Tag: foreign policy

Watched How a Bible prophecy shapes Trump's foreign policy from Vox | YouTube

For an influential group of American Christians, support for Israel -- and hatred of Iran -- are based in a biblical prophecy.

When President Trump authorized the drone strike that killed the powerful Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, he wasn't just flexing America's muscle in the Middle East.

He was also acting on the advice of a politically powerful group of evangelical Christians who believe that the US and Israel are part of the Bible's plan to bring about the second coming of Jesus.

Once considered a fringe element of the religious right, evangelical Christian Zionists are playing an increasingly visible role in Republican politics. Today, unprecedented access to the Trump administration has given them an opportunity to reshape the Middle East.

Additional reading:
https://newrepublic.com/article/156166/pence-pompeo-evanglicals-war-iran-christian-zionism

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/05/14/half-of-evangelicals-support-israel-because-they-believe-it-is-important-for-fulfilling-end-times-prophecy/

https://www.vox.com/2018/11/5/18059454/trump-white-evangelicals-christian-nationalism-john-fea

A previous version of this video misstated, at 1:40, the percentage of Americans who are Christian but neither Evangelical nor Catholic. The error has been corrected.

The headline on this piece has also been updated. Previous headline: How the Bible shapes Trump's foreign policy

There’s religion, and then there’s just crazy pants.
Listened to The "Pentagon Papers" Of Our Time by Bob Garfield from On the Media | WNYC Studios

A monumental report from the Washington Post reveals years of lies, futility and corruption.

On Monday, the Washington Post released the fruits of a three-year investigative effort: the "Afghanistan Papers," a once-secret internal government history of a deadly, costly, and ultimately futile entanglement. The hundreds of frank, explosive interviews — along with a new tranche of memos written by the former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld — revealed the extent to which American leaders misled the public on their efforts to hunt down Osama Bin Laden, rout the Taliban, expel Al Qaeda, install democracy, and undo corruption. In this podcast extra, investigative reporter Craig Whitlock tells Bob about the monumental story that the Post uncovered — and the extraordinary effort it took to report it out. 

Listened to The Daily: Why Military Assistance for Ukraine Matters from New York Times
American aid has the power to tip the scales in a broader battle between authoritarianism and democracy.

🎧 The Daily: Trump’s Plan to Withdraw Troops From Syria | New York Times

Listened to The Daily: Trump’s Plan to Withdraw Troops From Syria from New York Times

The president’s abrupt order may have raised important questions about the future of American wars, but it stymied others.

🎧 “The Daily”: The Spy Who Provoked Putin | New York Times

Listened to "The Daily": The Spy Who Provoked Putin by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

Two intelligence officers were men of the same age and training. After the Soviet Union collapsed, one rose — and one fell.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: Why U.S. Bombs Are Falling in Yemen | New York Times

Listened to 'The Daily': Why U.S. Bombs Are Falling in Yemen from New York Times

The killing of Jamal Khashoggi has renewed criticism of Saudi Arabia more broadly, including the kingdom’s role in the war in Yemen. It’s a war that has created what has been called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world — and one that the United States has backed from the beginning.

A nice little overview of some of the history behind what’s going on in several portions of the Middle East.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: Diplomacy and Deception From North Korea | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: Diplomacy and Deception From North Korea from New York Times

President Trump says the nuclear threat from North Korea is over. But new satellite images of hidden missile bases suggest that the situation has only worsened since his meeting with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader.

🎧 The Daily: The Economic Cost of Authoritarian Rule | New York Times

Listened to The Daily: The Economic Cost of Authoritarian Rule by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

As President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey applies his strongman tactics to the economy, the country faces a crisis that could reverberate through global markets.

👓 The White House Unified On Old Issues — And Then Started New Fights | Five Thirty Eight

Read The White House Unified On Old Issues — And Then Started New Fights by Perry Bacon Jr. (Five Thirty Eight)
The Trump administration has deep internal conflicts. That was true when President Trump was sworn into office, and it’s true now. But the nature of those conflicts has changed: The mostly ideological fights of 2017 seem to have somewhat subsided, while issues around Russia are creating new (and maybe even bigger) fissures.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: A ‘Big Price to Pay’ in Syria | The New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: A ‘Big Price to Pay’ in Syria by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com

After a suspected chemical attack in Syria, President Trump said Iran and Russia were responsible for backing “Animal Assad.” But Damascus may view the United States as being focused on a different fight.

President Trump has warned that there will be a “big price to pay” after yet another suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria.

But the suspicion that Syria continues to use those weapons suggests it views the United States as being focused on a different fight.



On today’s episode:

• Ben Hubbard, who covers the Middle East for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• Dozens suffocated in Syria after a reported chemical attack on a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.

• Trump sought a way out of Syria, but the latest attack is pulling him back in.

• There have been similar deadly assaults for years, including one in 2013 that killed more than 1,400.

Listening to this a few days on it sounds more like Trump has even more bluster than Obama, but he’s doing roughly the same thing. Yet again, small countries that should know far better are continuing to trod on their own people. Sadly, America is doing it to, just with far more sophisticated weapons. If we can’t figure out the right and wrong at the big obvious scale, how can we have proper morality at the smaller and more subtle scales?

🎧 Trump’s Tariffs | The Daily – New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: Trump’s Tariffs by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com
President Trump said that protections on steel and aluminum imports were in the interest of national security. But could the threat be the tariffs themselves?

A nice breakdown of the history of trade in the 20th century.

🎧 North Korea Reaches Out | The Daily – New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: North Korea Reaches Out by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com
South Korea says that the North is willing to talk about dismantling its atomic arsenal. What happened to the threat of nuclear war?

A nice breakdown on recent history of North Korea and nuclear weapons.

🎧 Steve Coll | The Atlantic Interview

Listened to Steve Coll by Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic Interview
Steve Coll is one of the foremost chroniclers of the war in Afghanistan, now in its eighteenth year. Coll talks with Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg about why the war has persisted, well after the idea of a military solution lost any luster it might have had. They discuss Pakistan's struggles during the war in Afghanistan, and why disrupting the terrorism networks that now thrive in the area might require much more than just American troops.

I wish I’d caught this podcast earlier to have been able to potentially see Coll at Vroman’s in Pasadena last week. I’m putting his books on my to read list.

I love some of the discussion, retro and introspection on the topic of the issues of Pakistan and Afghanistan. I’m still working through some of Fukuyama’s ideas about the growth and formation of governments that I think could make a sea change in how we deal with issues in countries like these, but my ideas aren’t yet fully formed in terms of providing prescriptive policies yet. Hopefully I’ll get there some day.

In the erstwhile, this is a brilliant and wonderful interview. I’m loving this series more and more.

👓 Ex-C.I.A. Official Resigns After Harvard Courts Chelsea Manning | New York Times

Read Harvard Disinvites Chelsea Manning, and the Feeling Is Mutual by (New York Times)
The dean of the Kennedy School said the selection of Ms. Manning for a fellowship had been a mistake, after protests from current and former C.I.A. officials.

👓 U.S. vs. North Korea: The Winner? China | The American Prospect

Read U.S. vs. North Korea: The Winner? China by Robert Kuttner (The American Prospect)
China has no reason to restrain Kim too soon, or for too modest a price. I keep thinking of the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis. This terrifying episode was a very complicated game of diplomatic maneuvering and military posturing, with a thermonuclear exchange between the U.S. and the USSR as the consequence of a misstep. But that apocalyptic situation had one big advantage over the present one: John Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, and Fidel Castro were all sane, rational beings. The same cannot be said about the two protagonists to the Korea crisis, Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un. In Kim, Trump has met his match.
This is apparently the article that began Bannon’s ouster from the administration.