Melvin Goodman

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” – Donald Trump, Truth Social, April 7, 2026 Donald Trump has started a war with no

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair Our reliance on the mainstream media, even the revered New York Times, for an understanding of Donald Trump's psyche and behavior is a waste of time.

Donald Trump’s instability and insanity have finally provoked discussion of two possible Constitutional guardrails that would allow for his removal from

More details USS North Dakota, the first of the VPT-equipped Block III Virginia-class submarines. (Cost: $2.6 billion) Photo: U.S. Navy.

Alexander the Great cuts the Gordian Knot by Jean-Simon Berthélemy (1743–1811)

The unusually peaceful end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union did not bring us peace. Instead, the world has faced endless regional and ethnic wars, terrorism, and other human disasters. This situation helped create a unipolar world, enabling the United States to use military force without risk or concern for challenges. We went to war against Iraq in 1991, ignoring the Kremlin’s efforts to arrange an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait. We expanded the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, ignoring our verbal commitments to Soviet leaders to foreswear such expansion. We used the 9/11 attacks in 2001 to engage in endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that failed to bring greater security for the United States.

Donald Trump’s second term in office has been a disaster for U.S. national security, European security, and the entire international scene. Trump’s war

Thucydides. This is the plaster cast bust currently in exposition of Zurab Tsereteli's gallery in Moscow. Photograph Source: shakko – CC BY-SA 3.0

The Washington Post’s leading national security columnist, David Ignatius, has been an ever-present apologist for the “power of the military and the secrecy of the intelligence community.” At a crucial time that requires fresh thinking about the loss of U.S. influence and credibility in the international arena, Ignatius and the mainstream media continue to identify the U.S. as the #1 military and economic power in the world.

Thirteen years ago, I made the case against the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism. My argument was based on overall cost (“the most expensive program in our military inventory”), the large number of aircraft proposed for the U.S. Navy (“absence of any other navy with a global presence or a power projection capability”), and the obsolescence of manned aircraft (“the next generation of pilotless armed drones as well as hypersonic cruise missiles have more uses than several thousand sophisticated fighter aircraft”).