Judy Miller’s ghost lingers: Putin, Syria and how the New York Times cheers on a new Cold War
The propagandists have turned on the fog machine. Let’s try and sort out myth vs. reality with Russia, Middle East We reach a moment in the four-year-old Syria crisis when it is vital for anyone who has not succumbed to…
Defense and State In a Tug of War Over Obama’s Syria Policy
For many of us, the news last week that President Obama is sending U.S. Special Forces to Syria to oversee the training of Syrian rebels fighting ISIS is confusing. It begs the question—what exactly is the Obama administration’s policy, strategy,…
“Does anyone have a plan?” Here’s how we fix decades of overseas neo-conservative adventurism
We have accepted the horrors of American exceptionalism for too long. Here’s a progressive foreign policy blueprint “Tell me, what exactly is ‘an authentically progressive foreign policy.’” That is the request of a reader responding to last week’s column in the comment…
How Putin Put Obama in a Bind on Syria
As Russia’s advance into Syria proceeds, apparently with some early successes against key targets, it starts to look as if Moscow is using the Syria crisis to force the Obama administration into a bind. On Saturday, Jordan agreed to cooperate…
This is not a democracy: Behind the Deep State that Obama, Hillary or Trump couldn’t control
Foreign policy never really changes regardless of who holds the White House. This is why exceptionalism always wins There are two ways to consider the White House’s announcement last week that, no, American troops will no longer withdraw from Afghanistan…
Putin might be right on Syria: The actual strategy behind his Middle East push — and why the New York Times keeps obscuring it
There’s actually common sense and historical vision behind the Putin plan. Not that our media covers it honestly One sentence in a news report the other day on Russia’s assertive new campaign to subdue Islamic extremists in Syria simply will…
“Putin is the only major leader to utter a few simple truths about the role of the United States in the world today”
Perry Anderson on foreign policy: America’s problem is it’s a global hegemon without global ideology legitimacy Part two of our conversation with Perry Anderson. Find part one here. Fifteen years ago, in the distant universe we now know as pre-September 11,…
Thomas Friedman, read your Chomsky: The New York Times gets Putin/Obama all wrong, again
“Do you realize now what you’ve done?” The best question about our Middle East disasters actually comes from Putin A lot of good people are asking a lot of good questions these days, and this is an excellent thing. On…
How America built its empire: The real history of American foreign policy that the media won’t tell you
Perry Anderson sits down with Salon to discuss the Cold War, Hiroshima, American exceptionalism, Iran and more The other day I wrote Perry Anderson, the subject of the following interview, to ask what he thought of the foreign policy debates,…
America owns this nightmare: Everything Thomas Friedman and the media gets wrong about the migrant crisis
The refugee disaster unfolding across Europe is the result of decades — even centuries — of Western policies It is not that the West, or America in particular, is responsible for everything that befalls our awful world. Readers sometimes make…
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