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"There never was a good war or a bad peace," wrote Ben Franklin at the end of the American Revolution. But that depends on the war-makers and the causes for which they fight. Six months into the war in Ukraine, launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 24, when he could not get the U.S. or Kiev to rule out admission of Ukraine to a NATO alliance aimed against Russia, who appear to be the winners and who the losers?

Our aim is to "starve the whole population -- men, women, and children, old and young, wounded and sound -- into submission," said First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. He was speaking of Germany at the outset of the Great War of 1914-1918. Americans denounced as inhumane this starvation blockade that would eventually take the lives of a million German civilians. Yet when we went to war in 1917, a U.S. admiral told British Prime Minister Lloyd George, "You will find that it will take us only two months to become as great criminals as you are." After the...

Moreover, while Fauci and Redfield are specialists in epidemics, Trump’s portfolio goes far beyond that. He is chief of state, head of government and commander in chief, responsible for the security and defense of the nation. His portfolio is broader and deeper than those of Fauci and Redfield. In the first hours of the Normandy invasion, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower must have been rightly alarmed about the high U.S. casualties on Omaha Beach. But he also had to concern himself with the failure to capture the Port of Caen to bring ashore the armor to stop any German counterattack that might...

TEHRAN (AFP) - An Iranian government-sponsored body set up to probe the veracity of the Holocaust has challenged Europe to hand over documents about the mass slaughter of Jews in World War II. Mohammad Ali Ramin, the head of the "World Holocaust Foundation" created after Iran's controversial Holocaust conference last year, said Austria, Germany and Poland in particular should supply documents. "They should hand over the proof for the dossier on the organized massacre of Jews in Europe during World War II to the independent international fact-finding committee affiliated to this foundation," the IRNA state news agency quoted him as...

Isn't it time for W to come off the sidelines, forgive the nickname for Jeb! and help Trump manage the politics of the moment, the hatred and vitriol aimed at him by, in some cases former members of his administration? Much like 9/11, this is a moment when the Nation must come together. We already know the left will never relent. Where are you, Mr. President?

New photos have emerged which for the first time show convicted Nazi guard John Demjanjuk at the Sobibor death camp, a Berlin archive confirmed Monday, although he always denied ever being there. Ukrainian-American Demjanjuk was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of nearly 30,000 Jews at Sobibor by a German court in 2011. He died while his appeal was pending. According to the Berlin-based Topography of Terror archive, photos of Demjanjuk are among a newly discovered collection of more than 350 snaps which give "detailed insight" into the camp in German-occupied Poland. The photos surfaced from the estate...

"No voices calling for peace. No voices critical of empire. Just establishment media and current and former Pentagon officials who feed off the trillion dollar war machine." As President Donald Trump spent the early days of 2020 instigating and then backing down from a potentially catastrophic confrontation with Iran, corporate media in the U.S. turned to the very same people who promoted the country's worst foreign policy disaster in a generation to advocate for repeating the mistakes of two decades ago. The decision of networks and cable news outlets like CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News to bring on a stream of past advocates for...

Former Rep. Ron Paul said he wished President Trump would "flip-flop" his policy on Iran and criticized Trump's loyalty to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Arabia. "I think our country is not doing so well. Our foreign policy is in shambles," the Texas Republican said. "Unfortunately, the one place where I wish he would flip-flop every once in a while or change his policy completely is dealing with Iran. He is steady on it, he said it on the campaign. He's very loyal to Netanyahu and Saudi Arabia." Trump authorized airstrikes that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and...

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” anchor Chris Wallace asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo if the airstrike that killed Qasem Soleimani was a “big step back’ in President Donald Trump’s commitment to stop endless wars. Wallace asked, “Is the president pulling us out of endless wars in the Middle East, or with his action this week, did he take a big step back in?” Pompeo said, “Endless wars are the direct result of weakness, and President Trump will never let that happen. We are going to get our facilities as hardened as we can possibly get them...

"It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future," Yogi Berra reminded us. But on "The McLaughlin Group," the TV talk show on which this writer has appeared for four decades, predictions are as mandated as was taking Latin in Jesuit high schools in the 1950s. Looking to 2020, this writer predicted that Donald Trump's great domestic challenge would be to keep the economy firing on all cylinders. His great foreign policy challenge? Avoiding war. When one looks at the numbers -- unemployment at or below 4% for two years, an expansion in its 11th year, the stock market regularly...

At first glance, it would appear that five months of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong had produced a stunning triumph. By September, the proposal of city leader Carrie Lam that ignited the protests -- to allow criminal suspects to be extradited to China for trial -- had been withdrawn. And though the protesters' demands escalated along with their tactics, from marches to mass civil disobedience, Molotov cocktails, riots and attacks on police, Chinese troops remained confined to their barracks. Beijing wanted no reenactment of Tiananmen Square, the midnight massacre in the heart of Beijing that drowned in blood the 1989...

A week from now, the 29 member states of "the most successful alliance in history" will meet to celebrate its 70th anniversary. Yet all is not well within NATO. Instead of a "summit," the gathering, on the outskirts of London, has been cut to two days. Why the shortened agenda? Among the reasons, apprehension that President Donald Trump might use the occasion to disrupt alliance comity by again berating the Europeans for freeloading on the U.S. defense budget. French President Emmanuel Macron, on the 100th anniversary of the World War I Armistice, described NATO as having suffered "brain death." Macron...

The Fatah movement headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas emphasizes its continued adherence to the "national struggle" as a means to counter all the "colonialist" plans which they believe seek to undermine the existence of the "Palestinian people" and their cause. Such "colonialist" plans range from the Balfour Declaration to US President Donald Trump's peace plan. On the occasion of the approaching 102nd anniversary of the statement by former British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour in support of the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people, the Fatah movement called the Balfour Declaration a "historic crime" against humanity...

Michigan Independent Rep. Justin Amash blasted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a “Donald Trump asset,” arguing in a Friday night Twitter post that Clinton’s criticism of Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard will only “drive many people into the arms of Donald Trump.” “The thing we know for sure is that Hillary Clinton is a Donald Trump asset,” Amash, a frequent Trump critic who recently left the Republican Party to become an Independent, tweeted Friday night. “Hillary does — and did — drive many people into the arms of Donald Trump. Her attack on Tulsi does likewise. In my...

Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, is impressed with her political talent. Richard B. Spencer, the white nationalist leader, says he could vote for her. Former Representative Ron Paul praises her “libertarian instincts,” while Franklin Graham, the influential evangelist, finds her “refreshing.” And far-right conspiracy theorists like Mike Cernovich see a certain MAGA sais quoi. “She’s got a good energy, a good vibe. You feel like this is just a serious person,” Mr. Cernovich said. “She seems very Trumpian.”

Turkey announced Wednesday that its ground forces invaded northeastern Syria to fight against Kurdish forces just hours after launching an initial assault in the area, as the first reports of deaths emerged...A spokesperson for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Wednesday that Turkish forces "started to carry out airstrikes on civilian areas"...the president ordered the U.S. military not to get involved in the strikes, after the Kurds requested air support from American forces.

"Who Lost China?" With the fall of the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek, the defeat of his armies and the flight to Formosa, that was the question of the hour in 1949. And no one demanded to know more insistently than the anti-Communist Congressman John F. Kennedy: "Whatever share of the responsibility was Roosevelt's and whatever share was (General George) Marshall's, the vital interest of the United States in the independent integrity of China was sacrificed, and the foundation was laid for the present tragic situation in the Far East." Tragic indeed was the situation. The most populous nation on...

Even before seeing the transcript of the July 25 call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Nancy Pelosi threw the door wide open to impeachment. Though the transcript did not remotely justify the advanced billing of a “quid pro quo,” Pelosi set in motion a process that is already producing a sea change in the politics of 2020. The great Beltway battle for the balance of this year, and perhaps next, will be over whether the Democrats can effect a coup against a president many of them have never recognized as legitimate and have sought to bring...

President says he’s ‘locked and loaded’ to attack Iran As President Trump warned that the US is “locked and loaded” to respond to the drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil supply this past weekend, Senator Rand Paul warned that hitting Iran would be a “big mistake.” Appearing on CNN, Paul warned that any attack on Iran would constitute a “needless escalation” of war. “The Iraq War, President Trump has said, was the biggest geopolitical blunder of the last generation,” Paul said. “It destabilized the Middle East and increased the strength of Iran and tipped the balance toward Iran,” the Senator...

ANKENY, Iowa -- As many presidential candidates call for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanuagh, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard focused on other issues during her campaign stop in Ankeny. Gabbard opened up the town hall by referencing a CNN article and criticizing President Donald Trump for “bending the knee to the wishes of Saudi Arabia” and for using American military to “carry out that country’s wishes.” “People like Mike Pompeo and the Trump administration, they’ve been trying to go to war with Iran for a really long time and they are really taking action and laying down the...