Opinion: JD Vance is right about the Forever Wars – but he’s dead wrong on Ukraine, writes Iraq veteran and author mattgallagher0. politico.com/news/magazine/…

"Taking issues case by case defies the comforts of doctrine. It’s deeply unsatisfying...but it’s the only way I’ve found to reconcile the many contradictions of our world." My latest for POLITICO Magazine on Iraq, Ukraine + the dangerous allures of nationalism politico.com/news/magazine/…

JD Vance says his experience as an Iraq veteran influenced his opposition to Ukraine aid. Fellow veteran and author Matt Gallagher says Vance has a point about Iraq. But here's why he thinks Ukraine is different: politico.com/news/magazine/…

"We served in Iraq under false pretenses, in a country that largely saw us not as saviors but as invaders. That is not the situation in Ukraine." mattgallagher0 breaks down the flaws he sees in JD Vance's comparisons between Iraq and Ukraine: politico.com/news/magazine/…

mattgallagher0 POLITICO Magazine Excellent op-ed, Matt, truly. So well crafted and written. And this last sentence gave me goosebumps: "Neither is a cynicism so curdled and narrow that nothing is worth defending."

“Truthfully, it’s only in Ukraine that I think America is capable of being what we say we are. Which sounds, perhaps, like an empty aspiration. But on the ground, it’s anything but.”

“Withdrawing into an isolationist shell, or “America First,” can be a siren’s song for veterans of my generation. Yet retreating from the international body and its endless ills is no solution, either, morally or pragmatically.“ ⁦mattgallagher0⁩ politico.com/news/magazine/…

This is all that was on this hellsite all weekend, perhaps “citizen journalism” isn’t the panacea for a brave new future, after all?

Any realistic discussion about negotiations should start with "Russia continues to want to destroy independent Ukraine, and is pursuing this objective despite the high cost. What is to be done to make them want to give up on that goal?"

2.5 years after the renewed Russian invasion, "Ukraine is another forever war!" remains the rallying cry of American big-brains who have never been confronted with, or simply cannot imagine, Ukrainian agency. The war ends the hour Russia's military returns to Russia. That's it.

“I don’t want to read [Project 2025]” is very relatable, can’t lie

Some of you will like it, some of you won’t, but bemused smiles at rambling male rage has a very intentional audience who has been there themselves.

IN SPRINGFIELD THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS

Pets across America watching the debate like

Muir: Do you want Ukraine to win? Trump: I want to end the war. Two different things.

Will Abdul the Taliban be on a post-debate panel?

I better go superviral for this...

Today my thoughts are of Captain Alix Idrache, a US Army helicopter pilot, who graduated at the top of his West Point class with a degree in physics in 2016. He's also a Haitian immigrant.

Among the many notable things about him is what he wrote when the above photo of his West Point graduation went viral...

These people are JD Vance’s constituents, too. Here’s hoping he hears them as clearly as he’s heard others.