Trapped in the Past: #1
We’ve left port on our way through 2022. We sail into Year 3 of a global — and often lethal — pandemic, chiefly because a substantial and vocal minority interferes with sensible public health measures. We see the usual big-power wrangling over geopolitical influence, caused not in no small part by cults of personality. And […]
Generals and Parrots
Ukraine remains in the headlines. Russia has 100,000+ troops and materiel on the border. On cue, the curtain on the ballet goes up. Experts (self-professed and real) divine Putin’s intentions. The US does the two-step: concern that an invasion may come soon, and signals to Russia of “grave consequences” if it invades. And the press, […]
Ukraine, again … still
Give it credit for decades of consistency. The American foreign policy apparatus continues its streak of group-think and lack of imagination on geopolitical issues. Admittedly, such criticism reflects the casual observer’s (and taxpayer’s) assumption that, consistent with the rhetoric machined by government mouthpieces, the management of such issues to a useful, preferably non-lethal and stability-inducing […]
Ukraine: Not Quiet on the Eastern Front
Correction and Amplification The first paragraph of the piece below incorrectly suggested that the recent massing of Russian troops at the border with Ukraine was simply another attempt by Putin to put pressure on the government in Kyiv, to distract his own population from its economic and COVID-related woes, or both. This omits salient facts […]