War With Iran Would Become ‘Trump’s War’

President Donald Trump cannot want war with Iran. Such a war, no matter how long, would be fought in and around the Persian Gulf, through which a third of the world's seaborne oil travels. It could trigger a worldwide recession and ...

Do Trump’s Hawks Speak for Trump?

For a president who his office by denouncing the Middle East wars into which George W. Bush and Barack Obama plunged the nation, Donald Trump has assembled the most unabashedly hawkish conclave of foreign policy advisers in memory. And ...

Who Wants This War with Iran?

Speaking on state TV of the prospect of a war in the Gulf, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei seemed to dismiss the idea. "There won't be any war. ... We don't seek a war, and (the Americans) don't either. They know it's not in ...

Strait of Hormuz

Is Bolton Steering Trump Into War with Iran?

Last week, it was Venezuela in America's gun sights. "While a peaceful solution is desirable, military action is possible," thundered Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. "If that's what is required, that's what the United States will ...

Is Bolton Steering Trump into War with Iran?

"Stop the ENDLESS WARS!" implored President Donald Trump in a Sunday night tweet. Well, if he is serious, Trump had best keep an eye on his national security adviser, for a U.S. war on Iran would be a dream come true for John Bolton. ...

Nancy Pelosi

Will Democratic Rebels Dethrone Nancy?

After adding at least 37 seats and taking control of the House by running on change, congressional Democrats appear to be about to elect as their future leaders three of the oldest faces in the party. Nancy Pelosi of California and ...

Is Trump Going Neocon in Syria?

Is President Donald Trump about to intervene militarily in the Syrian civil war? For that is what he and his advisers seem to be signaling. Last week, Trump said of Syrian President Bashar Assad's campaign to recapture the last ...

John McCain

Are the Interventionists Now Leaderless?

"McCain's Death Leaves Void" ran The Wall Street Journal headline over a front-page story that began: "The death of John McCain will leave Congress without perhaps its loudest voice in support of the robust internationalism that has ...

America’s Lengthening Enemies List

Friday, deep into the 17th year of America's longest war, Taliban forces overran Ghazni, a provincial capital that sits on the highway from Kabul to Kandahar. The ferocity of the Taliban offensive brought U.S. advisers along with ...

Intervention Tension

I recently had a spirited discussion with the British historian James Holland, brother of Tom Holland, also a distinguished man of letters, about FDR, his oil embargo of Japan, and the root causes of WWII. We were in Normandy, ...

America’s Unsustainable Empire

Before President Trump trashes the Iran nuclear deal, he might consider: If he could negotiate an identical deal with Kim Jong Un, it would astonish the world and win him the Nobel Peace Prize. For Iran has no nuclear bomb or ICBM and ...

Return of the Warmongering Walrus

One of the many reasons I voted for Trump—beyond his attitude, of course, which will always be the main reason—was that he realized America’s military forays into the Middle East were disastrously stupid. As far back as 2006 he ...


Sign Up to Receive Our Latest Updates!