From the Archive: Over the past several years whenever American neocons say they should lead the way on national security, they invoke the “successful surge” myth, claiming that President George W. Bush’s Iraq escalation in 2007 “won” the war and…
Tag: John McCain
Trump, McCain and ‘Chicken-hawk-ism’
The fury over Donald Trump’s slur against Sen. McCain’s time as a Vietnam War POW has obscured a larger point about “chicken-hawk-ism,” how U.S. political/media insiders hail the soldiers for “heroism” but send them into harm’s way with little appreciation of their sacrifice, writes ex-CIA analyst…
Is War on ISIS America’s Fight?
The Sunni resistance to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 led to what is now ISIS or the Islamic State, and many U.S. hawks now want President Obama to “surge” troops back into Iraq to fight this brutal force.…
The Saudis’ Hurt Feelings
Republicans are slamming President Obama for strained relations with the Saudi royals and other Persian Gulf sheiks, but U.S. relations with these oil-rich monarchs have been tense before and given their support for Sunni terrorism should be tenser still, as…
Mysterious Deaths in Ukraine
The mainstream U.S. news media is so in the tank for the post-coup Ukrainian government that anything negative from neo-Nazi militias to apparent “death squad” operations is ignored, including a string of mysterious deaths of anti-coup politicians, as William Blum…
Shocked over Senate’s Gitmo Rhetoric
A citizen who attended a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about Guantanamo Bay was so shocked by the ugly rhetoric from some senators that she spoke up and was arrested. Now in an open letter, Helen Schietinger is asking Sen.…
NYT Still Pretends No Coup in Ukraine
Exclusive: The New York Times keeps insisting that last year’s Ukrainian coup wasn’t a coup and anyone who thinks so lives inside “the Russian propaganda bubble.” But a slanted Times “investigation” shows that the newspaper remains lost inside the U.S. government’s…
Obama’s Belated Realism on Cuba
President Obama has been what you might call a “closet realist,” favoring pragmatic approaches to world problems but afraid to buck Official Washington’s dominant “tough-guy-ism.” But he came out of the closet at least briefly in ending the Cuban embargo,…
Wisdom in Obama’s ‘Don’t Do Stupid Stuff’
Hillary Clinton and other war hawks are scolding President Obama for not asserting U.S. power more aggressively around the world to deal with a rash of crises, but there is wisdom in Obama’s saying, “Don’t do stupid stuff,” observes ex-CIA analyst…
The Risk of a Ukraine Bloodbath
Exclusive: Pressured by neocons and the mainstream U.S. media, the Obama administration is charting a dangerous course by seeking a military solution to Ukraine’s political crisis and possibly provoking Moscow to intervene to protect ethnic Russians, ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern warns.