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Category Archives: Empire

No one could have predicted

Monday, August 16, 2021

The fall of the puppet Afghan government. No one totally unfamiliar with history that is.

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Nose deep in the big muddy

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

We all know about stopped clocks. If they can be right twice a day, it stands to reason that Donald Trump can be right once in his life, which actually happened when he opined that we should get the hell out of Afghanistan. It also stands to reason that this rare occurrence couldn’t last, and […]

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Doomed to repeat?

Thursday, September 4, 2014

The New York Times reported yesterday morning that the latest beheading of an American journalist “raised the pressure on the president to order military strikes on the group in its sanctuary in Syria.” The Boston Globe had an article that made a similar point. I've criticized Obama quite often, but on foreign policy he has […]

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How to run an Empire

Monday, June 23, 2014

  Senator Tim Johnson says we can't afford to provide good health care to vets:   . Johnson said that he couldn’t support the bill because of its cost—$35 billion the first two years and $50 billion per year after that, according to a preliminary estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. This is the […]

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An outrageous suggestion

Sunday, March 2, 2014

The usual Congressional suspects are beating the drums of war regarding the Ukraine. I have an absolutely absurd suggestion, which I nonetheless advance in all seriousness. Were I Obama, I would point out that Article I, Section 8 of an obscure document called the United States Constitution vests the power to declare war in the […]

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Iraq redux?

Monday, September 9, 2013

I prefer to stay away from conspiracy theories, and I admit that, though I have expressed a lot of disappointment with Obama, I've held on to a belief that he is qualitatively different than Bush. I have, in short, a tough time accepting that he, like Bush, would lie us into war, but alas I […]

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Where is this going?

Monday, September 2, 2013

A few weeks ago I noted in my good news feature that Obama did not appear anxious to get himself involved in Syria. That was then, and this is now, and all I can say is that I was acting on the basis of the intelligence I had then. The monumental hypocrisy of our insistence […]

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Deja vu all over again

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Almost under the radar, the neocons are doing it again: setting us up for yet another can’t win military adventure in the Middle East, this time against the much tougher Iran, into which we will be dragged by the Israeli tail that keeps wagging the American dog. Amazingly enough, we will once again be led […]

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Mercenary madness

Friday, October 8, 2010

This article in the New York Times is mind boggling on many levels: Afghan private security forces with ties to the Taliban, criminal networks and Iranian intelligence have been hired to guard American military bases in Afghanistan, exposing United States soldiers to surprise attack and confounding the fight against insurgents, according to a Senate investigation. […]

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Speaking unconditionally

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Via the Washington Monthly, from the Washington Post: Since 2006, Iran’s leaders have called for direct, unconditional talks with the United States to resolve international concerns over their nuclear program. But as an American administration open to such negotiations prepares to take power, Iran’s political and military leaders are sounding suddenly wary of President-elect Barack […]

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