Attention to the Unseen

The Kyiv Independent reports: Russia launched a large-scale overnight attack on Ukraine on Sept. 7, killing at least four people and injuring more than 40, prompting swift condemnation from Kyiv’s European partners. The attack, one of the most severe in recent months and which claimed the life of a 3-month-old baby, came as Ukraine’s allies seek to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into pursuing a diplomatic resolution of the war by imposing additional sanctions on Moscow. As Western partners explore…

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Tom Nichols writes: In 1949, after two years that included a massive reorganization of the U.S. military (and the establishment of an air force), Truman christened the new United States Department of Defense, which consolidated elements of the previous War and Navy Departments. That name was good enough for Truman, who served in combat in World War I and dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan. And it was good enough for President Dwight Eisenhower, the former supreme allied commander, who…

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The New York Times reports: The Trump administration is aggressively stoking tensions with Venezuela and its president, Nicolás Maduro, and appears to be creating conditions that could lead to a military confrontation. A major buildup of U.S. naval forces is underway outside Venezuela’s waters as the administration has stepped up belligerent rhetoric about fighting drug cartels and labeled Mr. Maduro a terrorist-cartel leader. All that raises the question of whether the end goal is just to counter drug-smuggling boats, or…

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Hussein Agha and Robert Malley write: The war that has engulfed Israel, the Gaza Strip, and well beyond since October 7, 2023, has confronted the world with much on which it had never set eyes before. In scope and brutality, Hamas’s assault on Israelis exceeded any prior Palestinian act. Israel’s military attacks and forced starvation in Gaza are an onslaught governed by unusual rules, in which the death of Palestinian fighters seems like collateral damage, while the widespread, indiscriminate slaughter…

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+972 reports: Data from an internal Israeli intelligence database indicates that at least 83 percent of Palestinians killed in Israel’s onslaught on Gaza were civilians, an investigation by +972 Magazine, Local Call, and the Guardian can reveal. Figures obtained from the classified database — which records the deaths of militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) — contradict by a huge margin the public statements of Israeli army and government officials throughout the war, which have generally claimed a…

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Olga Rudenko writes: Vladimir Putin looked like he loved every minute of it. Mr. Putin, the president of Russia, the man who has proclaimed that my country shouldn’t exist — that it’s a historical mistake, to be fixed by Russian soldiers — was welcomed effusively to Alaska by the president of the United States. Mr. Putin exited his plane and diplomatic isolation and walked a red carpet like an honored guest. His smile was triumphant. Was it confidence that he…

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