Author: nick

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has informed allies that the White House is not preparing new attacks on Iran and will instead focus on enforcing sanctions against the Islamic Republic. US officials speaking with Axios said Rubio told allies that the US was not planning any attacks on Iran, and any strikes on the Islamic Republic would only be to respond to IRGC missile or drone attacks. The White House will focus on enforcing sanctions on Iran. Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a new economic war against Iran dubbed Operation Economic Outcast. He compared the new sanctions to an…

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When important, serious, respectable people wouldn’t even mention that AIDS was killing on a major scale, their silence meant that not enough would be done to stop it. I bring this up because Trump wants Congress to put77.66%of federal discretionary spending into wars, and the vast majority, if not every single member, of Congress has not even once said so. Likewise virtually every media outlet. The same goes for each politcal party, the governors, the state legislators, the talk show hosts, and most if not all celebrity users of social media. Say it with me: Move the money out of…

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In late 1861, Union soldiers in Bloomfield, Missouri, found the local newspaper’s office empty and decided to put it to good use. Stars and Stripes covered the activities of the three Illinois regiments. Their commander in chief, of course, was US president Abraham Lincoln. Over time, the paper gained direct funding from the military, but with supposed “editorial independence,” and a mission “to provide first-hand reporting from bases around the world and unbiased, credible news to America’s military.” Those who worked in uniform abroad through two world wars and after, often not in a position to visit a newspaper stand or…

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Washington policymakers are easily shocked. They expect U.S. primacy. Even in war they presume deference to Washington. Easy victories. Pliable enemies. International support. Yet such events almost never happen. Certainly, the surprise February attack on Iran, again amid negotiations, produced none of these results, despite President Donald Trump’s apparent assumptions to the contrary. He seems to have expected surviving Iranian officials to seek his approval before appointing new leadership. This was a fantasy perhaps understandable over 30 years ago, when President George H.W. Bush, preparing to attack Iraq, declared, “What we say goes.” But no longer. But it isn’t just…

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The Republic of Korea and the State of Israel were both founded in 1948, out of the wreckage of colonial empires upended by the Second World War. The two governments did not establish formal diplomatic relations until 1962, but they were on the same side for much of the Cold War, with Israel balancing against anti-American forces in the Middle East and South Korea doing the same in East Asia. Despite difficult security environments, each would not only survive, but develop into a prosperous, developed society. And, used to having their legitimacy questioned, both Israel and South Korea learned to…

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With the United States unable to militarily defeat Iran in President Donald Trump’s illegal US-Israeli war of choice, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday escalated the administration’s economic attacks on Tehran, warning countries and companies around the world that continuing to do business with the nation could expose them to punitive sanctions. “Let there be no ambiguity as to the position of the United States,” Bessent said during a news conference unveiling what the Trump administration is calling Operation Economic Outcast. “An economic engagement of any kind with this murderous regime will expose those responsible to the full reach of…

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