I’m a mere citizen, in no way connected with the levers of American foreign policy, but I can explain how this looks to an incessant reader of history. As a citizen, I feel deep pain for the fiasco of Afghanistan. And shame. “Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it,” says Malcolm of another soldier in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” but for …
At the time I write this, the day before the 2020 presidential election, we don’t know whether Donald Trump will be a one-term president or whether he will be elected to a second term. Trump has repeatedly declared that he may not accept the election results if he is defeated. If he loses, it is hard to imagine a smooth …
For years after 9/11, President George W. Bush would tell dozens of audiences some variation of his “ocean’s theory of complacent defense.” Like this one from 2002: “No, it’s a different kind of war than our nation has seen in the past. One thing that’s different is oceans no longer keep us safe,” he explained to the folks at the …
At present, I’m getting outwitted by a militant parade of drunken white walker zombie ants. Collectively they might have a comparable number of brain cells to what I’m currently sporting, but who knows? I don’t know how the wattage works between species. Anyway, there could be a googol of the nosy insects in their Casselton, N.D., colony and the “Mad …
The campaign for 2020 is in its infancy, but I’m close to eliminating one candidate — Elizabeth Warren. Not because she’s a Harvard professor or any of the inevitable pretense that comes with academia. It really comes down to inauthenticity. Her painfully awkward live streaming on New Year’s Eve was an attempt to ingratiate herself to “regular folk” by opening …
Jefferson famously wrote, “No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.” Think of the diminishment of the presidents even of my own lifetime. Lyndon Johnson had been so consumed by the War in Vietnam that he withdrew from the 1968 presidential race. Johnson loved and lusted for power as much as anyone …
With recent weather disasters, fires and other events of a historical nature ravaging this country, I hope all of us remember who the true heroes really are. The firefighters on the ground and in the air risk their lives every day, but particularly in the California fires, as well as those areas ravaged by the rash of hurricanes, floods and …
(For those who missed Part 1, the first seven paragraphs are repeats.) Every year around 9/11, Facebook and other mediums are filled with flags and images from that tragic day and calls to “NEVER FORGET,” as is proper. The day should never be forgotten. Except many people in this country don’t know many of the details of that day, or …
Every year around 9/11, Facebook and other mediums are filled with flags and images from that tragic day and calls to “NEVER FORGET,” as is proper. The day should never be forgotten. Except, many people in this country, don’t know many of the details of that day, or choose to ignore them, so they don’t have much to forget. You …