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Browse: Home » SEPTEMBER 11
We brought this on ourselves, and we are the terrorists, too

We brought this on ourselves, and we are the terrorists, too

March 27, 2016 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

There is no more ducking the point: It’s not terror only when it happens to us. Our “shock and awe” is terror, too Within an hour or two of the bombings in Brussels Monday, it was plain that there were…

This is how the CIA botched Iraq post-9/11: Bob Gates, careerist sycophancy, and the real history of the Deep State

This is how the CIA botched Iraq post-9/11: Bob Gates, careerist sycophancy, and the real history of the Deep State

February 14, 2016 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

A veteran CIA officer explains to Salon exactly where the agency has gone wrong for decades — and the consequences In a lengthy exchange with Ray McGovern, or when you listen to him speak, a lot comes at you. This…

“Have we forgotten how beautiful it is to be on fire for justice?”

“Have we forgotten how beautiful it is to be on fire for justice?”

October 31, 2014 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

No matter the country, our foreign policy seems to make the same mistake over and over. What’s behind this pattern? “Novelists write the secret histories of nations.” I am not sure who made this bull’s eye remark. But I cite…

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…

American exceptionalism and American innocence: The misleading history and messages of the 9/11 Memorial Museum

American exceptionalism and American innocence: The misleading history and messages of the 9/11 Memorial Museum

June 9, 2014 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

The 9/11 Memorial gets grief profoundly. But the museum cynically exploits tragedy, confuses history with ideology After a dozen years of thinking, planning, disputing, designing, building and — we cannot leave this out — patriotic hyperventilating, we have a museum…

God won’t save us: Memorial Day, honest history and our new military-industrial complex

God won’t save us: Memorial Day, honest history and our new military-industrial complex

May 25, 2014 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

Americans believe we are guided by divine providence. Obama’s strange presidency shows the work of something else Memorial Day comes, always a curious occasion in a nation devoted to forgetting so much of its past. Count this column one among…

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About Patrick Lawrence

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

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Recent pieces

  • Patrick Lawrence: Germany in Crisis Part 3: A Culture of Submission April 26, 2025
  • “Liberal delusions.” April 22, 2025
  • Patrick Lawrence: Germany in Crisis Part 2: A Short History of Exploding Gas Pipelines April 21, 2025

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