The United States and the Middle East: Hoist On Its Own Petard

Who’s the fucking superpower around here?” —  President Bill Clinton after his first meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996. “Don’t do stupid shit.” — President Barack Obama commenting on the U.S. military intervention in Libya in 2011. “We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia, or…

The Commonality of Megalomania

“Today I am at the head of the strongest Army in the world, the most gigantic Air Force and of a proud Navy.”  – Adolf Hitler, Speech to the Reichstag declaring war on the United States, December 11, 1941.” “Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless.”  –…

Unmitigated Horror: Guernica, the Warsaw Ghetto, and Now Gaza

Hamas must be destroyed, Gaza must be demilitarized, and Palestinian society must be deradicalized.” – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Wall Street Journal, December 26, 2023. “The painful commonality between the tragedies of Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto is the utter disregard for human lives in a war setting by the citizens of even the…

Janus-Faced Biden Administration Can’t Hide Its Complicity

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains committed to using overwhelming and indiscriminate military force to vanquish the Palestinian community in Gaza.  For the past two decades, Netanyahu has engaged in the total humiliation of the Palestinian people.  At the same time, he is humiliating and embarrassing the only nation that provides Israel with political, military,…

Both Biden and Bibi Could be Victims of the Israeli War Against Hamas

“Yes, there are too many civilian casualties in Gaza.  And yes, we continue to urge the Israelis to be as careful and cautious as possible.  But Israel is not trying to wipe the Palestinian people off the map.  Israel’s not trying to wipe Gaza off the map.  Israel is trying to defend itself against a…

Classic Intelligence Failure: The Impact Of Arrogance and Hubris

Over the past 80 years, there have been costly intelligence failures in the United States and Israel despite sufficient intelligence collection and the presence of classic warning signals.  For the United States, the attacks on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 could have been prevented or ameliorated because we had deciphered Japanese diplomatic codes that revealed…