand the mass firings and … Continue reading “Afghanistan Aftermath: No Firings? No Resignations?”

It’s always important not to miss the forest for the trees. U.S. government announcements, such as its report of the turnover to the Afghan government of the seventh and last military base in Afghanistan, Bagram, should lead no one to think that US foreign policy has changed worldwide or even in that particular region. Far … Continue reading “In Afghanistan, Watch the Forest as Well as the Trees”

When the Israeli government describes the conflict over the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem as just a “real-estate dispute,” it has a point. Palestinian families are at risk of eviction (and some have already been evicted) from homes they’ve lived in for many years so that Jewish settlers, many of whom were born in … Continue reading “About That ‘Real Estate Dispute’ in Sheikh Jarrah”

In Coming to Palestine I defended, from a libertarian perspective, the Palestinians against Israeli/Zionist oppression. I am reluctant to repeat that case in a far shorter form here, but the horrendous current events throughout Palestine/Israel, including the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, cry out for comment. I can do no better than to link to … Continue reading “Palestine/Israel Erupts Again”

If you had set out to construct a foreign policy designed to impose indescribable suffering on millions of innocent people around the world, you’d have a tough time coming up with anything more systematic and effective than U.S. foreign policy. An inventory of US direct military and covert operations, aid to savage governments and murderous … Continue reading “U(nspeakably) S(adistic) Foreign Policy”

In a cliché-ridden foreign-policy speech delivered at the State Department on Thursday, President Joe Biden declared that "America is back" – on the global stage, presumably, as policeman of the world, but certainly not a disinterested policeman. The problem is that it never left. Despite some uncouth rhetoric and regular New York Times headlines regarding … Continue reading “Imperial America, Which Never Left, Is Back”

Prussian general and military theorist Carl von Clausevitz famously said that “war is a continuation of politics by other means.” I think we can reverse this: politics is war by other means. The ultimate aim of politics (in the narrow sense of the word; there’s a more elevated philosophical sense) is what Frederic Bastiat called … Continue reading “A Defense of the Peaceful Transfer of War-Making Power”

Here’s something constructive Trump could do before leaving office at noon on January 20: he could order – demand, insist – that all classified intel and other documents related to the origin of the Russia/election investigation be declassified and released to the public forthwith – unredacted. From what has already gotten out, we know that … Continue reading “Declassify the Russiagate Papers!”

When actor Seth Rogen, an atheist of Jewish heritage, announced that he no longer supports Israel – “I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life” – he was criticized for his apostasy. (Being an atheist does not constitute Jewish heresy, but breaking with Israel does.) Then, during a call with … Continue reading “Regarding Seth Rogen: Some Feelings Ought To Be Hurt”

When Peter Beinart, a self-described liberal Zionist, abandoned the two-state resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict and embraced one state with equal rights for all, he quickly drew the ire of orthodox Zionists, some of whom went so far as to describe Beinart as a “Nazi” who favors a single state as the “Final Solution” for the … Continue reading “Prophetic Anti-Zionists”