Collective security, the official goal of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, seems plausible on its face. A group of nations ostensibly concerned about a common threat agree to defend one another in the event of an attack. "All for one and one for all," as...
Shades of Gray in the Russia-Ukraine War
If you're looking for morality tales – clashes between the clearly good and the clearly bad – I suggest you look elsewhere than the geopolitical theater. There we find only conflicts between shades of darker gray. This seems to have been the case...
Joe Biden, What the Hell?
What’s going on with Joe Biden? Is he oblivious to the fact that Russia has about as many strategic nuclear weapons as the United States has? Is he taking advice from the neocons, who apparently believe that we should not fear a nuclear holocaust because...
Congress Again Rewards Israel’s Misdeeds
To judge by what Congress is up to these days, one would think that it wants to reward Israel for its relentless confiscation of Palestinian land and continued ethnic cleansing. Congress – which is not only interested in "the Benjamins," that is,...
Russia in Ukraine: Cui Bono?
I don't know if the U.S. foreign-policy elite wanted Russia to invade Ukraine – an argument could be made for the affirmative – but I'd hate to think it did. Yet given its long record of global mischief (a polite word for its machinations), we certainly...
When History Begins – Russia, Ukraine, and the US
Contrary to what hypocritical U.S. rulers and their loyal mass media suggest, two propositions can both be – and indeed are – true: that Russia has grossly, brutally, and criminally mishandled the situation it has faced with respect to Ukraine, and that...
Joe Biden, Let’s Not Go to War
Here’s a good idea: let’s not go to war against Russia. Let’s not even rattle a saber at Russia (or China, for that matter) because even wars that no one really wants can be blundered into. Many losers would be left in the aftermath, even if nuclear...
Afghanistan Aftermath: No Firings? No Resignations?
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 –...
In Afghanistan, Watch the Forest as Well as the Trees
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...
About That ‘Real Estate Dispute’ in Sheikh Jarrah
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...