Letters to the Editor

Commentary: This former CIA analyst has something to say about the classified documents crisis — and it’s likely not what you think

The former involved Trump’s intentionally keeping large amounts of classified material at Mar-a-Lago; the latter led to small amounts of intelligence at Biden’s former office and his home, as well as in Pence’s home. Since I held high-level security clearances for more than four decades while in the Army, Central Intelligence Agency, Department of State and Department of Defense, I have something to offer on the issue of secrets and secrecy.

WP Opinion: Biden Faces Brewing New Cold War

Because the United States is on a path to another Cold War, perhaps it’s premature for Mr. Ignatius to state that President Biden “begins 2023 with the wind at his back on foreign policy.”

Arming Teachers: A Misguided ‘Solution’

Arming Teachers: A Misguided ‘Solution’ is my latest opinion letter posting today and being printed in Sunday’s New York Times.

UKRAINE: THE KEY TO UNLOCKING THE RUSSIAN-AMERICAN STALEMATE

Alexander Vindman, the former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, provided testimony to the Congress in 2019 that framed the charge of abuse of power in the impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump.  In doing so, Vindman displayed a political courage that is far different from courage on the battlefield.  He is an American hero on various levels.  Nevertheless, his policy positions on Ukraine, if adopted, would pose a danger to U.S. national security policy, risking an unnecessary confrontation with Russia and a divided transatlantic alliance.

Recent News and Latest Book

We Must Reduce the American Role in the Middle East

The U.S. preoccupation with the Middle East over the past six decades has been a costly endeavor with little benefit. The traditional twin pillars of U.S. policy in the region have been relations with Israel and Saudi Arabia. Relations with Israel have been complicated due to domestic pressures on U.S. administrations that prevent a forthright approach to dealing with Israel. As a result, the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in the 1960s was handled duplicitously by the administration of Lyndon Johnson. Relations with Saudi Arabia are dependent on U.S. energy requirements, and Saudi influence in the OPEC arena. As a result, Saudi’s responsibility for the killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, war crimes in Yemen, and the brutalization of Ethiopian migrants on the Saudi-Yemeni border have been ignored.

More Evidence Regarding Henry Kissinger’s Lies About Chile

Our 240 years of history have not produced a more controversial secretary of state than Henry A. Kissinger.  There are enormous achievements associated with Kissinger, including the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 1972; the step-by-step agreements in 1974 between Israel and Egypt as well as between Israel and Syria; and the opening of a substantive political dialogue with China that began with his secret diplomacy in 1971.  Conversely, Kissinger will be remembered for the wiretapping of his senior aides; the secret bombing of Cambodia; the outrageous “tilt” toward Pakistan in 1971 in order to protect his opening toward China; the secret arms supplies to the Shah of Iran, who was supporting a Kurdish rebel faction in Iraq; the profound lies associated with the Vietnam War and the U.S. role in the bloody military coup in Chile fifty years ago.  The evidence of his lies regarding Chile continue to mount.