Lately, a few percipient observers, including myself have remarked that Bernie Sanders has been sounding just a bit Trumpy on the subjects of immigration and international competitiveness. Now, it seems, Donald Trump has been sounding a bit Rand Pauly on the Middle East. Bloomberg Politic’s Melinda Henneberger reports on the scene with the Donald at…
Search Results for: iraq
Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Diagnostician or Disease?
Pankaj Mishra, whom I’ve previously praised, has an excellent, excellent article up at theguardian, as it calls itself these days, “How to think about Islamic State”, though it might better be called “Civilization and its Discontents, Neo-Liberal Edition,” because it treats the really world-wide complaints of those who aren’t making a decent living in the…
Thomas Friedman, still wanting to blow things up
Poor Thomas! He’s supporting Obama’s Iran deal, because, because, I guess, because the guys at the water cooler at the Times wouldn’t speak to him if he didn’t. Damn that peer group pressure! But Tom isn’t a total pussy. No way, John! According to Tom, once we make the deal with Iran, we include this…
I guess no Muslims were available
The Atlantic has printed a symposium/sitdown discussing the Obama Administration’s proposed nuclear agreement with Iran, featuring, well, featuring three Jews—Peter Beinart, David Frum, and Jeffrey Goldberg. Pete and Jeff are both in favor of the deal, leaving poor Dave as the odd man out, but I couldn’t help thinking that the Atlantic might have picked…
The Pentagon’s Short- and Long-Term Memory Loss
In a story appearing in Politico, “Obama team split over next steps with Iran”, Michael Crowley writes that a “senior administration official” denied that there was any possibility of a presidential visit to Iran—“we continue to have very serious differences with Iran.” Crowley remarks that “That sentiment will be appreciated by military officials who hold…
Baltimore cops: Where is the outrage?
On May 1, Maryland State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby filed charges against six Baltimore police officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray, who died of spinal injuries incurred in the course of his arrest and transport in a police van. The Washington Post offers a primer on the Gray case here. Following the indictments…
Seymour Hersh’s inconvenient truths
Philip Giraldi has a nice—nice, if redundant—piece in the American Conservative pointing out that Seymour M. Hersh’s recent piece in the London Review of Books, “The Killing of Osama bin Laden” is likely to be a lot more accurate than the mainstream media, which somehow resent being told that the US government doesn’t always tell…
From the politeness of experts, Lord, deliver us
Rosa Brooks is a senior fellow at New America and a law professor at Georgetown University. From 2009 to 2011, she served as a senior adviser to the undersecretary of defense for policy. She is also the author of a book review in the April 16 Washington Post of Jessica Stern and J. M. Berger’s…
Rand Paul, Gettin’ Rowdy
Ever since ISIS beheaded two Americans in Iraq, thereby convincing millions in the U.S. that they were sharpening their scimitars to do the same in Des Moines, Republican politicians who don’t insist that they’re fixin’ to kick some major though unspecified Middle Eastern ass in the near though not yet determined future have been hard…
The Judith Miller Show: Weaving new false narratives to replace the old
After the French Revolution, it was said that of the old aristocracy that they had forgotten nothing and learned nothing. After the disastrous second Iraqi war, it may be said of the Wall Street Journal that it had learned nothing and forgotten everything. The latest entropy effusion from the WSJ Memory Hole is Judith Miller’s…