by Michael Gallagher This morning it looks like super-hawk Hillary—kisser-up-supreme of four starrers—is well on her way to becoming President of the United States. If she succeeds, I am sure they will break out the best wine at the Pentagon. (Though to the discomfiture of those unhappy few generals and admirals with a sound liberal…
by Michael Gallagher Michael Gallagher, a coeval of Sr. Megan and a former Jesuit seminarian, served as a paratrooper during the Korean War. His book on Catholic activists, The Laws of Heaven, won the National Jesuit Book Award in theology in 1992, and his translation of Yukio Mishima’s Spring Snow was a finalist for the National Book Award in…
by Peter Van Buren This article originally appeared on Peter Van Buren’s We Meant Well blog. -Ed. The next time a candidate or reporter asks during a debate about education or healthcare “But how are you going to pay for that?” I would like the person being questioned to respond “The same way we find…
b. traven It’s coming folks! This time it isn’t WMD but DAD (Dumb Ass Decisions). Having failed for close to 15 years to bring a stable government to Iraq we’re going to try again. This DAD announcement was released on Friday by the Pentagon probably in hopes it would be buried over the weekend. Why…
Robyn B. Blanpied, PhD, Major, USAF (ret.) In this article Robyn raises some interesting questions about management strategy in our “global war on terror” (GWOT). With her background of eighteen years in the Air Force and retiring as a Major with a wide range of assignments, she certainly has the creds for her contrary questioning…
b. traven Istanbul (AFP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday expressed alarm over reports of a build-up of Russian troops in northern Syria near the Turkish border, saying such movements would not be tolerated. The devil is at work in our fumbling interventions in Syria-Iraq. Why is the Turkish Sunni president Erdogan so…
Peter Van Buren This post originally appeared on January 21, 2016 in Peter Van Buren’s blog. In an Op-Ed printed in the Washington Post, former General David Petraeus says it is time to “unleash our airpower in support of our Afghan partners in the same way that we support our Iraqi and Syrian partners against…
b. traven, Greg Laxer, and Mike Murry Editor’s note: We wanted to share with our readers an off-line conversation some of our regulars had regarding protest songs and the Vietnam War. Back then, songs really meant something. We encourage you to write about your own favorite protest songs in the “comments” section below. Thanks. b.…
W.J. Astore Bad ideas never die at the Pentagon — nor do they fade away. No — like no-win wars (Vietnam followed by Afghanistan, and so on), they keep coming back to haunt us. According to today’s New York Times, the Pentagon is reviving the idea of special medals and awards for drone pilots and…
W.J. Astore A common belief shared by U.S. political pundits and a compliant and complicit U.S. media is that America never chooses its wars: it’s dragged into them. Last October, I read an article in the “liberal” New York Times that caught the mood perfectly. It worried the U.S. was being “sucked into” wars in…
The Contrary Perspective 