On the first anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine, it’s timely to reflect on exactly where we are in this war and what are our strategic choices.  And many commentators more qualified that I have been doing that, some more realistically than others, but here are my thoughts for whatever they are worth: The […]

Bill Galston in the Wall Street Journal recently put it well: “It is no longer possible to believe, as many did before World War I and again after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that economic considerations dominate politics and make some measures unthinkable.”  I remember reading and commenting on Tom Friedman’s book, The World […]

For several years now I have come to have more respect for Tucker Carlson and his nightly show on Fox News than for any other presentation of news and opinion on TV because of his intellectual depth on the issues and objectivity as compared to the other “red meat” cable options, both left and right.  […]

The Russian invasion of Ukraine drags on, the brave Ukrainians and their courageous President hang on, and it seems that Joe Biden is willing to turn up the pressure on Vladimir Putin just enough that he won’t consider the moves a “provocation” for widening the conflict.  Who do we think we’re kidding–we’re already deeply into […]

By now it should be clear, even to the most naive of us, that in Vladimir Putin we are dealing with a pathologically romantic thug obsessed with his distorted view of history and the egomaniacal pursuit of his legacy.  And the response by the U. S. and the West so far has been totally devoid […]

OK, Tucker Carlson and Fox News, I get it: How can the U. S. have as a priority the defense of the sovereignty of Ukraine and its borders when we can’t find a way to protect our own borders?  Good point. I see the cognitive dissonance here and I condemn the Biden administration for its […]

“The Afghan withdrawal is one of the sorriest American failures in decades.  Its consequences will play out for years, if not decades, as friends and foes recalibrate their views of U. S. political will in general, and Mr. Biden’s in particular.”–Wall Street Journal Editorial Board I couldn’t agree more with this assessment, and the worst […]

As the first flight evacuating over 200 Afghans who worked with Americans in Afghanistan touched down at Dulles Airport in Virginia this past week, I couldn’t find much news to support the assurances from the Biden administration that this U. S.  withdrawal from an “endless war”, precipitated by President Trump and sustained by President Biden, […]

If there was ever any doubt about where things stand right now with the most important major power relationship of this century, the recent meeting between senior Chinese officials and top Biden administration foreign policy officials in Anchorage should have cleared that up right away.  China’s director of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, Yang […]

My cautious optimism that President Biden’s deeds might have a chance to be consistent with his rhetoric on policy with the Chinese falls flat when it comes to policy in Iran.  Even the rhetoric is bad.  It looks like a return of Obama/Biden, where the courting of Iran continues as though that regime and its […]