U.S. in the Mideast: From a stabilizing to a destabilizing influence

U.S. in the Mideast: From a stabilizing to a destabilizing influence

Sol W. Sanders   The Obama administration’s Middle East policies – it would be foolhardy to call them “strategy” – would be ludicrous were they not so threatening to American interests, regional and world stability. The latest permutation is Washington’s position against the Egyptian military and its satellite, hopefully provisional, civilian government. Washington’s insistence that […]

That buck doesn’t stop here anymore

That buck doesn’t stop here anymore

Sol W. Sanders   Although he did not originate the phrase, President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk through most of his presidency indicating he understood he was the ultimate arbiter of The Republic’s executive decision-making. It said: “The buck stops here”. Perhaps as important, the back side said, “I‘m from Missouri” — […]

When the U.S. loses resolve: The Afghanistan-Vietnam parallels

When the U.S. loses resolve: The Afghanistan-Vietnam parallels

Sol W. Sanders   For those of us who lived through it, current negotiations for the American exit from Afghanistan smells much too much like the end of the U.S. commitment in Vietnam. Washington, after a decade of enormous sacrifice of life and treasure, has chosen to negotiate with the enemy following diplomatic “modalities” pretty […]

The real scandal: According observer status to the world’s most powerful leader

The real scandal: According observer status to the world’s most powerful leader

Sol W. Sanders   One of the more bizarre aspects of the current deluge of Washington scandals is that their very numbers permit President Barack Obama to finesse and continue to play a role as No. 1 observer and chief political fundraiser. The almost weekly additions to news of the administration’s dereliction of duty and […]

Not so superpowerful: Obama, Xi talk but the days of grand summits are past

Not so superpowerful: Obama, Xi talk but the days of grand summits are past

Sol W. Sanders   There was less than met the eye at the two-day summit of China’s Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama. Neither party was in a position to tackle the growing list plaguing the relationship between the superpower and the superpower-wannabe. That might or might not have been a product of their particular […]

Oklahoma survivors remind U.S. of its founding spirit, now banished in D.C.’s ‘golden ghettoes’

Oklahoma survivors remind U.S. of its founding spirit, now banished in D.C.’s ‘golden ghettoes’

Sol W. Sanders   A couple of decades ago when that temple of conspicuous consumption, Neiman Marcus, opened another store in metropolitan Washington, my old friend and astute political observer, the late Nat McKitterick, warned me we were lost. For it was about that time when “a political class” was becoming apparent in the nation’s […]

Woe is not us: From one new energy revolution (shale gas) to another (fire ice)

Woe is not us: From one new energy revolution (shale gas) to another (fire ice)

Sol W. Sanders   As the shale gas revolution begins to ripple through, reordering the world economy, another fossil fuel revolution is in the offing which will again torpedo most conventional wisdom concerning energy. So-called “peak oil”, the end of petroleum exhausted by expanding consumption and diminishing discoveries, the love story of environmental fanatics, has […]

Benghazi: The honor of the American military is hanging in the balance

Benghazi: The honor of the American military is hanging in the balance

Sol W. Sanders   Despite the distractions of a continuing unemployment crisis and the media’s concentration on stories of human depravity, the scandal of the death of four Americans including an ambassador in Benghazi — “a long time ago” according to the administration’s spokesman — will not be put down. Three sets of issues follow […]

The high cost of refusing to call an Islamic terrorist an Islamic terrorist

The high cost of refusing to call an Islamic terrorist an Islamic terrorist

Sol W. Sanders   The President of the United States and his administration are jeopardizing national security by rejecting the obvious ties between jihadist terrorism and Islam. By refusing to identify the terrorists as a part, however pernicious, of the overall Muslim community, he makes it difficult if not impossible for the kind of counterintelligence […]