Robert C. Koehler

January 7, 2023

What is democracy but platitudes and dog whistles? The national direction is quietly predetermined – it’s not up for debate. The president’s role is to sell it to the public; you might say he’s the public-relations director in chief: ". . . my Administration will seize this decisive decade to advance America’s vital interests, position the United […]

Kelley Vlahos and Daniel Larison

January 6, 2023

From Crashing the War Party: LISTEN HERE The U.S. military has over 270,000 troops currently deployed across the globe, including in 17 countries that the public up until now didn’t even know about. Our guest this week, Ben Friedman, a senior analyst with Defense Priorities, takes on the Washington shibboleth that we couldn’t possibly start […]

Conflicts of Interest

January 5, 2023

On COI #366, Kyle Anzalone discusses the Washington/Pyongyang relationship in 2022. Subscribe on YouTube and audio-only.

William Astore

January 4, 2023

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission. I was bantering online with an old friend and fellow historian and I hit him with my best shot: history is un-American. If you think like an historian, and especially if you think America and its future actions should be informed, or possibly even constrained, by history, […]

Daniel Larison

January 4, 2023

Eric Edelman and Ray Takeyh want the US to “help” Iranian protesters: They want regime change. The United States should help from afar by increasing sanctions and improving communication among the demonstrators. If most Iranians want to change their political system, that is their right and the US should not hinder them, but the US […]

Brett Wilkins

January 4, 2023

As Russia's invasion and NATO's support of Ukraine have heightened nuclear tensions in Europe to their highest level since the Cold War, a Wisconsin peace activist is set to become the first American jailed in Germany for an antinuclear protest. John LaForge, the 66-year-old co-director of Nukewatch, was convicted in December 2021 by the Regional […]

Conflicts of Interest

January 4, 2023

On COI #364, Kyle Anzalone and Connor Freeman cover Twitter’s collaboration with U.S. Central Command’s Middle East psyops, Washington’s deployment of nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to South Korea for war drills, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s trip to Washington D.C. as the U.S. prepares to pledge tens of billions in more aid, the Kremlin’s warning that the […]

Joziah Thayer

January 3, 2023

Members of the Lions’ Den marched through the West Bank Askar refugee camp in Nablus in an armed military parade in early December last year. Two months earlier, the Israeli Prime Minister brushed the group off as only having 30 members and being disorganized, vowing to “get his hands on them.” Israel proclaimed the Lion’s […]

Daniel Larison

January 3, 2023

Venezuelan opposition legislators voted last week to dissolve their interim government, and with that they have ended the project of trying to replace Maduro with Juan Guaidó: But nearly four years later and with little to show for the effort, the experiment has come to an end. On Friday, the opposition lawmakers who once rallied […]

Brett Wilkins

January 2, 2023

Editor’s Note: Ben-Gvir entered Al-Aqsa Wednesday morning. Israel's far-right national security minister on Monday postponed a planned visit Islam's third-holiest site amid warnings from the country's opposition leader and Palestinian officials that such a trip would have deadly consequences. The Times of Israel reports Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir temporarily put off a promised […]