Ivan Eland

One of the most dangerous international disputes that the United States could get dragged into has little importance to U.S. security – the disputes nations have over small islands (some really rocks rising out of the sea) in East Asia. Although any war over these islands would rank right up there with the absurd Falkland … Continue reading “Stay Out of Petty Island Disputes in East Asia”

The ever-mercurial Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, recently called a council of the nation’s tribal elders (a loya jirga) to ratify a bilateral security agreement reached with the United States governing the up to 12,000 U.S. forces that would be left in that country after the withdrawal of all American and international combat forces at … Continue reading “Call Hamid Karzai’s Bluff”

Why are Israel, Saudi Arabia, and their congressional allies in both American political parties trying to kill an interim nuclear deal with Iran that effectively freezes (and in some instances rolls back) the Iranian nuclear program until a comprehensive deal can be reached to permanently limit the program so that Iran cannot build a nuclear … Continue reading “The Real Reason Hawks Are Trying To Kill the Deal With Iran”

The 50th anniversary of the assassination and funeral of John F. Kennedy should remind us of his primary legacy: The long shadow of unintended consequences from reckless foreign intervention. JFK’s orchestration of the attempted overthrow of a foreign regime – Fidel Castro’s in Cuba – is usually treated in American history as a one-off disaster … Continue reading “JFK’s Real Legacy: Unintended Consequences of Needless Foreign Meddling”

As the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination grows near, the media, always suckers for celebrity, is providing saturation coverage of the tragic killing and the emotion-invoking funeral. The American public, also suckers for presidential charisma, consistently rate magnetic presidents, such as Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, much higher than the historians who study … Continue reading “On the 50th Anniversary of JFK’s Assassination, Let’s Examine His True Legacy”

Despite having an increasingly autocratic and sectarian Shi’ite government that allows overflights of Iranian arms to a Syrian government opposed by U.S.-supported rebels, President Obama has pledged to increase military assistance to Iraq – reversing a five-year trend of disengagement and aid reduction. The Obama administration will increase intelligence support to the Iraqi government and … Continue reading “A Slippery Slope Back Into Iraq?”

In an outrageous setting of priorities in the National Security Agency (NSA) spying scandal, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Diane Feinstein (D-CA) has implicitly placed the feelings of foreign heads of state above the constitutional rights of Americans. Responding to anger, complaints, and pressure from powerful German Chancellor Angela Merkel about revelations that NSA had intercepted … Continue reading “Feinstein Cares More About Appeasing Allied Governments Than Standing Up for Americans’ Rights”

Sending a shock wave through the U.S. military-industrial complex, NATO ally Turkey passed up the usually dominant American defense industry in favor of an obscure Chinese defense company for a contract on a long-range missile defense system. Unlike the American Patriot system, the Chinese system, produced by China Precision, is not easily compatible with existing … Continue reading “Turkey’s Arms Purchase Should Jolt US Alliance Policies”

Recently, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that they had agreed on key provisions of a security arrangement that could allow some American forces in Afghanistan to remain after the NATO combat mission ends at the end of 2014. Yet no details were released on the deal, and remaining … Continue reading “As in Iraq, Completely Withdraw US Forces from Afghanistan”

In response to an avalanche of criticism over revelations of his National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) bulk collection of Americans’ telephone and other electronic metadata, General Keith B. Alexander, the director of the agency, in a recent interview with the New York Times, claimed that his spy agency is just misunderstood – not operating illegally or … Continue reading “We Don’t Need More ‘Spin’ About NSA’s Unconstitutional Domestic Snooping, We Need It Stopped”