Featured Articles

Fateful Errors: Why NATO Leaders Should Have Listened to George Kennan in 1997

Fateful Errors: Why NATO Leaders Should Have Listened to George Kennan in 1997

by | Apr 21, 2025 |

In 1997, veteran U.S. diplomat George Kennan stated that ‘expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American foreign policy in the entire post-Cold War era’. Twenty-eight years later, who would say he was wrong? George Kennan famously authored the U.S. policy of containment of the Soviet Union, in an article in the New York Times of 1947, which he signed X, to maintain his anonymity. His view was that containment would lead to the eventual break up or mellowing of Soviet power and, as...

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REAL ID: Phony Security, Real Authoritarianism

REAL ID: Phony Security, Real Authoritarianism

by | Apr 21, 2025 |

Those who hoped the second Trump Administration would reject big spending, war, and restrictions on liberty continue to be disappointed. A new disappointment came when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced her department would in May begin enforcing the REAL ID law. Passed in 2005, the REAL ID Act created federal standards for driver’s licenses. The law requires everyone applying for a driver’s license to provide the DMV with his social security number, proof of legal...

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The Stones Still Cry Out: Holy Week’s Political Reckoning

The Stones Still Cry Out: Holy Week’s Political Reckoning

by | Apr 18, 2025 |

Holy Week is no mere ritual rehearsal for Christians; it’s a political dynamite keg, detonating the myth of human order built on blood. Jesus’ trial, crucifixion, and resurrection expose the scaffolding of power—then and now—as a rickety structure held together by scapegoats and silenced victims. As we navigate our fractured polis in 2025, the Passion narrative demands we confront the same temptations: to cheer for Barabbas, to wash our hands with Pilate, or to abandon the One who reveals the...

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New Poll: Americans Reject Deporting Foreigners for ‘Wrongthink’ on Middle East

New Poll: Americans Reject Deporting Foreigners for ‘Wrongthink’ on Middle East

by | Apr 17, 2025 |

An important new public opinion survey taken by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has revealed very little American support for the deportation of legal foreign guests in the United States for expressing support for Palestine in its current conflict with Israel. Responding to FIRE's quarterly National Speech Index survey conducted by the Dartmouth Polarization Research Lab this month, a mere one-quarter of the respondents supported the deportation of non-citizens...

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Foreign Student Persecution Imperils any American Who Advocates for Freedom

Foreign Student Persecution Imperils any American Who Advocates for Freedom

by | Apr 17, 2025 |

“If it is known that authorities have power to coerce, few people will wait for actual coercion,” economist Friedrich Hayek wrote in the 1956 foreword to his 1944 classic, The Road to Serfdom. Hayek’s insight could be the Rosetta Stone for understanding the Trump administration’s censorship zealotry. On March 25, six masked federal agents seized a Turkish graduate student on the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts. Rumeysa Ozturk—who was wearing a hijab—was a Fulbright scholar working on...

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Taking Easter Seriously

Taking Easter Seriously

by | Apr 17, 2025 |

“That God, which ever lives and loves,One God, one law, one element,And one far-off divine eventTo which the whole creation moves.”-- Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) When American colonists were oppressed by British monarchs, the word most frequently uttered in pamphlets, editorials and sermons was not “safety” or “taxes”; it was “freedom.” Yet, two intolerable acts of Parliament so assaulted personal freedom that they broke the bonds with the mother country. The first was the Stamp Act of...

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Stupor Mundi

Stupor Mundi

by | Apr 16, 2025 |

President Donald Trump wants to be a modern ‘Stupor Mundi or wonder of the world. The last ‘stupor mundi’ was the celebrated German Holy Roman Emperor and crusader, Federick II, known as ‘Barbarossa.’ It appears that President Trump seems determined to become the most important and commented upon person on earth. So far, he has succeeded brilliantly. So far, that is. As of this writing, Trump’s tariff crusade has become a debacle, making him and the United States the objects of hatred and fury...

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The Circumvention of Habeas Corpus

The Circumvention of Habeas Corpus

by | Apr 16, 2025 |

The most profound and ominous aspect of the controversy surrounding the deportation of Kilmar Ábrego García to El Salvador is that the Trump administration has figured out a way to circumvent the right of habeas corpus, not just for foreigners but also for the American people. Why is that important? Because without habeas corpus, a right that stretches all the way back to Magna Carta in 1215, there is no free society. As British and American legal scholars have maintained for centuries, habeas...

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Syria to Recognise Israel By End 2026

Syria to Recognise Israel By End 2026

by | Apr 16, 2025 |

A British diplomatic source tells me that “President” al-Jolani aka al-Sharaa has assured the UK that Syria will “normalise relations” with Israel, recognise the State of Israel and exchange ambassadors, by the end of 2026. This is part of a deal in exchange for substantial Western financial support and the lifting of sanctions on Syria. I asked whether the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from Syria was part of the deal, and surprisingly this was not raised by either side. The UK...

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America the Ugly

America the Ugly

by | Apr 15, 2025 |

President Trump might have inadvertently come up with the perfect solution to America’s decades-old, ongoing, never-ending, perpetual immigration crisis. That solution entails making America so ugly that foreigners will no longer want to come here. After all, that’s what North Korea did. Like the United States, North Korea militarized and sealed its southern border, established a police state, and isolated itself from the rest of the world. Today, no one is striving to get into North Korea...

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Syrian Show Trial for Catholic Nun, Who Spoke Truth to Power

Syrian Show Trial for Catholic Nun, Who Spoke Truth to Power

by | Apr 15, 2025 |

The second of the photographs in this article shows me being honoured by Damascus’ Sunni community, who presented both me and Syria’s Grand Mufti with expensive robes; I quickly gave away to a local Sunni, who appreciated the robe much more than a potato muncher like me ever would. The first photo shows me, in the presence of Melkite Patriarch Gregory 111 Laham and Mother Agnes Mariam, the mother superior of a famous Syrian Melkite convent, being similarly honoured by that country’s Melkites....

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REAL ID: Phony Security, Real Authoritarianism

Standing at the Edge of the Iran War Cliff

by | Apr 14, 2025 |

Millions of people around the world were at the edge of their seats over the weekend, waiting to hear whether Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff’s indirect talks with the Iranian foreign minister would ratchet down tensions or would break down and bring on a major Middle East war. If it seems bizarre that the outcome of a meeting between a US president’s designated negotiator and a foreign government minister could determine whether we plunge into possibly our biggest war since World War II,...

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The Dud Flu Shots

The Dud Flu Shots

by | Apr 14, 2025 |

“Getting vaccinated every year is the best way to lower your chances of getting the flu.” That is the declaration of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at its website’s page dedicated to immunization for flu. The problem is that actual medical investigation instead indicates the shots are a dud when it comes to protecting people from flu. The latest study showing this comes from the Cleveland Clinic. The results show a 27 percent higher rate of flu in the 2024-25...

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War With Iran?

War With Iran?

by | Apr 12, 2025 |

There are a number of discussions about a potentially imminent U.S. war on Iran. Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism concludes that a war is more likely than not. Crooke, Mercouris and Diesen are ambivalent (vid) but also seem to expect a conflict. President Trump (or, more correct, Netanyahoo behind him) has made demands towards Iran that are designed to be rejected: End all nuclear programs Destroy medium range missiles which can reach Israel Stop support for all...

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Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Mexico?

Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Mexico?

by | Apr 11, 2025 |

According to press accounts, the Trump administration, which some right-wing libertarians have humorously described as being “antiwar,” is now contemplating dropping bombs on Mexico. Yes, real bombs that kill people and destroy things, just like the bombs that U.S. national-security state officials used to kill people in Iraq, which, like Mexico, never attacked or invaded the United States. More specifically, such a bombing campaign would target drug cartels in Mexico. Make no mistake about...

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Donald Trump is Making the Case for BRICS

Donald Trump is Making the Case for BRICS

by | Apr 10, 2025 |

The boys and girls on Wall Street heaved a big sign of relief yesterday, with the stock market making historic gains, a welcome respite for the losses of the preceding days, when Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause in the severe tariffs, opting only to impose a 10% tariff across the board. Well, not for everyone. Trump boosted tariff’s on China and China responded in kind. Last night, at a Republican fundraiser in New York City, Trump made the vulgar, crass, impolitic comment about the 70...

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Peace & Prosperity Blog

A DOGE Switcheroo

A DOGE Switcheroo

by | Apr 4, 2025

Many actions associated with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have been met with support from advocates of reducing the size and power of the United States...

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