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The American Way of Abandonment

When America is about to throw an ally to the wolves, we follow an established ritual. We discover that the man we supported was never really morally fit to be a friend or partner of the United States.
When Chiang Kai-shek, who fought [...]

The Fruits of Intervention

If we had it to do over, would we send an army into Afghanistan to build a nation?
Would we invade Iraq?
While these two wars have cost 5,200 dead, a trillion dollars and a divided America facing an endless war, what have we won?
Gen. Stanley McChrystal needs [...]

J Street Runs in the Wrong Direction

I was pretty positive about J Street when it launched 18 months ago. And of course, on balance I prefer J Street to the bellicose AIPAC. The former does not advocate that America launch wars (Iraq) that are not in its interest to fight.
But J Street’s premises may be flawed. This “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby exists [...]

Familia Values

An article in the October 23 Washington Times points to what I think may be the next important evolution in Fourth Generation war. The piece concerns Mexico’s third-largest drug gang, La Familia. La Familia is best known for beheading people it does not like. But according to the article, its real claim [...]

Affirmative Action Nobel

All my life, said Voltaire, I have had but one prayer: “O Lord, make my enemies look ridiculous. And God granted it.”
In awarding the Nobel Prize for Peace to Barack Obama, the Nobel committee has just made itself look ridiculous.
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The Epitome of Hegemony

I disagree with Michael Lind about many things, but in his new Salon essay he provides the best short description I’ve seen of how the makers of U.S. foreign policy think:
The Pax Americana strategy requires its supporters to exaggerate the power and malevolence of the designated enemies of the Pax Americana: Russia, China and Iran. [...]

Containment for Iran

That Iran is building a secret underground facility near the holy city of Qom, under custody of the Revolutionary Guard — too small to be a production center for nuclear fuel, but just right for the enrichment of uranium to weapons grade — is grounds for concern, but not panic.
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Not Another Cold War

Andrew Bacevich has a piece up at the Washington Post arguing that the U.S. should approach the war on terror like the Cold War; specifically we need a new doctrine of containment, which for Bacevich means everything from decapitation strikes (though not ones that kill civilians — as if any decapitation can be clean) to [...]

To Lose a War

While America was consumed this summer with quarrels over town-hall radicals, “death panels,” the “public option” and racism’s role in the plunging polls of Barack, what happens to health care is not going to change the history of the world.
What happens in Afghanistan [...]

Black Sea Brinksmanship

In August, the Georgian navy seized a Turkish tanker carrying fuel to Abkhazia, Georgia’s former province whose declaration of independence a year ago is recognized by Russia but not the West.
The Turkish captain was sentenced to 24 years. When Ankara protested, he was [...]