Antiwar.com

I wrote last week about the disappointment Steve Forbes has been in his foreign policy statements – essentially embracing Cold War nostalgia and Great Power clichés about the continuing need for the United States to be wary of enemies and especially to pursue a needlessly provocative policy toward China. Last week George Dubya weighed in … Continue reading “DUBYA’S EXPANSIVE VISION”

A Policeman’s Lot Is Not a Happy One – at Home and Abroad GOVERNOR EDWARD EYRE AND THE ‘JOYS AND SORROWS OF EMPIRE’ Edward John Eyre (1815-1901) was a great builder of the British Empire. After a career as a magistrate in Australia, where an occasional lake is named for him (occasionally there’s water in … Continue reading “A Policeman’s Lot Is Not a Happy One – at Home and Abroad”

While the war in Chechnya was preoccupying delegates to the OSCE summit in Istanbul last week another potential crisis was developing in the Balkans. On 14th November the small republic of Macedonia elected a new president, Boris Trajkovsky. But supporters of the losing candidate Tito Petkovsky – who led by a considerable margin in the … Continue reading “Macedonia: the Next Balkan Flashpoint”

Not so many years ago I really wanted to like Steve Forbes – and to tell the truth, I still can’t help liking him personally; I find his clumsy, crooked grin endearing and I think he’s one of the more substantive candidates American politics has coughed up in recent years. Before he started running for … Continue reading “THE FORBES DISAPPOINTMENT”

A PROGRESSIVE HISTORIAN Last week in a discussion of Charles Austin Beard, "isolationist" Progressive historian, I mentioned Beard’s influence on a number of younger scholars, among them William Appleman Williams and Murray N. Rothbard. Williams emerged in the late 1950s as the spearhead of New Left diplomatic history and has had an enduring influence on … Continue reading “William Appleman Williams: Premier New Left Revisionist”

It is Veterans Day today, which brings up the question of how to honor veterans of America’s various wars responsibly and honorably. I submit that the most sincere honor is paid by resolving not to allow our political leaders to get us involved in wars in which servicepeople are asked to give their lives in … Continue reading “HONORING VETERANS HONORABLY”

A PROGRESSIVE HISTORIAN Charles A. Beard (1874-1948) was a central figure in the American historical profession in the first half of this century. Born into a substantial Midwestern family in Indiana, he studied at Spiceland Academy, a Quaker institution. He spent 1898-1902 at Oxford University. He returned to the United States and by 1904 had … Continue reading “Charles Austin Beard: The Historian as American Nationalist”

Last week Agence-France Presse, the French news agency, reported that U.S. and British air strikes killed two civilians and injured seven in an air strike on what an Iraqi spokesman said were civilian facilities in northern Iraq. The US military said the strikes had hit military targets as a response to anti-aircraft fire. The week … Continue reading “IRAQ MILITARY BUILDUP”

As noted in a previous column, Southerners have gotten a reputation for belligerence at home and abroad. To combat this unfortunate generalization, I continue my survey of Southerners who have been critics – to some degree or another – of interventionist foreign policy and empire. Tom Watson, whose views on the Spanish-American War and the … Continue reading “Southern Critics of Intervention: Part III”

The slaying of 8 prominent politicians in Armenia on 27th October including the prime minister, Vazgen Sarkisian, and speaker of the parliament, Karen Demirchian, took the Western media completely by surprise. Experts seemed to be thin on the ground – CNN provided a young lady from the Economist Intelligence Unit who squirmed in discomfort when … Continue reading “Some Thoughts on the Killings in Armenia – Who did it and Why?”