Phil Butler

The US State Department will close all but one consulate in the biggest country in the world soon. In Washington, elected officials are considering sanctioning India because they bought the world’s best air-defense system, the Russian S-400. From Algeria to Venezuela American economic sanctions take food from billions of hungry mouths. In Iran, the people cannot even…

In 1958 the novelist Leon Uris wrote a stunning novel entitled “Exodus”, about the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine after World War II. In 1960, the legendary director Otto Preminger made the film, which starred Hollywood icon, Paul Newman. I saw Exodus when I was six years old, and the impact…

Many people in the world are waking up to the false narrative of the liberal order. The hate leveled at anyone standing in the way of “progress”, the unbridled Russophobia, the vilification of Vladimir Putin and other world leaders, it’s now out of place in a pandemic stricken world. Still, the forces that have propelled our past and current destruction cry on…

500,000 people died of hunger in our world since President Donald Trump lost the US presidential election to Joe Biden. Since Trump began his tantrum over the loss, 20,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, the “fake virus”, in ICUs across the nation. In war-torn Yemen, where Trump’s arms sold to the Saudis kill, 12 million children are at risk from malnutrition, cholera…

Much of the world breathed a sigh of relief when Joe Biden won the American presidency from incumbent Donald Trump. But from a realistic standpoint, we must all focus, and try hard to understand what took place in these elections. Here’s some food for thought, and a “not so fast” plea for sanity. When Joe Biden takes office next January, Russia’s President…

2020 may end up being the year history puts down as a time when logic totally escaped Earth’s atmosphere. Just one look at news headlines from anywhere on the globe tells us we live on a lunatic planet. In America, half the people want a fascist who seems to hate everybody as president, while the other half picked a happy war monger puppet every sane…

It’s all so sensational, I am sure there is no journalists or playwright who can begin to express how messed up the world is today. In America, a president acts like a petulant adolescent. In Europe, a league of nations cannot cope with anything, at least not effectively. Even a global pandemic has not been able to galvanize humanity onto a single course of action. Instead…

When Joe Biden takes the oath of office in January, the world will breathe a sigh of relief. Donald Trump messed up international relations just that much. From Mexico City to Beijing and back, the last four years tested the glue that magically holds this world together. Now if we can just survive a more cultivated under the table dealer. Starting in January, an Obama…

The news that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is against closing EU borders to halt a second deadly wave of coronavirus cases made me realize – they just don’t get is yet. Forty-five million people have been infected, and over a million have already died, and the best our leaders can come up with is guesswork and prayers. This is the feeling on the streets…

“A new vision of Central-Asia”, that’s how the Heritage Foundation think tank frames US policy in many CIS nations. However, the new version of the “vision” is perilously close to the former Anglo European colonial view of what should be in places like Kazakstan. A US State Department announcement of throwing some Agency for International…

The truth often hurts, especially when it comes from an unexpected source. The reality of the European Union’s perpetual crises is hurting the very people the bloc was created to protect and comfort. Lest we forget why we put governments in place, let me remind every reader that our leadership is supposed to make us happy. The EU simply cannot operate as a democracy. This is the first and foremost…

New this week, America has a new superhero. A Washington career politician becomes the soul reaver of America. And, Elon Musk has just been hired by the Pentagon to build missile-tracking satellites for the US Space Development Agency (SDADahJTkfw. Oh, and in other news, Pope Francis has joined billionaire Warren Buffett in blaming…