Melvin Goodman

I correctly anticipated significant criticism of my last piece for CounterPunch, which argued that President Vladimir Putin’s was not “unproved,” that NATO expansion was a significant factor in the Russian use of force, and that our policymakers and so-called experts failed to understand the central national security aspects of Soviet/Russian policy. Among the critics of my CounterPunch article were Walter Slocomb who served in Clinton’s national security council and lobbied for NATO expansion, and a former colleague of mine at the National War College, Marvin Ott, who supported expansion and is anticipating a Russian victory in Ukraine to be followed by Putin’s aggression elsewhere.

I am not arguing that “Project 2025” is directly comparable to Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto “Mein Kampf,” but there are some similarities in their political ideology and their political plans for the United States and Germany, respectively. Both documents are “blueprints for authoritarianism.” As the saying goes, often you need to be forewarned in order to be forearmed.

The conventional wisdom is that Russia doesn’t need any security guarantees, but there will be no movement toward resolving the conflict as long as the Kremlin has no idea of Western plans for tactical and strategic deployments on its sensitive western border over the next five to ten years. Putin, indeed no Russian leader, can willingly accept a permanently expanding role for the United States and the European NATO countries on a border that has witnessed costly invasions from Sweden, France, and Germany over the past three centuries. What would be the U.S. reaction to Russian military alliances with Canada and Mexico…or Cuba?

Bret Stephens. The New York Times has always favored Israel in its editorial writings, but no Times ' columnist compares to Bret Stephens, whose

There is no sign of Harris’s positions on Biden’s policy choices that would suggest strong differences or alternative approaches to change the direction of U.S. policy. Harris at this point cannot deviate from President Biden’s key positions on sensitive issues, although Vice President Hubert Humphrey probably lost the election in 1968 to Richard Nixon because of a belated critique on U.S. policy in Vietnam. Biden’s unwavering support for Israel could ultimately hurt Harris in key states such as Michigan.

“Escalation dominance defines a situation in which a nation has the military capabilities that can contain or defeat an adversary at all levels of violence with the possible exception of the highest.”

Netzah Yehuda training exercise. Photograph Source: יעסיעס – CC BY-SA 4.0

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair The horrors of the Second World War sparked the creation of international organizations and international laws to ensure that such horrors would never occur again.

by Melvin Goodman* Aug. 30, 2024 “Escalation dominance defines a situation in which a nation has the military capabilities that can contain

Last month, I reported on the Biden administration's new nuclear doctrine to prepare the United States for a coordinated nuclear challenge from Russia, China, and North Korea.