Aleppo, the Death of a City and of Tolerance
Rome–The startling destruction of Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city and one of its most storied, is shocking and sad to see. The human suffering would be enough to mourn. But there’s also a tragic [...]
Making the Philippines Great Again
Rome–Wow. Killing drugs dealers by the ton. Silencing political opposition. Making nice with China, which wants to take away of chunk of other people’s land. Stiffing long-time neighbors. [...]
Putin, Assad Snookered Obama on Aleppo
Rome–Don’t be fooled. The current air blitz by Russian jets, Syrian government troops and Iranian-organized ground forces would have happened without the bogus ceasefire that officially ended [...]
Hey, Obama and Putin: Anyone Seen a Syria Ceasefire?
London–Wow, Obama and Putin. That was some ceasefire in Syria you guys signed-off on. Forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebels kept fighting each other. Assad also kept blocking aid [...]
Obama Joins Putin’s Pro-Assad Coalition in Syria
Rome—Maybe after five years of awful turmoil, tens of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees and vast destruction of cities, giving into Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad is not the worst option [...]
Beijing’s South China Sea Moves A Version of Manifest Destiny
Dry Tortugas, Florida–I was visiting the Dry Tortugas, a collection of islands, sand bars and reefs 70 miles west of Key West, and, curiously, the first thing that came to mind was the South China [...]
Fidel, Why So Sad?
Miami–Cuba is giving Fidel Castro a weepy goodbye on his 90th birthday today. In the official press, at least, Cubans are sad because the Comandante is approaching death “like everybody else,” [...]
Beheaded Child, Poison Gas: Obama, Putin And Their Syrian Allies
Rome— The beheading of a child and use of poison gas in Syria ought to awaken Obama and Putin to the dangers of sticking with their chosen allies. But it won’t happen. The other day I saw the [...]
No Surprise That ISIS Jihadists Killed A Priest in France
Rome— A pair of ISIS killers in provincial France slit the throat of an elderly priest while he was celebrating mass. The killing, and hostage taking in a church, was shocking, but should not surprise. [...]
Erdogan Has Obama Over A Barrel
Rome–Turkey’s President Recip Tayyib Erdogan, fresh off putting down an inept military coup, looks set to accelerate his already speedy run toward autocratic control. Given Turkey’s [...]
Latest Posts
Two operas, one in Hong Kong, the other in Moscow, seemed to speak on current themes. I had the good luck this year of s...
Are the US and China heading for a Pearl Harbor moment? Back to the Future? Pearl Harbor, 1941 Before visiting Shanghai ...
All calm in Shanghai, so why all the controls?...