Brian C Lockey

Antiwar, Professor of Renaissance Literature, debut novel Draining the Swamps of Babylon

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

What did notable European writers and thinkers have to say about Palestine before 1948? (Map below is from Sebastian Muenster's edition of Ptolemy's Geography, depicting Cyprus, Syria, and Palestine (Basel 1540)

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

I wanted to announce that my debut novel, Draining the Swamps of Babylon (The Spring / New Academia Publishing), is now out in paperback! The story follows a former folk-rock singer, haunted by his past, driven by visions of an inchoate future, as he returns home to revisit the "Devil's crossroads" bargain that took the life of his best friend and musical partner. Combining Odyssean themes of exile, fidelity, and homecoming, the novel explores the legacy of sin and of war and the Faustian compacts at the heart of our fame obsessions.

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

A reminder of what the Biden administration and the Democratic Party establishment was and is all about (i.e. with regard to civilians during wartime, etc.):

[Middle East Eye @MiddleEastEye]

“The Israelis would say, this is our 9/11. Secretary Blinken would respond, no, no, this is ten 9/11s.”

@marwanbishara tells @ashfaaqC how Washington joined Israel’s war cabinet.

Watch the full episode here:
https://t.co/TKx1EXE3Q5

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

Neocon Central weighs in. They have no reverse gear, and if this is any indication, they are still full throttle ahead.

[Ari Fleischer @AriFleischer]

Mr. Vice-President,

Please allow me to present a different perspective.

The problem was not the Iran War. It was the cease fire.

If you start a war, you need to win it and finish it – otherwise don’t start it.

This war should have been over six months ago, with the Strait of Hormuz wide open and oil flowing. The second and third tiers of Iranian leadership should have been destroyed, and we should have supported the pro-western forces who could have taken leadership. We stood on the brink of a new, more peaceful Middle East - and then we blinked. We had a chance not only to deny Iran nuclear weapons, but to get rid of the world’s biggest supporter of terrorism.

Instead, we had a cease fire, which was followed by months of will we or won’t we finish the job. Every day was a different message. There still is. Is the war over? Is it about to begin? No one knows. There is confusion and inconsistency.

In June 2025, America was not involved. This was an Israel vs Iran issue.

No one forced the United States to attack Iran then, or in February of 2026. It was a decision made by President Trump. In my opinion, it was the right decision.

Once the decision was made, we should not have stopped until the regime fell. But instead, you negotiated a cease fire that didn’t last, didn’t work and left us in no man’s land, with higher prices and our troops still deployed.

Our troops could have been home, the Navy returned to its bases, a peaceful regime in place , new alliances forged, and gas prices below $3.00 a gallon.

No, Mr. Vice President. It’s not the war. It’s the so-called cease fire.

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

@SohrabAhmari Could you provide some evidence (i.e. “crushing…the Iranian economy”)?

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

@johnlilburne98 @ClarkeMicah lol

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

One could make a plausible case that if the pope had retained the papal deposing power (which made him the arbiter of European princes), Europe would not have suffered two civilizational wars that killed 50 million Europeans 300 years later. Would it have been worth it? I don't know.

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

The pope at that time could not be truly powerless, in my opinion, and there had been weak popes in the past, but the papacy was thought to be eternal. Moreover, how much do we know about the nuances of More's geopolitical knowledge? In my opinion, you are importing contemporary notions of the nation-state into the early 16th century. The crux of the issue was the papal deposing power, which More as the traditionalist saw as the unique role of the papacy. (It wasn't just the divorce which More thought belonged in the ecclesiastical courts-- the divorce would result in the deposition of Catherine, a lawful prince).

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

Not really true. More took the side of united Christendom led by the Roman pontiff. (Most scholars know something about More’s public debate with Tyndale—far less know about his debate with the conciliarist Catholic Christopher St Germain, in which More defends the traditional theo-political structure of Christendom).

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

@rosen_ted @michaeljburry @grok I don’t have any particular opinion about his personal life or yours, but it’s obvious this market is frothy. He’s not the only one ringing the alarm bell

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

@rosen_ted @michaeljburry @grok March 2027: Burry uses @rosen_ted as exhibit A…

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

@ClarkeMicah And yet Hobsbawm’s famously sane remarks about the progressively barbaric nature of modern warfare, the fact that that the civilian / combatant casualty ratio goes up exponentially during the 20th C sound like they could have been made by Peter Hitchens…

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

@DecampDave Like Delmar says, “Neither God nor man has nothin on me now. Come on in boys, the water is fine!”

O Brother Where Art Thou: Delmar's Salvation https://t.co/5qtJICoSdr via @YouTube

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

Yes!! Think Delmar's baptism from Brother Where Art Thou, but much less clever...

[Ihtesham Ali @ihteshamali]

@yvrkit Here it is:

https://t.co/P0IQBq6au9

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

RIP-- and a helpful reminder that cancel culture began on the right, long before it emerged on the left. Steven Salaita and Norman Finkelstein being early victims around the same time as Churchill...And by the way, cancel culture has not gone anywhere. It's merely gravitated back to its original orientation.

[Doug Henwood @DougHenwood]

RIP. Problematic as we used to say but his firing was outrageous.

Ward Churchill, Professor Who Challenged His Dismissal, Dies at 78 https://t.co/pYUBJgvkYu

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

@JulianAndreone lol

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

@CurtMills @ArtaMoeini The truly embarrassing thing about Trump from the natsec perspective is that every aspect of his brain trust is essentially down to Fox Newz.

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

@DiogoCMoreira @joequant It happens to be true

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

@samhusseini Mr. Senator used an SAT word: diatribe. (I only note this because, before becoming Mr. Senator, Schumer was apparently quite famous in NYC for bragging to anyone who would listen about his astronomically high SAT scores. No idea what they actually were.)

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

@CurtMills Shoulda read it before he started this. Now it’s too late.

[Brian C Lockey @BrianCLockey]

@CurtMills Trump shoulda read Hemingway: “armies aren’t built to go in reverse.” There’s nothing but war escalation and expansion in our future.