Archives by date

You are browsing the site archives for 2016.

US plunges into war with Yemen

US plunges into war with Yemen

ANYONE WHO BELIEVES the United States is not fighting enough wars in the Middle East can be happy this week. We have just plunged into another one. Twice in recent days, cruise missiles fired from an American destroyer have rained down on Yemen. The Pentagon, a practiced master of Orwellian language, calls this bombing “limited self-defense.” […]

Blowback for American sins in the Philippines

Blowback for American sins in the Philippines

SOMETIMES AMERICANS THINK we have won a war, only to realize years or decades later that our victory was incomplete. Now we are facing an eruption of anger over a war we waged more than a century ago. Rarely has blowback from an overseas intervention come back to haunt us so long after the shooting stopped. […]

The US is your know-it-all friend who should just keep his mouth shut

The US is your know-it-all friend who should just keep his mouth shut

WHEN MAKERS OF American foreign policy dream of an ideal world, they fixate on one word: primacy. It used to be called “full-spectrum dominance.” On the street, it comes out as “Don’t even think about it.” Tough guys in Western movies put it differently: “This town ain’t big enough for both of us.” However it is […]

9/11 Saudi Arabia bill opens US to avalanche of lawsuits

9/11 Saudi Arabia bill opens US to avalanche of lawsuits

LAST WEEK, as the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approached, members of Congress gathered on the Capitol steps to pray, followed by a rendition of “God Bless America.” Then, evidently energized, they went inside and passed a bill that would allow relatives of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia for its apparent support of the attackers. […]

The kingmaker club

The kingmaker club

  VIOLENTLY INTERVENING IN the affairs of other countries has brought the United States much grief over the last century. We are hardly the only ones who do it. The club of interventionist nations has a shifting membership. During the current round of Middle East conflict, two new countries have joined: Turkey and Saudi Arabia. […]