The only thing worse than fighting with allies is fighting without them. — Winston Churchill The US needs NATO as much as Europe, perhaps more. Europe’s beauty hides a dark heart. Over the past two millennia most wars (certainly the most destructive ones) have started in Europe. Often, they did…

At a presidential campaign debate in September 2020, Trump was asked if he had any message he wanted to send to groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers — basically the white supremacist, prone to violence contingent. Trump did, he said: “stand back and standby”. When the Senator from…

Last weekend the National Football League celebrated their “Salute to Service” designed to align with US Veterans Day on November 11th*. The most visually striking element of the NFL’s observation was teams donning gear based on patterns from US military combat uniforms. This is nothing more than well-funded cosplay. Cosplay…

It was a Tuesday. An early September Tuesday. The weather was perfect as sometimes happens in the North American mid-Atlantic in late summer. Cool mornings giving way to pleasantly warm afternoons. The gauzy summer-heated air is gone. The skies are crisp and blue. Around 06.30 am. I left my rented…

A fundamental tenet of the modern western nation state is the monopoly of violence. This idea is perhaps most famously expressed by Thomas Hobbes in his 1651 work Leviathan, where he described the social compact in which people surrender the use of violence to the state in return for relative…

If we hope to meet the challenges of our concurrent crises: economic, democratic, and pandemic, it will require the efforts of all Americans. To face what is coming America needs to rediscover and embrace shared sacrifice. Shared sacrifice creates more resilient societies. It provides a sense of community and common…

A recent story in The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg reported that President Trump made disparaging remarks directed at American troops killed or wounded in action. These alleged remarks implied a contempt by the president for our military. Much of the condemnation has focused on the hypocrisy of an alleged draft-dodger…

In pre-pandemic life I bounced between the US (Philadelphia) and Europe (Budapest). Pandemic travel restrictions have marooned me in Europe since Christmas 2019 and, as things have turned out, it’s not the worst fate. After a rocky start the pandemic is being managed well in Europe and a semi-normal summer…

A GI Bill for Healthcare Workers Our frontline healthcare workers are heroes, every bit as much as our military members. In recognition of their dedication, selflessness and sacrifice we should establish a program of educational support for them similar to the GI Bill. This program will invest in a group…