Trump Foreign Policy Speech Latest Example of GOP Bankruptcy in Foreign Policy Ideas, Competence

A detailed examination of Trump’s foreign policy speech from a few weeks ago reveals how little substantive thought or ideas…

Continue Reading →

The Word Terrorism & Its Diminishing Returns: Towards a Rational, Useful Definition & Application

For the crime of terrorism to have weight, we must move globally towards a more specific definition that goes beyond…

Continue Reading →

December Republican Debate Exposed GOP As Joke on National Security

With its focus on national security, the mid-December Republican debate, though a month past, can still serve as a stark…

Continue Reading →

Happy—Wait, No—Risky New Year 2016

Happy Risky New Year If people thought 2015 was bad, 2016 shows no sign of letting on up on risk.  The…

Continue Reading →

Claiming Obama’s Iraq Withdrawal Created ISIS Problem Is Absurd; Here Are the Top 5 Reasons Why

People claiming that the withdrawal from Iraq of U.S. forces carried out by the Obama Administration from 2010-2011 explains the…

Continue Reading →

Republican Criticism of Obama’s Sound ISIS Strategy Myopic; GOP Ideas Help ISIS, Endanger Americans

GOP Ideas Help ISIS, Endanger Americans Just because Obama’s ISIS, counterterrorism, and Middle East strategy is complex and will not…

Continue Reading →

Encountering Dehumanization Among Israelis and Palestinians

The lengths to which far too many people on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict go to minimize or deny…

Continue Reading →

Russia Reaping What It Sows in Syria: Putin Puts Russia on Path to Peril & Destabilizing Middle East; Downing of Russian Plane by Turkey Latest Result

In the wake of Turkey’s downing of a Russian military jet that violated its airspace and Russia’s resulting casualties, tensions…

Continue Reading →

What the Paris Attacks Taught Me About Israel

When Paris was hit by terrorism and French civilians were killed, the world stood up for the French.  When Israel is…

Continue Reading →

Terror in Paris: Time to Think, & Sit Down, Shutup to the Ideologues

As this historic terrorist attack unfolds, France, Europe, the West, and the Middle East need to really think about what…

Continue Reading →

U.S. Deployment of Special Operations Forces to Syria: Another Low-Risk, High-reward Move by Team Obama

Author’s note: as Trump pulls U.S. troops out of Syria, it’s worth noting what I pointed out here in late…

Continue Reading →

Syria, ISIS, The Walking Dead, The Leftovers, & Tolkien: Musings on the Crumbling of Civilization & Morality

How three TV shows illustrate critical dynamics of the Syrian Civil War and how two books show us why we need to…

Continue Reading →

Putin’s Reckless Syria Escalation Makes Russia, Russians, Target of Global Jihad (Again)

By intervening squarely on the side of Shiite Bashar al-Assad against his own mainly Sunni people and the entire Sunni…

Continue Reading →

Grading Obama’s Middle East Strategy II: Syria’s Civil War

Grading Obama on what has—and has not—been done by his administration regarding the Syrian Civil War Originally published on LinkedIn…

Continue Reading →