John Yoo’s Dilemma

John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, faces a dilemma. You might recall that he was one of the most controversial lawyers in the Bush administration’s early years. Yoo was the deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2001 to 2003. … Continue reading “John Yoo’s Dilemma”

A Liberal Politician Libertarians Can Appreciate

Author’s note: I gave this talk at the Peace Feast in Seaside, Calif., on March 29. This week the Monterey County Weekly ran an article in which it "outed" me as an antiwar professor at the Naval Postgraduate School. I’m not complaining: everything in that article was accurate, except for the part about my not … Continue reading “A Liberal Politician Libertarians Can Appreciate”

Jeremiah Wright: True and False

I stayed home Tuesday morning to watch the much-hyped Barack Obama speech on race and Jeremiah Wright. I was glad I did. I’ll forgive him his 35-minute, Bill Clinton-style delay before speaking because this speech was obviously one of the most important of his campaign. I had wondered how Obama would both speak to white … Continue reading “Jeremiah Wright: True and False”

Support Our Troops – or Judge Them?

KING HENRY V [disguised as a fellow soldier] I dare say you love him not so ill, to wish him here alone, howsoever you speak this to feel other men’s minds: methinks I could not die any where so contented as in the king’s company; his cause being just and his quarrel honourable. WILLIAMS That’s … Continue reading “Support Our Troops – or Judge Them?”

End the Cuban Embargo

Celebrate Good Times Whenever a bloodthirsty dictator resigns or, even better, dies, I pause to celebrate. I would have celebrated at Hitler’s death had I been alive then. Ditto Stalin. And I did celebrate when Mao died. I look forward to Fidel Castro’s death. After all the murders he has committed, he deserves it. End … Continue reading “End the Cuban Embargo”

The Information Problem: Pull Out of Iraq

On February 5, I gave a luncheon talk on the Iraq war at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco. About 60 people attended. I spoke after fellow Antiwar.com columnist Ivan Eland. Ivan laid out a plan for partitioning Iraq or at least having a very weak central government with relatively strong regional governments representing … Continue reading “The Information Problem: Pull Out of Iraq”

Two Days with Charles Peña

Regular readers of Antiwar.com probably often wonder who we columnists are in flesh and blood. Many of you like some/many/all of the articles we write, but you probably still wonder what we would be like as speakers. To put it bluntly, would you want to spend some of your speaker budget on this or that … Continue reading “Two Days with Charles Peña”

The Fatal Conceit in Foreign Policy

Question: Which Pakistani leader should the U.S. government support? You wouldn’t know it from watching most of the candidates for president, but this is a trick question. Why is it a trick question? Because it’s like asking, "When did you stop beating your wife?" If you try to answer when you stopped, you implicitly admit … Continue reading “The Fatal Conceit in Foreign Policy”

Don’t Lean on the NIE

On the surface, and even below the surface, the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons is good news. The major U.S. intelligence agencies are now saying that the Iranian government abandoned its direct quest for nuclear weapons in 2003. This finding, and the wide publicity it has been given, will make … Continue reading “Don’t Lean on the NIE”

The Religion Called Americanism

Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion David Gelernter Doubleday, 2007 240 pp. David Gelernter, the Yale University computer science professor known for surviving a bomb attack by the Unabomber, has written a fascinating book, Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion. I should warn the readers of Antiwar.com that I started off with a bias in … Continue reading “The Religion Called Americanism”