Thomas Knapp

“Genocide.” That’s the announced verdict of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy as images of hundreds of civilian dead – some with their hands bound, apparently executed – emerged from the city of Bucha following a withdrawal of Russian troops. “You may remember I got criticized for calling Putin a war criminal,” says US president Joe Biden. … Continue reading “War Is the Crime. Its Perpetrators Seldom Face Justice.”

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on March 4, 80% of Americans support a US government ban on the importation of Russian oil. Meanwhile, Americans are also complaining about high gas prices, which reached an average of more than $4 per gallon over the weekend following the poll’s release, in large part due to US … Continue reading “Sanctions on Russian Oil Will Drive Up American Gas Prices”

As part of the western response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, several regimes acted on February 26 to exclude certain Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) network. As of March 1, Reuters reports, SWIFT says it’s awaiting a list of the sanctioned banks so that it can cut them … Continue reading “The West’s SWIFT Kick Is Aimed at Russia, But it Will Also Hit the US Dollar”

At this point in my life, I’ve been consistently opposed to war for about twice as long as I spent as a Marine infantryman (with precisely the attitude toward war you would expect). The change was incremental and took a few years, but I consider my decision to march in the streets against the 2003 … Continue reading “Ukraine: Don’t Look to Politicians for Peace”

After weeks of unsuccessfully attempting to either bully Russia’s Vladimir Putin into submission or bait him into war, US president Joe Biden may finally be looking for a face-saving exit from of the Ukraine “crisis” of his own making. Reuters reports that Biden, at the urging of French president Emmanuel Macron, is willing “in principle” … Continue reading “Ukraine: US ‘Diplomacy’ Is the Problem. Can It Become the Solution?”

“I think one lesson in recent history,” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on January 7, referring to the entry of Russian troops into Kazakhstan to save that country’s allied regime from an uprising of dissatisfied serfs, “is that once Russians are in your house, it’s sometimes very difficult to get them to leave.” … Continue reading “Vladimir Putin Is Not the Neville Chamberlain the US/NATO Is Looking For”

When Joe Biden took office as the 46th President of the United States, those of us who desired a more peaceful foreign policy had reasons for both hope and doubt. The biggest issue for both was the 20-year US war in Afghanistan, for which Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, had negotiated a long-overdue US surrender. Would … Continue reading “On Foreign Policy, Biden Should Have Taken Golf Lessons”

On November 15, US president Joe Biden and Chinese president Xi Jinping held a “virtual summit” covering a number of subjects and resulting, for the most part, in banal public pledges of “cooperation” to “ease tensions.” Biden, however, managed to score a double own goal on the subject of Taiwan by simultaneously justifying bad US … Continue reading “US Policy on Taiwan Is a False and Dangerous Two-Step”

In 1954, Congress passed, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed, a bill transforming Armistice Day – November 11, a post-World-War One celebration of peace – into Veterans Day, a celebration of warriors. Personally, I stick to the original name and the original purpose in my observation of the holiday. Looking at the numbers involved, though, … Continue reading “When Our Politicians Buy Never-Ending War, We Get What They Make Us Pay For”

On October 19, 96-year-old Irmgard Furchner appeared in a German court to answer charges of aiding and abetting 11,412 murders. The murders took place between 1943 and 1945 at the Stutthof concentration camp, where a much younger Furchner worked as secretary to the camp’s commandant. A day before Furchner’s indictment, Colin Powell, the US government’s … Continue reading “Powell Lied, People Died: Justice Delayed Was Justice Denied”