In 1565, Pieter Bruegel the Elder created "The Massacre of the Innocents," a provocative masterpiece of religious art. The painting reworks a biblical narrative about King Herod’s order to slaughter all newborn boys in Bethlehem for fear that a messiah had...
Peering Into a Forever-War Crystal Ball
Originally posted at TomDispatch. More than 19 years ago, the U.S. launched the air war that would become the ground invasion and “liberation” of Afghanistan. More than 17 years ago, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared “major combat”...
Iraq Daily Roundup: 32 Killed; Suicide Bombers Strike in Baghdad
Does the First Amendment Restrain Big Tech?
When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he included in it a list of the colonists' grievances with the British government. Notably absent were any complaints that the British government infringed upon the freedom of speech. In those days, public...
Round Up the Usual Suspects; Don’t Forget Putin
Interviewed by Mrs. Clinton Monday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi eagerly rose to the bait when Clinton spoke of "her concerns that the outgoing commander-in-chief was compromised by the Kremlin". Setting the stage, Clinton expressed the hope that "we’ll find...
Israel Is Losing the Fight To Obscure Its Apartheid Character
For more than a decade, a handful of former Israeli politicians and US diplomats identified with what might be termed the "peace process industry" have intermittently warned that, without a two-state solution, Israel is in danger of becoming an “apartheid state”. The...
The Inconvenience of Democracy: Pre-emptive Coups
The attempt to reverse a democratic election in a classic quiet coup in America has now turned ugly and noisy. On the very same day as Joe Biden condemned the coup, he nominated Victoria Nuland as under secretary of state for political affairs: the same Victoria...
As Joe Biden Takes Over, Washington Is in Desperate Need of a Little Foreign Policy Humility
Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s newly appointed National Security Adviser, began issuing orders to Russia two days before his installation. Sullivan urged Moscow to release Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader arrested on his return to Russia on Sunday. Insisted...
Medical Apartheid in Palestine
Medical apartheid is moving at full speed in Palestine. Israel has refused an informal request from the World Health Organization (WHO) to immediately make COVID-19 vaccines available to Palestinian medical workers to avert a health disaster, citing shortages of jabs...
By ‘Force and Fraud’: Is This the End of the US Democracy Doctrine?
In an interview with the British newspaper, The Times, in 2015, former US Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, vehemently denied that exporting democracy to Iraq was the main motive behind the US invasion of that Arab country 12 years earlier. Rumsfeld further alleged...


