Real Security

Afghanistan Policy Not Working, There and Here

As today marks the eighth anniversary of the tragic September 11th attacks, it is also a reminder of the calamitous road of foreign policy that the Bush administration took us down shortly after. The Iraq War was of course an outright disaster, but Obama’s recent troop escalation into Afghanistan should worry progressives equally. more »

Tragedy at the Holocaust Museum: Stand Up To Terrorism

You have to go back a long, long way in American history before you come to a place where you find incidents like this happening an average of once every two weeks.This escalating level of violence is adding data points to a potentially emergent pattern that we need to be looking at and preparing for. So far, there are at least five things I'm particularly concerned about.

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Shock and Audit: The Hidden Defense Budget

Somewhere in the middle regions of Barack Obama's Herculean to-do list is a task that's defeated many of his predecessors: taming the runaway Pentagon budget. But will Obama's attempt at reform be any different from all those that have gone before?

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Iran, the Neocons, and the Bomb

If the neocons are to be believed, Ahmadinejad's theft of the Iranian elections — and his continuing crackdown on dissent — are not the results of internal dynamics in Iran, but rather of the words of conciliation spoken by President Obama prior to the vote.

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The Obama Doctrine

Obama insists that the United States can't achieve great objectives on its own, even though it is "always harder to forge true partnerships and sturdy alliances than to act alone," as he put it. This may break with George W. Bush's style ̬ particularly at the level of rhetoric, and especially during Bush's first term — but it is in keeping with the traditions of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and George H.W. Bush.

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A New Era

It turns out that Barack Obama was right when he said during last year's presidential debates that talking to foreign leaders might actually ease international tensions.

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Debunked: Ten Conservative Myths About National Security

In the seven years since the U.S. was hit by a terrorist attack, a few of the myths promulgated in those first few years have hardened firmly into a new conventional wisdom—some so stubbornly that you often won't even find progressives questioning them any more. The time has come to call out a few of these persistent myths that are still being taken as fact and start firing back on them.

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Russia's Monroe Doctrine

Russia’s concern is that NATO is creating new dividing lines designed to isolate Russia from the European community. Russians are afraid they’ll wake up one morning and find themselves alone.

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Internationalism and the Progressive Movement

One of the finest traditions of the American left has been its historic commitment to solidarity with the oppressed and poverty-stricken peoples of the world. In the last few years, however, the progressive movement has become far too insular. We have too often neglected our internationalist responsibilities–especially when it comes to confronting the ravages of world poverty.

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Will the Pentagon Be the Next U.S. Institution to Crash?

The economic crisis that has now overtaken the United States can be interpreted as the logical result of a financial system that reached the point where there was no limit to what you could take out of it even when you were incapable of understanding the transactions taking place. Less apparent to most people, but just as real, are the signs of an impending crash of an American military system in which, since the end of the Cold War, Pentagon dysfunction has metastasized uncontrollably.

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