Source: Antiwar.com
by M Reza Behnam

“The 250th anniversary of American independence is fundamentally incompatible with a foreign policy defined by overwhelming civilian casualties and global devastation. As the United States commemorates its semiquincentennial with celebratory pageantry, this milestone forces a reckoning. How can a nation built on the promise of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ justify its role in upending and extinguishing millions of lives across the Middle East?” (07/06/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/reza_behnam/2026/07/05/the-united-states-at-250-an-ode-or-goad/

Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“Sometimes, the confluence of disparate events unexpectedly illuminates ideas and ideals that have universal and enduring resonance. Three occasions that come to mind this July Fourth, fittingly, revolve around the essential nature of Americanness, of what it is to be American: the weekend celebrations of 250 years of independence, the Supreme Court ruling this week on birthright citizenship, and the annual recognition of ‘Great Immigrants, Great Americans’. The thread of citizen rights and responsibilities weaves through each of these, uniting evolving conceptions of freedom, self-government, and individual achievement from the nation’s past through to its present. In their 1776 Declaration of Independence from British rule, the Founding Fathers claimed for all future Americans the ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’. In Tuesday’s court ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts affirmed that all individuals born on U.S. soil have a constitutional right to citizenship, which he described as ‘the right to have rights – to freely participate in our political community’.” (07/04/26)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0704/The-principle-of-Americanness

Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey

“The Donald J. Trump International Airport mandate costs taxpayers millions. Leaders from all parties waste public money on monuments. We must demand infrastructure maintenance instead.” (07/05/26)

https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/stop-naming-public-infrastructure

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Emma Ashford & Will Smith

“At Davos in January, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney surprised the audience with his open call for ‘middle powers’ to band together and resist pressure from the great powers. His implication that these states need to resist both China and the United States was somewhat shocking to hear in a policy speech, but it nonetheless reflected a growing consensus that, as the world moves toward multipolarity, middle powers will become more important, especially if they can figure out how to free themselves from the whims of the great powers. For some of the most prominent middle powers, however, the war in Iran has shown the limits of their agency in global affairs — and the difficulties they face when confronted with an intransigent great power.” (07/06/26)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/gulf-states-us-security-umbrella/