Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: Persuasion
by Seva Gunitsky

“Time has a way of compressing history. The Hundred Years’ War was a series of three separate wars that must have felt as distinct to its contemporaries as the World Wars feel to us now. But those three wars were a long time ago, so we lump them together into one conflict. Besides, we are wise. We have seen the direction of History and know they were all fought over the unresolved question of England’s rivalry with France. I suspect future historians will apply the same compression to the three Gulf Wars of the unipolar era. While 1991, 2003, and 2026 are distinct in many ways, they all revolve around repeated attempts by the hegemon to impose its order on a region that it appears to understand less and less each time.” (03/27/26)

https://www.persuasion.community/p/americas-long-war-in-the-middle-east

Source: Foreign Policy
by Michael Hirsh

“No one has done more than Donald Trump to assert the ‘primacy of nations’ in today’s world, to quote his National Security Strategy. And the U.S. president has many nationalist fellow travelers in high places who also preach a fierce, almost religious, devotion to the nation-state — including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, and insurgent right-wing parties around the globe. The problem, however, is that the nation-state is badly broken and no longer working for average people around the world.” (03/27/26)

https://archive.is/zKCb4

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jack Hunter

“It would seem the fate of Trump’s presidency lies in his decision to enter into a ground war with Iran — something successive presidents, including himself, have promised not to do since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in which millions of American men and women served over a 20-year period, draining resources, morale and, frankly, recruitment potential for the services. In poll after poll, the majority of Americans oppose going to war with Iran at all, and fear a prolonged war that will suck the country into another quagmire. This should set alarm bells in the administration. Republicans continue to support the war but in decreasing numbers, and they have clearly soured even more on the idea of sending in ground troops. There’s more. A new Fox News poll released on Wednesday revealed just how low Trump’s numbers were sinking and why.” (03/27/26)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/boots-on-the-ground-iran/

Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan

“Each era has its superheroes, and the Trump era may have finally stumbled across one for the ages. You may remember him from such hits (well, hit) as “Because I Got High” — the chill, stoner, self-mocking classic of 2000. But way back then, we had no idea that Afroman’s true masterpiece was yet to come. And here it is: a viral 2022 album called Lemon Pound Cake, which comprises a series of songs about a botched police raid on his home. … the poor wittle white cops were so upset by being woasted in these videos, they did the woke thing and sued Afroman for $3.9 million, which would have easily bankrupted him. The defamation trial had some fantastic moments, and the whiny cops walked right into a Streisand effect: so many more people saw the videos — 20 million views and counting — because they sued over them than if they’d just ignored them.” (03/27/26)

https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/afroman-for-president-6d2

Source: Sex and the State
by Cathy Reisenwitz

“I used to be a techno-optimist. Today, I’m not so sure. Don’t get me wrong. I do not bemoan the invention of antibiotics. I have little respect for primitivism. Either they haven’t thought through how many children and pregnant women live every year because technology has made their diseases preventable or survivable, or you’re a psychopath. But I’m less sure than I was in the past that technology has been overwhelmingly good for humans. Maybe it’s just that I turned 40. Being middle-aged will have one wondering whether maybe stuff really was better when I was younger — or even earlier.” (03/27/26)

https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/not-a-techno-optimist-nor-a-pessimist

Source: NonZero Newsletter
by Robert Wright

“Why is the current war happening? If you want to answer that question in a broad sense—in a way that applies not just to the Iran war but to other needless bursts of carnage of the past and future — I would direct your attention to an exchange that took place this week on a New York Times podcast called The Opinions. The exchange was between Times columnist David French and retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal …. The roles played by the two men aren’t what you might expect based on their job descriptions. It wasn’t the career Army officer who exemplified the narrowly tribalistic perspective and the writer for the liberal media who offered the more balanced and pacific view. Rather, it was the professional soldier who brought the enlightenment and the journalist who lacked it — and who showed no signs of absorbing any of it.” (03/27/26)

https://www.nonzero.org/p/why-we-keep-stumbling-into-stupid