Next Speaking Event
Washington Metro Oasis presents: President Biden and the European Alliance. Des
The European Alliance has been one of the key elements in U.S. national security policy since World War II. But the Trump administration clearly worsened the transatlantic alliance. This lecture will discuss the importance of the alliance and President Biden’s ability to rebuild it.
Letters to the Editor
Loyalist intelligence directors are a liability – Washington Post: Letter to the Editor
The July 29 front-page article “Coats to resign as spy chief” stated that intelligence directors have “not been such vocal political supporters of a president.” Well, President Ronald Reagan’s intelligence director was William J. Casey, who was a campaign manager for Reagan in 1980 and a zealous supporter of the president. As CIA director, Casey was responsible for the cherry-picking of intelligence on the Soviet Union that exaggerated the power and influence of Moscow and missed the decline and ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Casey example is an important reminder of the danger of appointing a loyalist such as Rep.?John Ratcliffe (R-Tex.) to be director of national intelligence.
America’s War Habit
The articles in your special issue “Needed: A New Foreign Policy” [July 16/23] exaggerate the potential for a public challenge to militarism and the readiness of the public even to do so.
Why would Mr. Obama side with China?
The Feb. 21 Washington Post editorial, “Why would Mr. Obama side with China?” suggested that the Kremlin ended Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov’s internal exile after the Senate renamed the Soviet Embassy site Andrei Sakharov Plaza. In fact, new Soviet leadership, led by Mikhail Gorbachev and Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, ended Sakharov’s house arrest in Gorki…
Recent News and Latest Book
Dangerous “War Scares” Of 1974, 1983, And 2021: What Needs To Be Done?
The United States over the past five decades has had dangerous experiences with “war scares.” This demands an assessment of options for reducing the possibility of a war scare that could result in an actual war, particularly in the nuclear age. U.S. and allied military exercises are particularly dangerous because military doctrine, particularly in communist states, argues that military exercises are an effective way of hiding an actual first strike operation.
Is It Biden’s Turn to be Boxed In?
It was known as early as 2006 that additional troops would not make a difference; that the Afghan government would collapse without U.S. support; and that the Afghan government was a criminal syndicate. In private meetings with Obama, Biden dismissed the intelligence community’s view of the Taliban as nothing more than a “new al Qaeda.” It wrongly predicted that the Taliban would project a “global jihadist ideology.” The fact that Biden was so right 12 years ago probably explains his stubbornness in standing up to the Pentagon, which was still arguing for a “conditions based withdrawal.” Biden was not going to allow the Pentagon to pursue its “forever war” any longer.
