I have my doubts whether the Putin-Biden summit in Geneva will take place later this month, but even if somehow it is pulled off, recent Biden Administration blunders mean the chance anything of substance will be achieved is virtually nil. The Biden Administration was supposed to signal a return of the “adults” to the room. …
Continue reading “The Coming Biden/Putin Train-Wreck Summit”
"Take away this pudding; it has no theme," is a comment attributed to Winston Churchill, when a disappointing dessert was put in front of him. Writers have used Churchill’s remark to describe a foreign policy that lacks coherence or centrality of purpose. For most of our lifetimes, this has not been true of the United …
Continue reading “What Is America’s Cause in the World?”
Since Joe Biden took office as president in January, there has been considerable speculation about the prospects for successful U.S. negotiations with Iran to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) regarding Tehran’s nuclear program. President Donald Trump effectively torpedoed that agreement when he rescinded Washington’s adherence to its provisions in 2018. The chances …
Continue reading “Washington’s Hypocritical Iran Obsession”
President Joe Biden has proposed his first budget and the Pentagon won’t go without. Biden followed his Republican predecessor in pushing higher military spending. Although the proposed increase, from $740 billion to $753 billion, isn’t a lot, he invited Congress to spend more by playing the Washington game of underestimating expenditures for politically popular programs. …
Continue reading “Cut Military Spending, but Restrain Foreign Policy First”
The photo was unprecedented. It showed Mansour Abbas, leader of an Islamist party for Palestinians in Israel, signing an agreement on Wednesday night to sit in a “government of change” alongside settler leader Naftali Bennett. Caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fervently try to find a way to break up the coalition in the next …
Continue reading “Israel’s New Government Will Deepen Rifts, Not Heal Them”
Eight were killed in attack in northern Iraq.
Even the biggest, toughest, meanest movie characters go wobbly when facing the Great Panda. At least when Chinese nationalism demands they kowtow to its demands. The latest Hollywood wimp who plays a real man on screen is John Cena. The former wrestler, when promoting his role in Fast & Furious 9, stated that Taiwan was …
Continue reading “Taiwan Is a Country in All But Name: Still, That Doesn’t Mean America Should Defend It”
Three people were killed in Iraq.
Human rights defenders on Wednesday accused the Biden administration of joining its predecessors in undercounting the number of civilians killed during US wars, as the latest annual Pentagon report on noncombatants killed by American bombs and bullets was blasted as “grossly inadequate” by a leading ACLU official. According to a Department of Defense report (pdf), …
Continue reading “Biden Joins Long Line of Presidents to ‘Woefully’ Undercount Civilians Killed in US Wars”
In Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, a broad but shaky new “change coalition” claims it’s ready to finally oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – the right-wing Likud leader who’s held the office for the last 12 years. If approved, the new coalition would anoint as prime minister Naftali Bennett, a former Netanyahu ally who supports settlement …
Continue reading “Four Things To Know About Israel’s New ‘Change Coalition’” 
