Since 2014, when President Barack Obama announced his intention to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State, the United States and its allies have dropped more than 50,000 missiles and bombs on Iraq and Syria in over 15,000 separate strikes. That’s a bomb nearly every 20 minutes for two years. If even one of these bombs […]

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Back in 1996, shortly after the end of the war in Bosnia, New York Times foreign affairs “sage” Thomas Friedman posed this question in his column: “What does Bosnia need today if it is going to be stabilized?” The answer, according to Friedman’s calculations: “Bosnia needs big tanks, big roads, and Big Macs.” To be […]

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Photo Credit: Senior Airman Matthew Bruch, U.S. Air Force   There is a scene in Hal Ashby’s classic 1979 adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski’s novella Being There where the hapless Chauncey “the gardener” Gardiner, played by Peter Sellers, ends up at a meeting with the president of the United States. Complex policy discussions are taking place and […]

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Lawrence Jackson   While final preparations were under way for the 51st anniversary of Singapore’s independence on August 9, the White House hosted the nation’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at a lavish state dinner—the highest honor the U.S. government can give a visiting dignitary. Singapore is a tiny island country in Southeast Asia, but […]

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Image Credit: European External Action Service   Since he began his campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to undo the multi-national agreement that has frozen Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon. “My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran,” Trump said recently. In June, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah […]

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