Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Donald Trump has boasted about withdrawing the United States from the Iran Nuclear deal, as if it were the most impressive diplomatic feat since Richard Nixon opened diplomatic relations with China. And Bibi Netanyahu has boasted about getting Trump to withdraw from that deal, as if he had manipulated Trump the way Iago manipulated Othello.… Read more.
The whole world is atwitter – with fear and loathing – over Iran electing hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi to succeed purported reformer Hassan Rouhani as president. I submit, however, that this reaction is much ado about nothing. Kudos to The New York Times for at least putting Raisi’s election into proper geopolitical context – as… Read more.
President Trump has spent much of his presidency maligning US intelligence agencies as corrupt and incompetent – often in open and notorious ways. But he has proven time and again that he is immune to charges of hypocrisy. Only that explains him citing intelligence gathered by those very agencies to justify this: US President Donald… Read more.
The New York Times – of all papers – published an anti-Semitic cartoon on April 25. It depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a dog leading US President Donald Trump as a blind man. This incited unprecedented condemnation, and rightly so. The literary allusion in my title is decidedly more flattering. But I hope… Read more.
A US-led conference in Warsaw this week that was intended to isolate Iran has ended up isolating America instead — highlighting one of the central problems of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. … This annoyed European allies, many of whom sent only low-level diplomatic staff — or no representation at all — to attend the… Read more.
Here in part is the plainly hypocritical way President Trump weaseled out of the nuclear summit with President Kim: Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting. (CNN, May 24, 2018) Indeed, just weeks ago,… Read more.
In fact, reports are that Trump’s announcement of his decision to withdraw triggered explosions within hours: Syria on Tuesday said Israel carried out an attack on a military base south of Damascus, which was used by Iranian forces. … The [Israeli] military said it identified what it said was unusual movements of Iranian forces in… Read more.
Frankly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a shameless, irrepressible charlatan. Only this explains his Chicken-Little warnings about Iran being within months of possessing nuclear weapons to wipe Israel off the map, which he’s been proselytizing for decades. Mind you, he warned about Iraq in similar fashion. Indeed, it’s arguable that no individual did more… Read more.
This excerpt — from “Trump Decertifying Iran Nuclear Deal more MALO than MAGA,” October 13, 2017 — explains a lot, not just about his nuclear politics but his imploding presidency. ____________________ Hardly a day goes by without Donald Trump doing or saying something to make his presidency a laughingstock. … Frankly, only a diagnosis that… Read more.
Iran, Russia and European leaders roundly condemned President Trump’s decision on Friday to disavow the Iran nuclear deal, saying that it reflected the growing isolation of the United States, threatened to destabilize the Middle East and could make it harder to resolve the growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. [Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain,… Read more.
