PATRICK LAWRENCE: Europe Going Its Own Way
Events of the past week show the Continent restoring some of its pre-1945 independence from U.S. hegemony. Those who come after us will look back and conclude we lived in a time of great moment. This is true in all sorts of…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: A United State of Delusion
Americans are caught in a kind of national psychosis, wherein little of what is said about foreign conduct — from Germany to the South China Sea — can be taken at face value. Let’s face it: The Trump regime has from the…
Bravate di Guerra Fredda nel Pacifico
This Italian translation appeared on Sakeritalia. Prima è arrivata al Congresso la richiesta formale [in inglese] da parte del Dipartimento della Difesa per un assegno di 20 miliardi di dollari per aumentare la propria presenza in tutto il Pacifico. Un mese dopo la…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Cold War Escapades in the Pacific
There is a lot to read into this moment, but one thing’s clear. The U.S. doesn’t know what time it is. First came the Defense Department’s formal request to Congress for a $20 billion check to upgrade its presence across the Pacific. That…
THE REVELATIONS OF WIKILEAKS: No. 7— Crimes Revealed at Guantánamo Bay
“Gitmo Files” lifted the Pentagon’s lid on the prison, describing a corrupt system of military detention resting on torture, coerced testimony and “intelligence” manipulated to justify abuses at the base, writes Patrick Lawrence. Today we continue our series The Revelations of…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Iranian Tankers & the Age of Interdiction
Two forms of interdiction — the steady expansion of U.S. sanctions and our stunning drift toward unmasked censorship — have begun to intersect. Over the weekend, a sixth Iranian cargo ship entered Venezuelan waters and is due to dock shortly. It follows…
A Circle in the Darkness: Post-War Europe
Diana Johnstone’s newly-published memoir offers an incisive, gritty, politically alert, and expansive account of post-war Europe, reports Patrick Lawrence in this interview with the author. Diana Johnstone first sojourned in Paris during the early postwar years, as France and the…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Latest & Most Reckless US Imperial Act
Following the U.S. assassination of Soleimani, the Trump administration is leading American conduct abroad into a zone of probably unprecedented lawlessness. Of all the preposterous assertions made since the drone assassination of Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad on Jan. 3, the…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The US Moves on Iran’s Oil Market as an Expression of an Irrational Foreign Policy
Patrick Lawrence gauges the backfiring potential of Pompeo’s withdrawal on Thursday of U.S. sanction waivers from eight major importers. A Decisive Defeat in Long-Running Battle with Foreign Policy Minders Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement last week that no importer…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Damage Russiagate Has Done
Authoritarian liberals have unleashed a censorious syndrome peculiar to our national character, dating to 17th century Quaker hangings in Boston. An inhabitant of Twitterland named “Willow Inski” took to the keyboard on Oct. 11, asking why anyone still accepts official…