Putin's Narrowing Options

Is Putin the New King of the Middle East?

Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...

If Putin wants to be king of this, and it is OK with Assad, how does that imperil the United States of America, 6,000 miles away? “Russia Assumes Mantle of Supreme Power Broker in the Middle East,” proclaimed Britain’s Telegraph. The article began: “Russia’s status as the undisputed power-broker in …

Read more…


Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...
Is Trump At Last Ending Our 'Endless Wars'?

Is Trump At Last Ending Our ‘Endless Wars’?

Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...

Among those objecting most loudly to an American withdrawal from the forever wars of the Middle East are those who were the most enthusiastic about plunging us in. The backstage struggle between the Bush interventionists and the America-firsters who first backed Donald Trump for president just exploded into open warfare, …

Read more…


Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...

Are Our Mideast Wars Forever?

Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...

“The Kurds have no friends but the mountains,” is an old lament. Last week, it must have been very much on Kurdish minds. As their U.S. allies watched, the Kurdish peshmerga fighters were run out of Kirkuk and all the territory they had captured fighting ISIS alongside the Americans. The …

Read more…


Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...
The Rise of the Generals

The Rise of the Generals

Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...

Has President Donald Trump outsourced foreign policy to the generals? So it would seem. Candidate Trump held out his hand to Vladimir Putin. He rejected further U.S. intervention in Syria other than to smash ISIS. He spoke of getting out and staying out of the misbegotten Middle East wars into …

Read more…


Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...
The Coming Clash With Iran

The Coming Clash With Iran

Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...

When Gen. Michael Flynn marched into the White House Briefing Room to declare that “we are officially putting Iran on notice,” he drew a red line for President Trump. In tweeting the threat, Trump agreed. His credibility is now on the line. And what triggered this virtual ultimatum? Iran-backed Houthi …

Read more…


Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...
A Trump Doctrine -- 'America First'

A Trump Doctrine — ‘America First’

Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...

However Donald Trump came upon the foreign policy views he espoused, they were as crucial to his election as his views on trade and the border. Yet those views are hemlock to the GOP foreign policy elite and the liberal Democratic interventionists of the Acela Corridor. Trump promised an “America …

Read more…


Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...
Syria: Their War, Not Ours

Syria: Their War, Not Ours

Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...

The debacle that is U.S. Syria policy is today on naked display. NATO ally Turkey and U.S.-backed Arab rebels this weekend attacked our most effective allies against ISIS, the Syrian Kurds. Earlier in August, U.S. planes threatened to shoot down Syrian planes over Hasakeh, and our Iraq-Syria war commander, Lt. …

Read more…


Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...
What the Fall of Ramadi Means

What the Fall of Ramadi Means

Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...

The fall of Ramadi, capital of Anbar, largest province in Iraq, after a rout of the Iraqi army by a few hundred ISIS fighters using bomb-laden trucks, represents a stunning setback for U.S. policy. When President Obama declared that we shall “degrade and defeat” the Islamic State, he willed the …

Read more…


Make America Think Again! - Share Pat's Columns...