Trump Has Just Raised the Stakes With Moscow and Tehran in Three Risky Moves
President Trump made three big moves on Syria and Iran this week. They crisscross and contradict one another, but the administration’s game plan in the Middle East just got a lot clearer. In Syria, it has been evident since Russian-backed government…
Trump’s Non-Existent Foreign Policy Is Costing the US Both Money and Influence
The Trump administration has no coherent foreign policy, and the U.S. is paying the price for the President’s failure to figure out a post–Obama strategic framework. Trump and many of his advisers don’t seem to understand the speed at which…
Journal Entry #24
Honorable actions. NORFOLK, CONN., 12 JULY—When I am made aware of people and the things they do such as the following, there is always some humiliation in it. I will be brief. I ought to have posted this days ago…
The Unacknowledged Logic of North Korea’s Missile Tests
We may not like it, but nuclear weapons may be all that stands in the way of another US-conducted “regime change.” Given that North Korea flooded the airwaves and the press during our July 4 rituals—which grow more objectionably militarist…
Trump’s in a Corner With China. Here’s How He Can Get Out
President Trump has a China problem: He doesn’t know how to manage the single most important relationship the U.S. has. While Trump still boasts of his good personal relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he still does not have a…
Journal Entry #23
NORFOLK, CONN., June 26—We cannot read even our best correspondents and writers anymore should they dare to assume a perspective that deviates even minorly from the orthodoxy. In consequence, one gets into pointless discussions, maybe tipping toward argument, with perfectly…
Journal Entry #22
VAGLIAGLI, NEAR SIENA, June 10—By the grace and generosity of someone very dear, I finish a couple of weeks in Italy today, most of its spent in a stone farmhouse on a vineyard in this little commune between Siena and Florence….
Trump’s Fly-by-Night Mideast ‘Policy’ Embraces the Saudi’s New Crown Prince
It’s not likely that President Trump knew what he was getting into when he embraced the Saudis as the rightful leaders of the Islamic world and the war on terror during his visit to Riyadh last month. But there were…
On Writers, the Media, and the Corruptions of Power
Joel Whitney, whose book Finks is about the CIA’s subversion of US culture, talks about the scars left by the Cold War. In Part 1 of my exchange with Joel Whitney, conducted shortly after OR Books published Finks: How the CIA Tricked the…
A Trillion Dollar Plan to Rebuild the World Makes China the New Global Leader
While most of the world wonders nervously what’s next from the Trump White House, the confident China President Xi Jinping is shifting his bid for global leadership into a full-court press. Xi’s hugely ambitious leadership program includes joining Asia to…
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