Armchair Generals and War Games

ByDoug Anderson International Relations

… where Netanyahu is the puppet master

Doug Anderson

Mar 03, 2026

Benjamin Netanyahu has once again called on big brother Trump to go beat up the bully that Bibi doesn’t like.

Just last year he called on Trump to fly a bomber all the way from North America to Iran to drop a bunch of bombs on what he said was their uranium enrichment facility. They said it was a phenomenal success – that the facility was ‘obliterated’. Well, was it?

We really don’t know because we are relying on (probably) Israeli intelligence – which can be incredibly accurate at times but is also capable of spinning any scenario they like if it suits their purpose – as we have seen many times in the last few years in Gaza. And right now Israel wants to grind Iran into the ground.

But regardless of the reality, Netanyahu was telling … More

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… like a 10-year old kid with the hottest new Video Game … except this was real

ByDoug Anderson International Relations, Media, Communications, Politics

Who’s next?

Doug Anderson

Jan 04, 2026

I can picture it – a dimly lit room at Mar-a-lago, locked doors, numerous large video screens around the walls, with Trump, his senior generals and other minions watching the invasion of Venezuela with giddy anticipation. The extraction was swift and successful – no Americans lost. (But an estimated 40 Venezuelans killed and a lot of damage to infrastructure).

I’m sure the testosterone was flowing at a fever pitch. Even the perp-walk in New York was staged as a victory lap for the TV networks with motorcades, flashing lights and armoured cars.

But that’s the easy part. Now that he’s in New York, the lawyers will have to prosecute him and that’s hardly a slam dunk. Maduro will claim immunity on a number of grounds all of which will be litigated, quite possibly right up to the Supreme Court. And then there’s the … More

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Imagine a World at peace – without the Security Council Veto

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Government Policy, International Relations, Politics

It could happen – a brave contingent of UN members have launched an effort to implement Article 109

Doug Anderson

Dec 07, 2025

We live in precarious times … not unlike the early 1960s when the cold war was at its peak. The Cuban missile crisis was 1962; The Cold War was at its height and Viet Nam was brewing.

Not unlike today.

In the early 60s while I was in high school, I was president of the World Affairs Club at my school and like 60-70 other high schools in Toronto we were participating in a model United Nations. Each school represented a different country. We met every Sunday to discuss/debate the issues of the day. I still have my copy of the UN charter.

Back then the UN was only a decade and a half old, but already it was clear that the Security Council veto was … More

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Deal or No Deal

ByDoug Anderson International Relations, Politics
Cusma is dead! Long live the new world order!

Doug Anderson

Aug 16, 2025

The gyrations of Trump’s trade war remind me of the popular Howie Mandel TV show from the early 2000s (it has been reprised a few times and reruns were still running on closed circuit at my doctor’s office a few months back). Contestants had to blindly choose suitcases with various amounts of cash up to a million dollars, gradually whittling down the number of cases in the hopes of hitting the jackpot. Trump is playing a similar huckster deal maker role as the US’s trading ‘partners’ scramble for their ‘deal’.

But that’s where the similarity ends. Reality takes over.

Canada’s failure to make a deal by August 1 is not the end of the world – it heralds a new era which will probably be better in the long run. Canada is unique among contestants. No … More