Peace and Security
Is This How the World Sees America Now?
Donald Trump recently returned from meeting with the other powerful countries of the G20 group — one of his first big performances on the world stage. So how did it go? Not swell, according to a no-holds-barred account delivered by Chris Uhlmann, an Australian...
Don’t Feed the Nuclear Club
A Bipartisan Vote to Put the Brakes on War
One of the few things I recall fondly about the Trump campaign — a short list, I’ll admit — was the candidate’s apparent glee in ridiculing the war-mongering of his rivals and predecessors. In early 2016, Trump (correctly) summed up George W. Bush’s legacy this way:...
The Real Threat
Our President’s Word Wars
These days I find myself thinking often about a cartoon by the late Theodore Geissel. In it, a woman with a sweater that reads "America First" reads aloud from a storybook to two children: "And the Wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones," she relays....
Trump on Cuba: If Obama Did It, It’s Bad
There's a lot to say about Trump reversing some of the Obama administration's policies on Cuba. The White House recently announced it was banning individual travel to the island and further restricting what business Americans can do there. Yes, there's a lot to say,...
Another Troop Surge in America’s Longest War
President Trump might have dodged military service in his youth, but he certainly is militaristic — he's bellicose, likes to issue commands, and is constantly firing off militant tweets at anyone he perceives to be an enemy (which seems to include everyone who dares...
Trump’s Twitter Bombs
Donald Trump missed his opportunity to become a General Patton-style military commander and glorious war hero back in the Vietnam era. He surely would've been the greatest in history, to hear him tell it. But, alas, he says some unspecified foot problem (or something...
The Problem with Dividing ‘Good Muslims’ from ‘Bad Muslims’
All right, America. We need to have a talk. The president recently returned from Saudi Arabia, where he gave his Muslim hosts a speech about the threats of "radical Islamist terrorism." Because Trump steered slightly clear of his usual vitriol toward Muslims — he's...
Is Trump Taking Us to War Everywhere?
No one ever expected Donald Trump to be a peace-loving president. On the campaign trail, he endorsed torture, said he'd bomb the families of alleged terrorists, and spoke gleefully about the president’s power to launch nuclear weapons. But threatening war with...
