“How does America change if our intelligence agencies were more accurate in their assessment of Saddam Hussein’s chemical and nuclear weapons programs?”The question was posed, just the other day, in “Make America Competent Again,” by David French, at the Dispatch, a neoconservative website. The tract is an agony aunt’s meander that calls on shoring-up competency in state and civil society.But first: Dissecting, deconstructing and exposing the neoconservative mindset and machinations matters. The reason is this:Thanks to President Trump, neoconservatives are not exactly having a moment—they’re down in the doldrums. But they’ll be back. For neoconservatives and liberal interventionists make up…

Tens of thousands of people get sick. More than 2,900 die. Fear spreads faster than the virus. Factories are closed. Roads are blocked. Villages are sealed off. Cities are locked down. The outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is the most severe sociopolitical crisis Chinese leaders have grappled with since the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. And the crisis is not confined to China. The spread of the virus across borders—and the panicky reaction to that spread—will have profound effects on the global economy, politics, security, and governance.  The virus’s novelty leaves many unknowns. We still don’t have a clear idea of…

There was a time when it seemed possible for the world to contain COVID-19—the disease caused by the new coronavirus. That time is over. What began as an outbreak in China has become a pandemic, and as a growing number of countries struggle to control the virus, talk of “flattening the curve” is increasing. That is, a lot of people are going to get sick, and delaying infections as much as possible is imperative, so that cases occur over a long period of time and health systems aren’t suddenly inundated. Almost every country is trying to achieve this goal through…

Back in 2009, I was in Strasbourg for a “No to NATO” protest. Running from tear gas and being escorted out of a French military base by German soldiers, I spent some time with Malalai Joya – then the youngest member, and one of the few women, in the Afghan parliament. It was eight years into the US occupation of Afghanistan, and President Obama, after sending 17,000 additional troops, was publicly debating whether to launch another new troop surge there. As a woman in parliament, Malalai faced death threats and attacks. She’d been forced into hiding and could not appear…

Hispanic Americans are thriving like never before in today’s strong and growing economy, and it's all thanks to President Trump. When Barack Obama was in the White House, millions of Latinos across America struggled to find jobs and recover from the devastating Great Recession. While the political establishment in Washington obsessed over stock prices and corporate profits, too many Latino families were unable to make ends meet, wondering if the American Dream had died. As a Latina entrepreneur who also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Latino Coalition, I’ve met hundreds of Hispanic Americans over the years…