Harlan Ullman

In the UK, prime ministers undergo “Question Time” in Parliament. This can be a knockdown event despite the civility of addressing each other as “The Right Honorable Gentleman or Lady.” US presidents endure press conferences. The difference is that presidents can choose the time and place or choose not to hold any. Prime ministers do […]

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. As in Vietnam, this use of American force also failed, some would say catastrophically so. Why? That question has never been satisfactorily answered. It must be. The Bush administration invaded for three basic reasons. The first was that Saddam Hussein’s possession […]

As The (House) Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party begins its work, the threat posed by China has garnered strong bipartisan support in Congress. Many members of both Houses are already critical of the President’s forthcoming FY ’24 defence budget for not spending enough money to […]

How did the United States of America become the Dis-United State of Amerca, the “I” purposely deleted? One answer is both part cause and partial solution. Along the way, ideas, imagination and innovation (I3) have disappeared from view, replaced by ideology, fake and alternative news, slogans and a disregard for truth and fact metastasizing into […]

Hobbes asserted that without government, life would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” But, ironically, even with the government, similar terms still might apply today. That is sadly true in America. About three-quarters of Americans see the country headed in the wrong direction. And an equal proportion report they are “dissatisfied” with their lives. […]

Did the downing of four balloons and the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train that contaminated a small Ohio town with highly toxic materials have anything in common? Many would argue yes: a US government not only missing in action but one that was unready, disorganized and unable to mount a credible and compelling response. […]

That fetching song of yesterday, “Up, Up and Away in My Beautiful Balloon,” needs to be modified. Today it could be my not-so-beautiful balloons. With four balloons or objects taken down, the United States needs one more to become a national balloon ace, the first since World War I ace pilot and zeppelin killer Frank […]

The inexplicable murder of Tyre Nichols by five Memphis, Tennessee police officers brought home again the question of why instances of police brutality continue to occur in America. In April 2021, this column ran a piece titled Lessons for the Police from the Military: Focus on Training and Rules of Engagement. Despite all the pleas […]

Americans have much to worry about. The war in Ukraine could escalate. An Air Force general predicts China “will probably invade” Taiwan within two years. Covid could return. Debt is exploding. An economic “hard landing” looms. Environmental disasters occur every day. And the nation has not been as politically divided in decades and possibly since […]

Alliteration is ideal for literature. Is it instructive for politics? Lenin observed that there are contradictions comrade. Indeed! Today, crippling contradictions are joined by diabolical dilemmas and perilous paradoxes. In the US, a primary cause of this terrifying trio is the huge and seemingly irreversible divide between the two political parties making government increasingly ungovernable. […]