Joseph E. Fallon

Latest by Joseph E. Fallon in Chronicles

• Vital Signs

  March 2014

  Never-Ending War: An Economic Policy

  Contrary to the assertion of official historians, April 1865, which saw the fall of the Confederate States of America, was not the month in which the “Union” was saved or a “nation” was forged. It was the month that saw the transformation of the republic into an oligarchy, and the expansion of government subsidies into military Keynesianism.

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• Vital Signs

  June 2013

  The North's Southern Cash Cow

  Contrary to the claims of Marxism, economics does not determine the political structure of a country; rather, the political structure of a country determines its economic system. The Soviet Union was proof of that.

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• News

  December 2012

  Afghanistan: The Road to Civilization

  But what of Afghanistan? Both a pawn and a prize in the power politics of the Cold War and the post-Cold War world, she has been reduced to a wasteland inhabited by a traumatized population. Lost is the remarkable history of this remarkable land.

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• Vital Signs

  June 2012

  Imperial Dusk

  Whether it ends with a whimper or a bang, the American Empire is ending. WikiLeaks shows that the empire can no longer control the dissemination of information.

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• News

  August 2011

  China's Future: Ascendency or Fragmentation?

  As the American Empire declines, many see the People’s Republic of China, with its dynamic economy and powerful military, surpassing the United States and emerging as the new world power. The reality is more complex, and China’s future more uncertain.

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• Vital Signs

  July 2009

  Lincoln, the Antiwar Congressman

  The only time before his presidency when Abraham Lincoln held national office was a single term (1847-49) in the U.S. House of Representatives. During that time, while debating the Mexican-American War, Lincoln zealously defended the constitutional prerogative of Congress to declare war and enact legislation against a perceived usurpation of these powers by the executive branch.

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• Vital Signs

  February 2009

  Lincoln and God

  Before the first shots were fired in the U.S. Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln had begun to style himself as an instrument of the Lord.

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• Vital Signs

  January 2009

  Pakistan: America's Pandora's Box?

  On September 10, 2008,the New York Times reported that, back in July, President Bush had authorized ground incursions and missile attacks to destroy Taliban and Al Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

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• News

  December 2008

  The Cold War Never Ended: U.S.-Russian Relations Since September 11

  The recent invasion of South Ossetia by the U.S.-trained and -equipped Georgian army turned into a debacle for both Tbilisi and Washington. It also demonstrated that, for the U.S. government, the fall of the Soviet Union on December 8, 1991, did not mean the Cold War had ended.

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• Vital Signs

  April 2008

  Lincoln, Diplomacy, and War

  In the tumultuous six months between his election in November 1860 and the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, Abraham Lincoln rejected all diplomatic efforts to resolve the deepening crisis peacefully.

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• Vital Signs

  March 2008

  Sudan, Ethiopia, and the American Empire

  Sudan and Ethiopia are neighboring countries that are both ruled by authoritarian regimes; each is engaged in a brutal counterinsurgency operation against rebel forces—the former, in Darfur; the latter, in Ogaden.

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• Vital Signs

  July 2007

  Kosovo and Its Impact on U.S. Foreign Policy

  The struggle for Kosovo between Christian Serbs and Muslim Albanians dates back to 1389, when the Serbs were defeated by, and their lands annexed to, the Ottoman Empire. Muslim rule lasted over four centuries and resulted in several waves of forced migrations of Serbs from Kosovo.

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• News

  May 2007

  The New Plan for Iraq

  In March 2006, the State Department created an Office of Iranian Affairs, which, along with the Pentagon’s new Iranian Directorate, is tasked with aggressively promoting regime change in Iran.

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• Vital Signs

  February 2007

  Lincoln’s Other War of Aggression

  Lincoln’s war against Southern independence is just one component of the American Civil War. Like a Matryoshka doll, the Civil War opens up to reveal a set of nested wars, one inside another.

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• Vital Signs

  January 2007

  Lincoln, the Leiber Code, and Total War

  The American Civil War was an unparalleled tragedy for the United States and the world. For it ensured that, thereafter, civilians everywhere were treated as “legitimate” targets in time of war.

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• Vital Signs

  December 2006

  Tipping Points and Imperial Meltdown

  Tipping points have occurred in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia that signal the beginning of a meltdown of the American Empire.

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• Vital Signs

  September 2006

  Neocons, Naxalites, and National Demise

  The neoconservatives have promoted an aggressive U.S. foreign policy that they term “benevolent global hegemony.” In other words, they demand, to paraphrase Pat Buchanan, “an empire, not a republic.”

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• Vital Signs

  April 2006

  The Neo-Ottoman Empire

  Contrary to Washington’s official rhetoric, the U.S. government is an ally, not an opponent, of Islamic extremism—a foe, not a defender, of Western civilization.

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• Vital Signs

  April 2005

  Woodrow Wilson and America’s World Empire

  Twenty-first century America is the creation of President Woodrow Wilson, who used the messianic ideology of American Exceptionalism (the belief that America is unique and morally superior to other countries) and the opportunity afforded by World War I to turn America into one of the first ideological empires of the 20th century.

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• Vital Signs

  January 2004

  The American Myth of World War I

  In 1917, two revolutions engulfed war-ravaged Europe. The first was America’s military intervention in France on June 26, which prolonged World War I and, thus, made possible the second: the communist seizure of power in Russia on November 7.

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