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Reprinted from CommonDreams. There are three basic problems with the CIA: its objectives, methods, and unaccountability. Its operational objectives are whatever the CIA or the President of the United States defines to be in the U.S. interest at a given time, irrespective of international law or U.S. law. Its methods are secretive and duplicitous. Its … Continue reading “How the CIA Destabilizes the World”

Reprinted from Consortium News. As U.S. House members grapple with whether to give $60 billion more to Ukraine, they must also grapple with the checkered nature of the intelligence they’ve been fed. On July 13, 2023, President Joe Biden announced Russian President Vladimir Putin “has already lost the war.” That was six days after C.I.A. … Continue reading “Throwing Good Money After Bad in Ukraine?”

On February 8, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was in Washington on an official visit, aimed at working jointly with the United States to make “sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself”. If such a statement was made soon after the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation of October 7, one may cognize its logic, based … Continue reading “The Unrepentant West: Olaf Scholz and the Right to Commit Genocide in Gaza”

Originally posted at TomDispatch. War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. So that classic late 1960s song claimed. Still, for Bill Astore and me (and, I have little doubt, Joe Biden, too), such a thought didn’t cross our minds as we played with toy soldiers on the floors of our rooms as kids. I … Continue reading “Bombing Muslims for Peace”

The Biden administration has seemingly adopted a foreign policy doctrine in which they nurture a war while attempting to manage it, preventing it from becoming a wider war. The doctrine has been applied in both Ukraine and Gaza. In Ukraine, war has been nurtured by snuffing out the possibility of a diplomatic settlement while feeding … Continue reading “Joe Biden and Mismanagement of the Wars”

Reprinted with permission from Responsible Statecraft. The Israeli government is preparing to launch a ground assault on Rafah in southern Gaza as their devastating military campaign enters its fifth month. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was adamant that the assault would happen: “We’re going to do it.” This, after Israel started an aerial bombardment … Continue reading “Biden’s Calls for Israel to Mind the Laws Appear Feeble, and Ignored”

An Internet search shows journalist Sidney Blumenthal and historian James Chace as the first to coin the term “indispensable nation,” which is appropriate for describing the United States. This happened in 1996 during Bill Clinton’s presidency and Madeleine Albright’s term as Secretary of State. In his book The Clinton Wars, Blumenthal justified this definition since … Continue reading “Indispensable Nation or One Obsessed with Hegemony”

Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution marks its 25th anniversary this month, despite continuous US-led hybrid warfare to overthrow the socialist project. The Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro has successfully forced the US to de facto engage with it, although Washington still maintains the fiction that the defunct 2015 National Assembly is the “last remaining democratic institution” … Continue reading “Washington Promotes Venezuelan Opposition Candidate”

During Mr. Obama’s second term in office (2013-2017), it had become clear that the terms of the public policy debate were undergoing a radical and worrying transformation. In the space of a very short time, certain ideas and policy proposals were being ruled as out of bounds not on the grounds that they were unwise, … Continue reading “The ‘Disinformation’ Complex and US Foreign Policy”

After months of dangerous drama in Kiev, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has finally acted on his promise to fire Ukraine’s top general Valerii Zaluzhny. Their long private conflict first became public on November 1, 2023 when Zaluzhny made his views public to the West in an interview and essay with The Economist that made clear … Continue reading “Zelensky Replacing Zaluzhny Is Not Just the Firing of Another General”