You’re being lied to about Afghanistan: The terrorists there include us
When we treat civilians as collateral damage, no wonder Hamid Karzai trusts us as little as the U.S. trusts him Some readers may recall the joke that went around when George W. Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan shortly…
State of Foreign Policy: Not a Sharp Picture
The blogs and newspapers tell us President Obama will be firing on all cylinders when he delivers his State of the Union speech Tuesday. He plans to push the reset button, reassert command and drive an agenda, and declare a…
Glenn Greenwald’s heroism: Standing up to our new Orwellian police state
Empty NSA reforms will change nothing. The surveillance state subverts the law — and the president is complicit The deed has been done, there now for all to see. President Obama’s speech on the authority of the National Security Agency confirms…
Why Baucus Is the Wrong Man as China’s Ambassador
There are several reasons President Obama just named Max Baucus, the long-serving senator from Montana, as his next ambassador to China. There are also several reasons to judge Baucus the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time…
Chomsky’s right: The New York Times’ latest big lie
More misleading half-truths from a paper too cowed by power and myth to tell the truth about U.S. foreign policy Never before have I written a column concerning nothing more than a pair of quotation marks. Then again, never until…
Saudis in a Snit over Obama’s Mideast Policies
What is happening between Saudi Arabia and the U.S.—the very fastest of friends since American geologists first caught the whiff of petroleum in the early 1930s? And how much should anyone worry about a rift between Washington and Riyadh? The…
Are Things Actually Looking Up in the Middle East?
It is only a faint outline—call it a pencil sketch—but the lines of a significantly remade Middle East are suddenly falling into place. We have to wait for the region’s leaders and the diplomats asserting the influence of interested outsiders…
Here Comes Obama’s Big Moment with Iran
It is still a thrill an hour in Washington. Do we have a government? Do we pay our bills? Two days of talks in Geneva this week will prove just as big. They begin Tuesday, the topic is Iran, and…
Stand up and fight, Mr. President!
The moment requires courage, conviction — and presidential leadership. How will President Obama respond? Remarkable doings at the U.N. this week. Remember these days. They are going to change the way we understand the dynamic in the Middle East —…
How Iran and Israel Put Obama in the Hot Seat
We begin a big, consequential week in world politics. This year’s UN General Assembly will put President Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, in the same room, addressing the same heads of state, walking the…
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