The bottle looks beautiful. It sports an old-fashioned spring-top stopper. The red, diamond-shaped label features an elegant font. From a distance, the silhouetted landscape on the label looks exotic. It is, like all fine gourmet water, “bottled at source.” Even the French name of the water suggests elegance: B’eau Pal. But wait: B’eau Pal? That… Continue reading Lords of Misrule
In the game of geopolitics, South Asia is the big swing region. It commands the very center of the vast Eurasian heartland, which the founders of geopolitics identified as pivotal to control of the globe. This preoccupation with the world’s most populous region — which brings together India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and several… Continue reading Swing Region
We’re close to our spending limit on the nation’s credit card. The bank bailout, the stimulus package, the Iraq War and the overall military budget: each is costing more than $500 billion. Now the Obama administration is looking at two more hefty charges: a national health care plan and a surge in Afghanistan. It’s time… Continue reading Obama Must Pick Gurneys Over Guns
When I recently visited Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, a young girl on our tour of the house raised her hand tentatively during the docent’s remarks about the enslaved people who worked the plantation. “Did Jefferson treat his slaves better than other slave-owners?” she asked.The docent responded, wisely, that slavery is slavery, however brilliant or benevolent the… Continue reading Toward a More Perfect Nobel
A mixed metaphor lurks behind the Obama administration’s foreign policy. On the one hand, there’s Obama’s “open hand” approach that rewards the unclenched fist with a handshake. On the other hand there’s the other hand, the one that Obama keeps close to his chest. This “hand” is the set of cards that Obama the gambler… Continue reading The Hand of Obama
Celebrating its 60th birthday this year, NATO is looking peaked and significantly worse for wear. Aggressive and ineffectual, the organization shows signs of premature senility. Despite the smiles and reassuring rhetoric at its annual summits, its internal politics have become fractious to the point of dysfunction. Perhaps like any sexagenarian in this age of health-care… Continue reading Afghanistan: NATO’s Graveyard
I never much liked the idea of arms control. During the Cold War, we managed our nuclear arsenals rather than reduced them. We treated our nukes like huge, dangerous animals. We restricted their movements but gave them ample care and feeding. Until recently, getting rid of the animals altogether was not part of the political… Continue reading Carbon Disarmament
The Vietnam War ruined everything. It not only destroyed Vietnam and killed a huge number of its inhabitants. It not only killed so many American soldiers and destroyed the futures of so many veterans. It not only spread into Cambodia and Laos and wrecked those countries for generations. The Vietnam War also killed the Great… Continue reading Good War vs. Great Society
Last week, I inadvertently found myself back in second grade. This is how it happened. I recently published an essay on the tradition of suicide missions in the West that generated a lot of letters, some of them negative. But even the detractors generally respected the norms of polite discourse. Then, last week, several conservative… Continue reading Lies and Misdemeanors
At the edge of Europe, in Ireland’s Shannon Airport, they conduct surveillance on the U.S. empire. ShannonWatch, a group of a dozen or so peace activists led by a former Irish commandant and peacekeeper, scrutinizes the commercial and military planes that pass through Ireland to bring troops and hardware to Afghanistan. Such transports take place… Continue reading Europe 3.0