Five countries in Central America, together with the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean, have a free trade agreement with Washington, but this didn’t protect them from the punitive tariffs announced on President Trump’s “Liberation Day.” A minimum 10 per cent tariff...
The Unnecessary War
Reprinted with permission from The Realist Review. Asked about the state of the war in Ukraine during a press gaggle last night on Air Force One, President Trump responded that the war is “a horrible thing that never should have started.” That war is horrible is an...
Civil War on the Horizon? The Ashkenazi-Sephardic Conflict and Israel’s Future
The phrase "civil war" is one of the most dominant terms used by Israeli politicians today. What began as a mere warning from Israeli President Isaac Herzog is now an accepted possibility for much of Israel's mainstream political society. “(Israeli Prime Minister...
The All-Devouring Machine: Pentagon Malfeasance and Insatiable Empire
The eyes of a new generation were opened in an episode that seemed like dark science fiction for those of a certain age, and an unyielding nightmare regardless: a genocide streaming into smartphones around the world in real time. Many American eyes were opened for the...
Ending Militarism in America
Originally appeared at TomDispatch. In September 2007, retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and historian William Astore emailed me out of the blue. He’d been reading articles at TomDispatch, the website I set up soon after the 9/11 attacks to deal with this country’s...
No Quick End to the War in Ukraine
There is still reason for optimism that the Trump administration can bring the war in Ukraine to a diplomatic end. But insubstantial promises of a fast, smooth sailing solution have splintered against the solidity of reality. Campaign promises of a day became goals of...
Liberation or Obliteration?
President Trump was elected in part because he promised to reduce prices and not drag the country into foreign wars. Sadly, President Trump has adopted a tariff policy that will raise prices and abandoned his “America First” foreign policy in favor of a return to...
America’s New Lost Cause
Reprinted with permission from The Realist Review. They say that “History is written by the victors.” Fortunately, we know that that is not always true. History is written by those who can assert the most appealing narrative. Those who offer the most charismatic and...
The Graver Israel’s Atrocities in Gaza, the Quieter the BBC Grows
The BBC’s news verification service, Verify, digitally reconstructed a residential tower block in Mandalay earlier this week to show how it had collapsed in a huge earthquake on March 28 in Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia largely cut off from the outside world....
Why America Don’t Need No Stinkin’ ‘Allies’
OK, the title is a bit crude and is deliberately mocking in tone. But it has to be because there is a deeply-entrenched, almost sacred presumption embedded in the nation’s foreign policy catechism that “allies”, “alliances” and “coalitions of the willing” are the...


