Michael Murry A few cases of the corona virus here in Taiwan, but the government and society have handled things quickly and well. With our excellent single payer health care system, testing and necessary quarantining went into effect with little or no political grandstanding of the sort that typically characterizes the U.S. We all wear…
Dan White, the author of this article is a confirmed and vocal “contrarian,” a breed we need ever more of in our country of “go along, get along” citizens. This is why his article resonated with me. Several months ago I had an appointment at our local VA and found at the entrance was a…
Jacek Popiel Editor’s Introduction: Russia has been much in the news lately, with Vladimir Putin described as equal parts Machiavellian dictator and strategic chess master, especially with regards to his moves in Syria and the greater Middle East. Is the Cold War, in a word, back? Enmity between the U.S. and Russia is hardly…
Jacek Popiel In earlier articles (here and here) we have pointed out: China’s economy is headed downwards, with major problems facing its government and people. History shows that such situations, if serious enough, have led to the breakdown of the Chinese state. As the United States and China are intimately tied on many levels, what…
Jacek Popiel A few weeks ago we examined the source of China’s “meteoric” rise to the rank of the second largest world economy and concluded that the “miracle” was essentially a one-off play based on offering the lowest cost for the production of goods for export. While successful, the policy destroyed both income and assets…
Jacek Popiel For years our financial press and media have hailed the rise of China to the rank of global power. Such phrases as “the Chinese miracle”, “the workshop of the world” or “the engine of the global economy” and “the Asian (meaning China’s) century” have become common parlance. The tone started changing, quite suddenly,…
Dan Mason What follows is a subject for open debate. It is a very serious subject, and I have had trouble solving the dilemma to my personal satisfaction. Please feel free to offer other conclusions because this really perplexes me. Here it is: Why does US foreign policy/military interventions appear to be completely inept? I…
Daniel N. White I recently came across a most worthwhile book at the library: The Road to the Killing Fields: The Cambodian War of 1970-1975, by Wilfred P. Deac, published in 1997. There’s no shortage of books out there about the Vietnam War, but our satellite wars in Cambodia and Laos have gotten almost no…
Walter Stewart (Major General, U.S. Army, retired) Sniper Chris Kyle did not live long enough. I don’t say this in the context of his and Chad Littlefield’s senseless murder at the hands of a supposed brother-in-arms, but in the context of the American Sniper movie trailer that has Kyle saying, “I’m willing to meet my…
Dennis Showalter. Introduction by William Astore. Over the next four years, historians around the world will grapple with the meaning and legacies of the “Great War” fought one hundred years ago (1914-1918). An epochal event in world history, World War I has as many meanings as it has had historians. Among those historians, Dennis Showalter…
The Contrary Perspective 