Journal Entry #6
LAKE SUNAPEE, N. H.—I wrote twice this week on the Obama administration’s new accord with Turkey, providing landing rights for Americans fighter jets and putting Turkish F-16s in the air alongside the U.S.A.F. craft. These pieces are now posted. So…
Our monumental Turkey blunder: Who put the American exceptionalists back in charge?
Take a hard, careful look at what the hawks in the Obama administration—and it is crawling with them—have just done by bringing Turkey into the fight against the Islamic State. Given the blur the campaign against ISIS has become, with…
Obama Paid a High Price to Get Turkey to Fight ISIS
The war against the Islamic State just widened to include Turkey as a combatant. The Obama administration has long tried to persuade the Islamic government of RecipTayip Erdoğan to get into the fray, but the vital question still needs to be…
Journal Entry #5
NORFOLK, Conn., July 23—I’ve been moved more than once over the past couple of years to return to a book that, indeed, moved me greatly when I first read it some years ago. I have a very fine first of…
Unraveling the axis of stupid: How Iran deal sends neocons, exceptionalists and Fox News xenophobes to dustbin of history
Let Know Nothings, Tea Party and Trump crowd rail against the deal. They rail against reality, modernity, history. This Iran deal, sealed a week ago, makes me think of those cruises people take up the Pacific coast into Arctic climes:…
Obama Iran Doctrine: Get the Deal You Can, Not the Deal You Want
Amid all the questions already raised about the Obama administration’s deal governing Iran’s nuclear program, we know this much already: It won’t be as hard to sell this on Capitol Hill as it was getting Tehran to come to terms,…
Journal Entry #4
NORFOLK, Conn.—A reader who goes by the nametag Soma SF added an interesting comment to the thread following a Salon column on the Greek crisis that is datelined July 14th and now posted here. She wrote six hours ago. I…
The untold story of the Greece coup: Another democratically elected leader tossed overboard for not submitting to economic orthodoxy
The Greek people said no to austerity, knowing the path would be hard. They learned bittersweet, painful lessons. A scant week ago it looked as if Greeks were about to teach all of us something of great value. With their…
Europe’s Deal with Greece Nearly Splits the Eurozone
Leaders of the eurozone nations put Greeks and other Europeans on urgent notice at a hastily called summit in Brussels late Sunday evening: The group worked through the night and agreed to a new $100 billion bailout with serious reforms…
Journal Entry #3
NORFOLK, Conn.—A reader wrote in the comment thread attached to a column now running on Salon and to be posted here today, “What is neoliberalism, anyway?” It’s a good question. Said column used the term… liberally à propos the Greek…
Recent Comments