Katrina vanden Heuvel

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‘For over four decades, Jimmy Carter was the quintessential elder statesman.’

Jimmy Carter died on Sunday at the age of 100. The former president’s passing followed that of former first lady Rosalynn Carter, to whom he was married from 1946 until her death in 2023. After leaving the White House in 1981, Carter enjoyed by far the longest retirement of any president in history: nearly 44 years.

Tributes have invariably described Carter as a decent, dedicated public servant; a longtime Sunday school teacher who built homes with Habitat for Humanity. A humble man who lived modestly and who, unlike his successors, did not enrich himself on the speaker circuit.

But this narrative belies the quietly radical approach Carter took to the post-presidency.…  Seguir leyendo »

A Ukrainian refugee holding her child cries after she arrived at the Siret border crossing between Romania and Ukraine on April 18, 2022. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP) (Afp Contributor#afp/AFP/Getty Images)

What are the United States’ goals in the Ukraine war? Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently announced that the United States wants “Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine”. The U.S. commitment toward that end has been substantial. Congress passed the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act by near-unanimous vote, invoking the “arsenal of democracy” we provided to Britain during World War II. President Biden is seeking $33 billion in additionalaid. When the defense ministers of some 40 countries gathered at Ramstein Air Base in Germany last month, the focus was not a peace settlement but outright Ukrainian victory or at least the “permanent weakening” of Russia’s military power.…  Seguir leyendo »

La invasión de Rusia a Ucrania “es en muchos sentidos más grande que Rusia, es más grande que Ucrania”, declaró recientemente el portavoz del Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos, Ned Price. “Hay principios que están en juego aquí (…) Todos y cada uno de los países tienen el derecho soberano de determinar su propia política exterior, tienen el derecho soberano de determinar por sí mismos con quién elegirán asociarse en términos de sus alianzas, sus colaboraciones y hacia dónde quieren dirigir su mirada”. El año pasado, el secretario de Estado, Antony Blinken, declaró que Estados Unidos no reconoce las “esferas de influencia”, y agregó que el concepto “debería haberse retirado después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial”.…  Seguir leyendo »

A Ukrainian soldier on the front line near Horlivka, Ukraine, on Jan. 31. (Stanislav Kozliuk/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) (EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

The crisis over Ukraine grows simultaneously more dangerous and more absurd. Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border, demanding that NATO not admit Ukraine and stop its expansion east. Russian officials want those demands answered immediately, but President Vladimir Putin also says he won’t make war.

The Biden administration warns of “imminent war,” yet Ukraine’s president tells the administration to calm down, that the false alarms are damaging the country’s economy. Even though President Biden, his two predecessors, Germany and France have made clear that Ukraine is not a national interest worth fighting for, the Biden administration refuses to tell the Russians that it won’t do what it has no intention of doing, even at the risk of armed conflict.…  Seguir leyendo »

With the fixation on shrinking the budget deficit, why is over $700 billion in annual defense spending almost always off-limits for discussion? The mainstream media rarely explore possible cuts in the nation's largest discretionary spending item, and most politicians refuse to even consider the issue.

That's why the bipartisan Sustainable Defense Task Force's June 11 report recommending over $1 trillion in Pentagon cuts over the next 10 years is an indication that some sanity might arrive inside the Beltway. Convened by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) -- who raised this issue in an early-2009 op-ed for The Nation -- along with Democratic Sen.…  Seguir leyendo »