Antiwar.com Blog

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.

In 2018, the Pentagon failed its first audit. In 2024, it failed its seventh audit in a row. The Pentagon has been “punished” for failing seven audits – and losing track of roughly $2 trillion in gear, weapons, and similar “assets” – with more money. Whether under Presidents Trump or Biden, the Pentagon budget has continued to soar toward a trillion dollars. That is the reward for total fiscal incompetence.

Congress says the Pentagon must achieve “a clean audit” by 2028. Imagine telling the IRS that you can’t account for your financials for seven straight years – and probably at least three more – but you hope to have a “clean” tax return after a decade of effort. And the IRS responds by giving you ever higher tax refunds that you haven’t earned. Nonsensical, isn’t it?

Continue reading “The Trillion-Dollar Blob”

Ukraine is now firing US ATACMS long range missiles into Russia. They’re also firing long range UK Storm Shadow missiles into Russia. Ukrainians push the bottoms but US and UK military do the programming and technical support, without which no buttons can be pushed.

That puts Russia at de facto war with the US and UK, NATO as well for that matter.Russia made that point by unleashing a new hypersonic nuclear capable long range missile, Oreshnik, which obliterated a strategic Ukrainian military target. The point was that the Oreshnik, which can destroy any target with unstoppable speed, can pulverize high value NATO targets throughout Europe. Compared to Oreshnik, US ATACMAS and UK Storm Shadows are like bottle rockets. Their sole military use appears to be provoking all out war.

In spite of the Russian warning, France’s Foreign Minister Jean –Noel Barrot just announced France will allow its SCALPS version to the UK Storm Shadows bottle rocket to be fired by Ukraine into Russia.

Continue reading “As America Barrels Toward War With Russia… Where’s Biden?”

Jonah Blank tries to make the case that Biden can somehow salvage something from the wreckage of his policies in the Middle East:

Biden has so far failed to achieve his highest goals for the Middle East – but in his final days he can single-handedly reset the Israeli-Palestinian equation, preserve the potential for a two-state solution, and rescue much of his tarnished legacy. His status as a lame duck paradoxically gives him the power to do things possible only for a leader whose next step is retirement.

Biden is not going to do any of this. He has already shown that he will spend what little time he has left in office running interference for Netanyahu and letting the Israeli government off the hook for its many crimes. The president’s lame duck status might theoretically free him to do things he wouldn’t normally do, but Biden doesn’t want to do any of those things. To the extent that Biden feels less constrained now that the election is over, he no longer feels any need to pretend that his administration cares about what happens in Gaza. The cynical deadline that Blinken and Austin set before the election came and went, conditions in Gaza keep getting worse because the Israeli government is starving the people to death, and the Biden administration will make no changes to their policy.

Continue reading “There Is No Salvaging Biden’s Legacy”

I’m back in Jordan after eight days in Palestine. I was in Palestine as part of a delegation to be in solidarity with and learn from those engaged in Palestinian liberation. We visited and had dialogues with Palestinians and Israelis in Bethlehem, Hebron, Jerusalem, Nablus, Ramallah and Sderot. We sat, listened to and spoke with Christians, Jews, Muslims and non-believers. We went to the Gaza border.

I get paid to talk about the political, military, and economic. The questions I asked, the notes I took, and the lenses through which I viewed the last eight days in Palestine were geopolitical. Of course, human reality and experience are never removed or divorced from those subjects; they are those subjects. Many in the governments, media and think tanks in DC, London, Brussels, et. al., forget or forsake that wisdom – a good explanation for how ruinous, counter-productive and failed Western foreign policy is.

Continue reading “Matthew Hoh: These Last Eight Days in Palestine”

The Washington Post published a despicable editorial in response the International Criminal Court’s warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant:

But the arrest orders undermine the ICC’s credibility and give credence to accusations of hypocrisy and selective prosecution. The ICC is putting the elected leaders of a democratic country with its own independent judiciary in the same category as dictators and authoritarians who kill with impunity.

If the ICC had not issued these warrants in the face of the overwhelming evidence that the Israeli government was using starvation as a weapon, that would have been devastating to the Court’s credibility in the eyes of most nations. Everyone would have concluded that the ICC had bowed to American political pressure by letting these officials off the hook. It is a victory for international law that they didn’t allow fears of the insane backlash from Washington to influence their decision.

Continue reading “Who Takes International Law Seriously?”