When President Biden held his two-hour conversation with his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on December 7, the American news media dutifully repeated what the White House had released: a warning by Biden to leave Ukraine alone – or else! But didn’t Putin have anything...
The US, Not Ukraine, Decides Whether America Defends Ukraine
The drumbeat of war continues to roll across Europe. President Joe Biden is promoting an uncertain message, sometimes aggressive, other times restrained, as he talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky. The Republican Party is more coherent...
Iraq Daily Roundup: 14 Killed
Can Even a GOP Hawk Like Jeff Sessions Learn Some Hard Foreign Policy Lessons?
During his long years in the U.S. Senate, Jeff Sessions (who also later served as attorney general in Donald Trump’s administration) behaved like the overwhelming majority of his GOP colleagues; he consistently favored US military interventions around the world. There...
Are Autocrats Always Adversaries?
When did the political systems of 193 nations become the business of the government of the United States? And who elected us Americans to write the moral code for the regimes that rule other lands? Consider: On taking office, President Joe Biden pledged to center his...
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...
Iraq Daily Roundup: 26 Killed
Going Nuclear on Pentagon Spending
Originally posted at TomDispatch. Yes, four-star General Lloyd Austin commanded American forces in Iraq back in 2010 and 2011. In 2013, he took over from General James Mattis (remember him?) as the head of United States Central Command, or CENTCOM, overseeing...
Friends of the House of Saud: America Ever Owes the Royals Deference and Defense
No matter the many crimes committed by the House of Saud, defenders rush to take up their cause. The Wall Street Journal’s Karen Elliott House was the latest. Readers can imagine tears cascading across her keyboard as she wrote about the plight of the Kingdom of Saudi...
Honduras, Venezuela, and Reversing American Coups
In 2002, Venezuela’s democratically elected president, Hugo Chávez, was removed in a US sanctioned and supported coup; the people of Venezuela put him and his party back in power. In 2009, Honduras’ democratically elected President, Manuel Zelaya, was removed...


