As research for Hooper’s War: A Novel of WWII Japan I encountered people suffering in ways they had a hard time describing but which they wrestled with God over everyday. They told me they went away to fight with an idea “we’re the good guys,...
When I was young, there was a joke: "There is no one like you – and that's a good thing!"The joke applies now to Donald Trump. He is unique. That's good, indeed.But is he unique? As a worldwide phenomenon, or at least in the Western world, is he...
On June 15, 2017, the New York Times reported that the government of Saudi Arabia aims to ease the concerns of some U.S. legislators over US weapon sales to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis plan to engage in “a $750 million multiyear training program through the American...
A concept that you learn quickly in the military is that you can delegate authority but not responsibility. The buck stops with the guy or gal in charge, and when it’s policy at the national level, that guy is the commander-in-chief, currently Donald Trump. Yet...
When it comes to bad foreign policy, the House and Senate are completely bipartisan. Yesterday's 97-2 Senate vote for more Russia sanctions was a perfect case in point. What justifies yet more sanctions on Russia? Violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine,...
Japan absorbed WWII. The collective memory was tidied up. Little is taught about the war in modern Japanese schools, and even less of what is taught is true. There seems no reason to bring up all those bad deeds and rotten memories. For the most part, the Japanese...
Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) and his legislation (HR 1666) to end the US government’s war in Afghanistan were the subject of a short and informative report on WNCT-TV in Greenville, North Carolina this week. “Here we are sworn by the Constitution to have the...
Defense Secretary James Mattis was grilled before the Senate yesterday, with Sen. McCain expressing his frustration that there is no new strategy yet to "win" in Afghanistan. Mattis promised a new approach by July, but the real question is that after the 2009 surge of...
The new world ranking of peaceful and non-peaceful countries is out, and the results present the best case imaginable against US interventionism overseas. Of the ten least peaceful countries, nine of them have been on the receiving end of US destabilization, "regime...
Shortly after President Trump returned from his Middle East trip, Saudi Arabia and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) broke diplomatic relations with fellow GCC member Qatar and established a blockade around the tiny country. The Saudi pretext was...
