TOM PLATE WRITES — It’s embarrassing. Like some televangelist preacher caught with his pants down at an out-of-town house-of-pleasure, America has been caught with its democracy down. Point one: a scary but also confused and confusing coup d’etat – another to come? Point two: A Republican president who should never…
Full Article US-CHINA RELATIONS: HOW BEIJING CAN LEAD AFTER THE CAPITOL CHAOSWRITES STEPHEN NOERPER OF THE KOREA SOCIETY — A month and a day after conducting its fourth nuclear test, North Korea launched a multi-stage rocket carrying a 440-pound satellite. The launch of the Taepodong missile defied a United Nations ban, once again placing North Korea in direct defiance of international…
Full Article NORTH KOREA: MISSILE SUCCESS, DIPLOMATIC FAILURE
Tom Plate writes in his syndicated column: Since almost no one is coming to the defense of President Barack Obama, whose opinion poll numbers continue to slide, why don’t I give it my best effort? After all, back in 2002, before the actual invasion of Iraq, the then-senator from Illinois…
Full Article IRAQ: Losing When You’re Right
WRITES TOM PLATE FROM LOS ANGELES IN HIS SYNDICATED ASIA COLUMN – ‘Ukraine Isn’t Armageddon.’ Now, how bold and direct is that?! This was the banner headline splashed over the most incisive journalism I have read on Vladimir Putin and the Crimea crisis. It led the April edition of Le Monde Diplomatique, the…
Full Article THE PLATE COLUMN: Russia in the Ukraine – Beyond Good and Evil