American thinker George Santayana once observed: "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it." And German political philosopher Karl Marx, who had studied the policy miscalculations made by the European leaders of the 19th century, mused:...
The Tunnel at the
End of the Light
The recently published memoir of the late Arthur Schlesinger, the renowned American historian and former aide to U.S. presidents, recalls that whenever officials in Washington had pointed to signs of progress toward peace in the Middle East, Israeli diplomat Abba Eban...
When Reel Tales Rewrite
Real History
In his new revisionist study, No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939-45, renowned British historian Norman Davies challenges the "very superficial and Americanocentric view" of World War II reflected in the popular war histories. For instance, the American...
The Costs of Isolating Myanmar
President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush, joined by Republican and Democratic lawmakers, the leading presidential candidates, human right activists, and Christian evangelists, have been condemning the violent crackdown on protesters led by Buddhist monks in...
The Surge Scam: Getting Rid of the Goat
There is an old Jewish story about a man who lives in a very small house with his wife, many children, no space, and very little money. So the man goes to his rabbi for advice: "Rabbi, you are so wise, and here I am living in a small house, with no light and little...
Dangerous Delusions
A television adaptation of Nebula Award-winning author John Kessel's short story "A Clean Escape," which aired on ABC's new sci-fi anthology series titled Masters of Science Fiction, is set in a post-Apocalypse future, but it reminded me of current events....
Hayek’s Insights Apply to Iraq War as Well
One of the major contributions of the renowned Austrian-British economist, political philosopher and a proponent of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism, Friedrich von Hayek, to economic and political thought was his notion that the scope of knowledge required...
Time to Ignore the Middle East?
These days, conventional wisdom in Washington, DC holds that the Iraq War has been lost, that the Bush Doctrine of promoting unilateral regime change and spreading democracy in the Middle East has failed, and that the neoconservative ideologues who have dominated U.S....
The Wolfowitz Touch – or How to Lose US Credibility
One of the maxims that you learn in Politics 101 is that exerting leadership doesn't require the use of coercion and force, and that in fact the most successful politicians and statesmen are those who can defend and advance their goals through guidance and persuasion....
Iraq War May End With an Isolationist US
The war which resulted in the ouster of a dangerous despot ended and the US troops, who had fought in a bloody conflict overseas, were returning home. But the human and financial costs of the war were very high and its promise of helping to spread democracy in regions...