Why participate in electoral politics? This is a question I’m often asked by antiwar activists of all stripes, and especially by young people who wonder why they should bother with a process that oftentimes seems rigged from the get-go. With Election Day coming, and...
The Chickenshit Lobby Is Mad As Hell
Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel – can we ever escape the endless kvetching of its partisans? In the media, in both houses of Congress, on the campuses and in the streets, Israel’s fifth column in America is everywhere, making its presence felt. From Chuck Hagel’s...
Putin’s Complaint
The idea that the United States must exercise "global leadership" is rationalized by our interventionists as a necessary prerequisite for maintaining some type of "world order." Who will guard the sea lanes? Who will deter "aggression"?...
‘We Can’t Have Perpetual War’: The Realism of Rand Paul
Senator Rand Paul is everywhere: campaigning for Republican candidates during the crucial midterm elections, on Fox News explaining to Hannity why going into Iraq with ground troops is a mistake, teaming up with Cory Booker to call for reform of federal sentencing...
A Note From the Recovery Room
I underwent surgery on Wednesday, and will be needing some recovery time. I'm not sure how much time I'll need at this point, so suffice to say here that there will be no Friday column, and perhaps no Monday column either. I very much regret missing two whole columns...
Leslie Gelb Is Right
Amid all the hysteria surrounding the rise of the Islamic State in the Levant (ISIS), even the most frantic have usually refrained from calling for "boots on the ground," i.e. the re-invasion of Iraq. Except for John McCain, at most they say we need to arm...
Is Mexico a Failed State?
Every time they find a mass grave, they think it’s the one they’re looking for – but it isn’t. No, this isn’t a Halloween tale: it’s a real life story about 43 missing Mexican students who once attended the Escuela Normal Rural Isidro Burgos, a small teachers' college...
Ebola, ‘Epistemic Closure,’ and the Political Class
Nobody likes a know-it-all. You know the type I mean: somebody who sits there with a smug-as-all-hell look on his/her face while pontificating on a subject with absolute certainty, secure in the knowledge that they’re echoing the Conventional Wisdom. Yes, they could...
American Foreign Policy: Still Crazy After All These Years
Want proof of the craziness of US foreign and military policy? Just turn to Leon Panetta’s Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace, wherein the former Secretary of Defense and longtime Democratic party hack congressman recounted a 2010 conversation with...
Ebola, ‘Scaremongering,’ and the Epidemiology of Interventionism
The U.S. government is good at doing what it’s not supposed to be doing – invading other countries without provocation, utilizing "soft power" in order to pull off regime change, enriching politically favored economic interests under the guise of promoting...


