War & Peace

  • Saying the Obvious

    I think Israel's biggest problem with folks on the Left is that it elected Netanyahu, the Israeli equivalent of Trump. If the Israeli equivalent of an Obama had been head of state when this Hamas attack happened, the reaction on the Left would have been very different. These days, It always boils down to picking

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  • The Nihilism of the Intersectional Left

    What I cannot understand is endorsing, validating, or standing in solidarity with war crimes. That so many student organizations did so is stunning. It commits them to positions anathema not only to the conservatives they often tangle with but to left-leaning liberals and progressives, many of whom now perceive a frightening difference in core values

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  • Putin Going Postal

    Just as individual narcissists appear to be inflated egotists but are really insecure souls trying to cover their fragility, narcissistic nations and groups that parade their power are often actually haunted by fear of their own weakness. Narcissists crave recognition, but they can never get enough. Narcissists crave psychic security but act in self-destructive ways

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  • A Few Thoughts on Ukraine

    In observing events unfold in Europe over the last week, it struck me that there was a moment after 9/11 when the U.S enjoyed the world's sympathy as Ukraine enjoys it now. We squandered it, though, in the name of vengeance and Neoconservative, hubristic adventurism. And in doing so the U.S. squandered its credibility and

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  • Ukraine Silver Lining

    But Mr. Putin’s savaging of Ukraine, which many of his right-wing supporters had said he would never do, has recast the Russian president more clearly as a global menace and boogeyman with ambitions of empire who is threatening nuclear war and European instability. For many of his longtime admirers — from France to Germany and

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  • Bin Laden Toppled More than the Twin Towers

    “We anticipate a black future for America,” bin Laden told ABC News more than three years before the 9/11 attacks. “Instead of remaining United States, it shall end up separated states and shall have to carry the bodies of its sons back to America.” Bin Laden did not win the war of ideas. But neither

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  • Cixin Liu: Democracy and Culture

    In a 2018 New Yorker profile of the Chinese science fiction writer Cixin Liu, Jiayang Fan writes– I looked at him, studying his face. He blinked, and continued, “If you were to loosen up the country [China] a bit, the consequences would be terrifying.” I remembered a moment near the end of the trilogy, when

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  • It’s Primarily about Judgment; Secondarily about Experience

    The American Conservative ranks the candidates in terms of foreign policy sanity:

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  • Ukraine and the West

    The Beltway hawks want to defeat Putin, depicted as a new Hitler by Hillary Clinton, to punish the Russian leader who put a stop to the oligarch looting spree of the 1990s that had sent Russia into a death spiral. Their dream: humiliating Putin, setting off “freedom” demonstrations in Moscow, perhaps a civil war to

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  • What’s the Difference between Mandela and Che?

    Various notable individuals have lauded Guevara as a hero; for example, Nelson Mandela referred to him as "an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom",while Jean-Paul Sartre described him as "not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age". Others who have expressed their admiration include authors Graham Greene, who remarked that Guevara "represented the idea

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