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America’s immoral exceptionalism: The lie we keep telling ourselves about foreign policy and democracy

America’s immoral exceptionalism: The lie we keep telling ourselves about foreign policy and democracy

March 19, 2015 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

Americans are disgusted with all of these wars, but feel powerless to do anything about it The task of historians in our time is to unbury the buried. For journalists, it is to see that the truth of events is…

Tom Cotton’s war on reality: The GOP will recognize no limits

Tom Cotton’s war on reality: The GOP will recognize no limits

March 12, 2015 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

The extreme right will risk global conflict to preserve the fading dream of America’s eternal hegemony That letter Republican senators, 47 of the 54 now seated, sent to Iran this week to sabotage the Obama administration’s nuclear talks is preposterous…

A Nuclear Deal with Iran Starts to Look Likely

A Nuclear Deal with Iran Starts to Look Likely

March 9, 2015 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

Will we or won’t we have an international deal defining Iran’s nuclear programby the negotiators’ self-imposed deadline? There are two weeks left. This is now the kind of cliffhanger the London bookmakers usually offer odds on. My wager is that…

Let’s all pity Netanyahu and the GOP: Israel, Iran, irrational thinking — and Thomas Friedman’s usual muddled nonsense

Let’s all pity Netanyahu and the GOP: Israel, Iran, irrational thinking — and Thomas Friedman’s usual muddled nonsense

March 5, 2015 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

A reactionary leader addressing a reactionary legislature will expose the creeping irrelevance of them both Many readers will have seen Benjamin Netanyahu’s sentimentally charged but otherwise empty speech to Congress on Tuesday. If you missed it, you can watch it…

We are f***ing sadists: We are not decent, and we are not a democracy

We are f***ing sadists: We are not decent, and we are not a democracy

December 16, 2014 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

The torture report requires us to look in the mirror — and accurately assess the monster that we see “You’ll comment on the torture report?” a friend in London asked just after the Senate’s revelations came out last week. “No,…

We’ve corporatized the planet: The unseemly secret about America’s foreign policy

We’ve corporatized the planet: The unseemly secret about America’s foreign policy

October 7, 2014 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

In Ukraine, however, these efforts seem to have failed. Here’s why that’s a good thing We do not read much about Ukraine lately, do we? With unseemly speed, among the most important developments of the last few years has fallen…

It’s time to bomb ISIS: Yes, America helped sow these seeds, but this is the rare group that should be called “terrorists”

It’s time to bomb ISIS: Yes, America helped sow these seeds, but this is the rare group that should be called “terrorists”

August 28, 2014 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

Disastrous, ham-fisted foreign policy by both Obama and Bush has forced us to select from horrible options How quickly all Washington’s chickens flock back to the roost these days. You can say this about any number of policy disasters, notably…

Propaganda ministers, all of them: Our pathetic, spoon-fed media pushes half-truths, again

Propaganda ministers, all of them: Our pathetic, spoon-fed media pushes half-truths, again

July 22, 2014 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

You can’t separate MH-17 debate from Ukraine debate. Washington wants to, and a compliant media helps — as always I would like to meet Anastasia Lukina. No, not because of the elegant name. I have two better reasons. Lukina is…

George W. Bush’s horrific, deadly blunder: Would Saddam Hussein be better than Iraq’s new hell?

George W. Bush’s horrific, deadly blunder: Would Saddam Hussein be better than Iraq’s new hell?

June 18, 2014 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

Eleven years, and so much death, misery and destruction later, Iraq’s best outcome looks like the one Bush upended Foreign policy, at least the American kind, is like a stone thrown into a pond: The ripples outward go on and…

Liberal media myth officially dead: Brazen propaganda, historical amnesia and the New York Times

Liberal media myth officially dead: Brazen propaganda, historical amnesia and the New York Times

April 16, 2014 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

Does Obama have control of his own intelligence agencies? Also, the Times has an ironic definition of propaganda This shapes up as an important week in the Ukraine crisis. We have already witnessed the extent to which the provisional government…

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Writer, commentator, longtime newspaper and magazine correspondent abroad. Writes often on Europe and Asia. Published five books.

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