Author: Eric Margolis

One hundred years ago this month – April 1915 – the Allies and Germany were stalemated on the Western Front. Winston Churchill, the young, ambitious First Lord of the British Admiralty proposed a scheme first advanced by France’s prime minister,  Aristide Briand. The best way for Britain and France to end the stalemate and link up to their isolated ally, Russia, would be a daring “coup de main,” or surprise attack, to seize the Ottoman Empire’s Dardanelles, occupy Constantinople (today Istanbul) and knock Turkey out of the First World War. Though rickety, the Ottoman Empire was Germany’s most important wartime ally. … Continue reading →

The deal reached in Lausanne, Switzerland by Iran and five powers, led by the US, appears to be about nuclear capability. In fact, the real issue was not nuclear weapons, which Iran does not now possess, but Iran’s potential geopolitical power. Iran, a nation of 80.8 million, has been bottled up like the proverbial genii by US-led sanctions ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution deposed Shah Pahlavi’s corrupt royalist regime. The Shah had been groomed to be the chief US enforcer in the Gulf. More than a dozen American efforts to overthrow the Islamic government in Tehran have failed. Washington … Continue reading →

Africa’s most populous nation has just achieved something very important. This week Nigeria’s voters handed a landslide victory to former president, Muhammadu Buhari. Equally impressive, the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, became the first Nigerian leader in 55 years to democratically cede power to his rival. President-elect Buhari, a dour, ascetic, unsmiling former general, proclaimed his primary goal is to attack all-pervasive corruption and crush the Boko Haram uprising in the north. Interestingly, Buhari, a Muslim, received substantial support in the Christian south in this normally religiously-divided nation of 177 million. Nigeria is one of the world’s most corrupt nations. The … Continue reading →

The  horror of the Germanwings suicide-mass murder hits me with particular force because I went through a similar nightmare myself, and because I know very well the exact Alpine area where the doomed airliner crashed. The passengers aboard the ill-fated German A320 aircraft must have had 3-5 minutes warning that something was terrible wrong. The aircraft’s captain was locked out of the cockpit and trying to break down its armored door. The aircraft was going into a dive. As a constant flier since the age of six, to me their plight is one of the worst nightmares associated with flying. … Continue reading →

The US media is full of stories about how the Obama administration is going to punish Israel for re-electing Bibi Netanyahu in an election marked by demagoguery and arrant racism. The New York Times EVEN warns President Barack Obama may back a series of  UN resolutions demanding that Israel withdraw to its narrow 1967 borders and there create a viable Palestinian state. Hardly.  “King Bibi’s” re-election makes Israel virtually unassailable and master of all its surveys. Who is going to force Israel to follow this sensible, two-state solution to the misery of the Palestinian people? Obama could not even stop … Continue reading →

Be proud, America! You have the very best Congress that money can buy. It’s no secret that many in the House and Senate have long been  corrupted by money and special interests. The constant need to advertise on TV makes all politicians slaves of the money lenders and other big donors. The great Mark Twain called Congress “America’s only native criminal class.” Nothing much has changed. Members of Congress are held in even lower public esteem than murderers, lawyers and…journalists. It’s often cheaper to buy a legislator than a second-hand car. One of the biggest outrages has been the way … Continue reading →

NEW YORK – During World War II, the very drunk American humorist Robert Benchley, decked out in a tux and top hat,  came staggering out of the tony Sherry-Netherlands Hotel. A US Navy admiral in full uniform was waiting for a taxi. “Doorman, get me a taxi,” Benchley ordered. The outraged admiral fired back a broadside, “Sir, I’ll have you know that I am a four star admiral in the United States Navy! “ With perfect logic, Benchley riposted, “well then get me a battleship!” Good for him. I’ve never met a battleship that I didn’t love. I’ve long mourned … Continue reading →

The wildly exaggerated threat of so-called Islamic terrorism is being shamelessly used by some western governments to boost their flagging fortunes at a time of economic malaise. Marketing fear is a sure-fire political ploy, as the Bush administration showed. But if you think promotion of “terrorism” hysteria in order to curtail democratic freedoms is something new, have a look at Germany, 1933. In that year, Germany’s democratic Weimar republic was foundering under economic depression, mass unemployment and raging hyper-inflation. The Reichstag, or parliament, was deadlocked between bitterly feuding parties, including the minority  National Socialists, led by Adolf Hitler, the Catholics, … Continue reading →

WASHINGTON DC –  The hostess of our elegant Georgetown dinner party was breathing fire. We had been waiting for over an hour for the guest of honor, renowned journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave. Suddenly, the door burst open and a modestly sized man with a deep tan bowed to our enraged hostess and proclaimed, “a thousand pardons!  I was on the phone to Paris with President Chirac, and I had Henry Kissinger on hold.” That was vintage Arnaud, a mixture of outrageous chutzpah and burnished charm. Even our red-faced hostess had to laugh and forgive his tardiness. De Borchgrave died of … Continue reading →

Has Russia’s Vladimir Putin pulled Barack Obama’s chestnuts out of the fire for a second time? Will the shaky cease-fire in Ukraine that began this weekend hold up and end a conflict that was threatening a nuclear war between the United States and Russia? The answer to the first question is yes. Remember back in 2013 when the Obama White House was threatening to attack Syria over allegations it was using poison gas?  As it turned out, the UN found it was the US-backed Syrian rebels who were likely to have used chemical weapons rather than the Damascus regime. Noble … Continue reading →

Claims that Saudi Arabia was behind the 9/11 attacks on America have  been circulating  since 2001. The Saudis have denied all such claims even though 15 of the 19 aircraft hijackers were Saudi citizens. This week, allegations of Saudi involvement reignited as one of the men convicted in the 9/11 plot, Zacarias Moussaoui, reasserted the allegations. Moussaoui, who is in US maximum security prison, charges senior Saudi princes and officials bankrolled the 9/11 attacks and other al-Qaida operations. He may have been tortured and has mental problems. Among the Saudis Moussaoui named are Prince Turki Faisal, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, … Continue reading →

The United States has just made an exceptionally dangerous, even reckless decision over Ukraine. Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader who ended the Cold War, warns it may lead to a nuclear confrontation with Russia. Rule number one of geopolitics:  nuclear-armed powers must never, ever fight. Yet Washington just announced that by spring, it will deploy unspecified numbers of military “trainers” to Ukraine to help build Kiev’s ramshackle national guard. Also being sent are significant numbers of US special heavy, mine resistant armored vehicles that have been widely used in Afghanistan and Iraq. The US and Poland are currently covertly supplying … Continue reading →

It’s taken over half a century for the US to finally figure out how to neutralize pesky Communist Cuba. Invasions, air raids, crushing sanctions, attempts to murder the Castro leadership by exploding cigars and poisons, diplomatic isolation, poisoning crops – all failed. Now, the lame duck Obama administration has finally figured out how to put an end to Cuba’s Communist system: human wave attacks by hordes of American tourists in loud golf wear yelling “USA,USA!” and waving Visa cards. The flood gates open in March. Once this happens, the charming, lovely island of gracious people that I’ve known since my … Continue reading →

My father, Henry Margolis, was a Broadway producer, industrialist, gourmet and man about town. Instead of wasting time taking me to play ball in the park, we would go each Saturday to an interesting new restaurant. One afternoon, we went to lunch at a just-opened place on West 55th called “Lucky Pierre.”  Pierre told us that he – like it seems almost everyone else in France during the war – had been in the Resistance.  In the course of a sharp battle, our Frenchman dove under an ammunition truck during an air attack.  It exploded. Pierre walked away unscathed. Hence … Continue reading →

Have the long-feared lone wolf attacks threatened by ISIS begun?  The twin massacres in Paris suggest that the Mideast’s mayhem and mass killings are again spilling over into Europe. Paris remains in chaos. Its Periferique ring highway is still closed, producing traffic madness across the capital. Some 60,000 troops and police saturated Paris. As I write, there are reports of a new attack in Montpelier, in southern France. I visited the Paris office of the French satirical magazine, “Charlie Hebdo,” while on  tour for my last book. It was located on a non-descript street of the non-chic 11th arrondisement, a … Continue reading →