Confessions of a Conservative Atheist
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Why are some unwilling to take half-a-loaf by forging a less than satisfying deal or even reverting to the status quo, making not getting the optimal outcome into an embarrassing defeat? While the conflict with Iran lumbers onward through an admittedly bizarre non-ceasefire ceasefire, some are arguing that we have only two options: Either accept… Continue reading Iran and the sunk cost fallacy
It’s almost impossible to know where to begin with the sheer multitude of increasingly hysterical claims regarding both the day to day performance of our campaign and the broader economic and geopolitical repercussions, many of which were ridiculous from the start. As the conflict in Iran enters the third week of a shaky ceasefire with… Continue reading Iran: The experts have been wrong about almost everything
From where the average American sits, the choice facing the leaders of Iran seems like no choice at all, but after Saturday’s peace negotiations failed to produce a deal, it clearly is to the remnants of the regime and no one really knows what they will choose, however much they may bloviate otherwise. Throughout the… Continue reading The choice facing Iran, and the reality that most of us aren’t all hawk or all dove all the time
The ceasefire is shaky, but we know this: After what everyone said wouldn’t happen, magically happened, they still concluded that what happened was bad, all without missing a beat. It’s impossible to capture the insanity that President Donald Trump’s detractors attempted to pass off as wisdom over the past five weeks in a single post,… Continue reading Trump, Iran, and the art of the impossible deal
As France joins forces with Russia and China at the United Nations, and makes a deal with Iran, supporters of the NATO alliance argue that it is a purely defensive affair. In that case, what purpose does it serve in the modern world? In one of the ironies that seem to increasingly define the modern… Continue reading NATO just turned 77, but is it going down in the Strait of Hormuz?
It certainly isn’t pretty at times, but beyond death and taxes, there have been two certainties throughout my life, the Middle East was a strange and scary place from which terrorists launched attacks and communism was a creeping, insidious threat. Trump is finally addressing them both. At the risk of dating myself, I was born… Continue reading While much of the world is kicking and screaming, Trump is almost singlehandedly dragging us into the future
Given the choice between pursuing wholesale regime change or making a deal that can be improved in the future, I’d take my chances with the deal and hope that like Sauron in Lord of the Rings, Iran’s evil can be diminished such that it will never rise again even if it can’t be destroyed. “For… Continue reading Iran: A crucial lesson from Lord of the Rings
Last week, they claimed killing any enemy’s leadership only prolongs a war. On Monday, they claimed the President lied about engaging in talks with Iran. On Tuesday, they insisted we should not have talks at all, pretending Iran is the same now as it was before the war. On Monday, President Donald Trump announced that… Continue reading Iran: As Trump switches into deal making mode, did everyone forget that we’ve been at war for more than three weeks?
The sight, however symbolic, of the Arab Nations joining traditional European, North American, and Asian allies along with their long term adversary Israel in a joint mission would be something no one has ever seen before, perhaps as important as Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet was way back in 1907. Last week, the media was… Continue reading The Trump Armada
The legendary General George S. Patton once quipped, “No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country,” but the experts have suddenly decided otherwise based on at least two false assumptions. On Tuesday, Israel reported that… Continue reading No, killing your enemy’s leadership isn’t a sure fire way to lose a war whatever the experts claim
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 