Battles in the US Congress that erupted again this week, holding up an extra $1bn in military funding for Israel, underscored just how divorced from reality the conversation about US financial aid to Israel has become, even among many critics. For 48 hours last month,...
The Middle East and the Second Cold War
The Middle East was a crucial arena in the Cold War. It was then that Israel first acquired its value to the US as a bulwark against perceived Soviet penetration into the Middle East. The Soviet Union perceived US activity in the Middle East as encircling them on...
How the ‘Self Licking Ice Cream Cone,’ Prolonged the 20-Year War
Reprinted with permission from Responsible Statecraft. There is a rapidly growing political demand for making American officials accountable for the failures of the Afghanistan War, with a focus now on the military leadership and top generals’ role in keeping forces...
Iraq Daily Roundup: Five Killed
The Bankruptcy of ‘Great Power Competition’
A militarized rivalry between the US and China will be costly and dangerous for all concerned, but the people most likely to suffer from it will be found in the countries that the two major powers choose to turn into their battlefields. The Cold War between the United...
Americans Are Tired of War: Could Ancient Warrior Joe Biden Inaugurate a New Age of Diplomacy?
Americans are tired of war. They want the U.S. to be involved in the world. But they prefer to send diplomats rather than soldiers to solve problems. In short, Americans are over the Neocon moment when war was seen as the solution to most foreign problems. And...
Stop Calling the Military Budget a ‘Defense’ Budget
It’s bad enough that mainstream news outlets routinely call the Pentagon budget a "defense" budget. But the fact that progressives in Congress and even many antiwar activists also do the same is an indication of how deeply the mindsets of the nation’s...
Iraq Daily Roundup: Six Killed
Our Foreign Policy Elite Has Learned Nothing From Afghanistan
Reprinted from The Nation with permission of the author. Bush and Cheney sold the war, Obama normalized it, Trump disowned it, and Biden had the courage to end it. Cecil Rhodes once said he would annex the planets if he could, and the United States, over the past four...
Washington Keeps Poking the Panda Regarding Taiwan
Expectations that Joe Biden’s administration would pursue a more conciliatory policy toward the People’s Republic of China (PRC) than its predecessor did have not been borne out. The surprising continuity with the Trump administration’s approach is most evident...


