Category: News

Originally appeared on The American Conservative.

Mike Pence confirmed again that the administration’s idea of “talking” to North Korea doesn’t mean anything:

Vice President Mike Pence told Axios’ Mike Allen on Wednesday President Trump “always believes in talking [with North Korea], but talking is not negotiating.”

He said nothing will change with North Korea until they give up their pursuit of nuclear weapons [bold mine-DL]. He said they must “completely, verifiably, and completely abandon” its missile programs, and “only then can we consider any change in posture by the United States or the international community.”

The administration’s maximalism may feel satisfying, but it has no chance of reducing tensions or getting North Korea to agree to anything. The insistence that North Korea abandon these programs is as unrealistic as can be. It is not just that North Korea has already invested considerable resources in these programs and would be reluctant to dismantle everything they already have, but they also believe these programs to be essential to their security. Just as our government would not budge on something that it considered vitally important, theirs is not going to budge. More pressure and threats will just make them cling to these programs that much more tightly.

Continue reading “Daniel Larison: Maximalist Demands Won’t Change North Korean Behavior”

Former Secretary of Education and current neocon shill William Bennett was bloviating on Fox News Monday about the media "fawning" over the North Koreans at the Olympics. He was upset that Americans were not hating the North Korean attendees.

He appeared on "The Story With Martha MacCallum" on Monday, February 12, 2018. Under their faces appeared the headline: News Outlets Call Kim Jong Un’s Sister "Captivating" While Slamming VP Pence as "Embarrassing". Bennett expressed concern that the Vice President’s life was in danger, while MacCallum channeled the Secret Service’s concern about the VP being out of town.

Bennett’s appearance begins at 20:10, his fantasy about Pence being stuck with a poison needle starts at 20:40.

Bennett: I don’t know if anyone else had this thought, did you Martha? When you saw that photo of her (Kim Yo Jong) sitting right behind Mrs. Pence, didn’t you get nervous? I mean, I got worried, that she or one of her handlers might lean over and do something to the Vice President or Mrs. Pence. Remember, this is the crowd that killed Kim Jong Un’s half-brother in an airport. I wouldn’t put anything past them. I’m sure the Secret Service had things totally under control.

MacCallum: You’ve got to imagine that for the Secret Service it was not an optimum situation, and something that, no doubt, they were not comfortable with.

I’ve been watching the Winter Olympics on TV, and the color commentators for NBC are typically athletes who’ve earned gold medals in the past, like Tara Lipinski in figure skating or Bode Miller in skiing. Why is it, then, when NBC and other networks seek expert “color” commentary on America’s wars, they turn to retired generals like David Petraeus, who’ve won nothing?

I’m not dissing Petraeus here. He himself admitted his “gains” in Iraq as well as Afghanistan were both “fragile and reversible.” And so they proved. The U.S. fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and lost thousands of troops and trillions of dollars for gains that truly were ephemeral. Despite this disastrous and tragic reality, Petraeus remains the sage on the stage, the go-to guy for analysis of our never-ending wars on PBS, Fox News, and elsewhere.

Continue reading “David Petraeus: A Gold Medal Winner in Spin”

President Trump has delivered his military budget request for 2019 that increases spending by 12 percent over 2017 spending. Designed to fully fund a “depleted” military, even Defense Secretary Mattis was surprised at the figures. Many more warships, many more F-22s (even though they don’t work). Half a billion more dollars to continue the US “regime change” operation in Syria. There’s something in it for everybody…except the American people. How this massive spending increase makes us less safe and less free in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Neocons — and even a few “libertarians” — are furious that North Korea is getting some credit for unleashing a “charm offensive” at the Olympic games. Rather than look to a future without crippling sanctions and the threat of nuclear war, they obsess on the lurid details of reported abuses by the North Korean government. But what’s the big problem with a “charm offensive”? Isn’t it preferable to a military offensive? Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Over the past several days, Russia and Israel have lost fighter jets over Syria. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to those countries. When jets attack people on the ground, those people tend to fire back (if they have weapons at hand), and sometimes they even hit their targets.

What is interesting is the Russian and Israeli reaction, which was in essence identical: immediate escalation. More air attacks. More bombs. All justified as “reprisal” raids that are couched in terms of self-defense.

The mentality goes something like this: How dare you little people on the ground have the temerity to fire back at us and actually hit our planes? For that you must be punished with more air attacks and more bombs until you stop firing at and hitting our planes.

Continue reading “William J. Astore on A Curious Aspect of Air Power”