Nat Parry

Nat Parry is the co-author of Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush.

America’s Complicated Relationship with International Human Rights

The U.S. has long had a love-hate relationship with international norms, having taken the lead in forging landmark human rights agreements while brushing off complaints over its own abuses.

Nat Parry
By Nat Parry
A general view of the assembly hall during the opening of the Human Rights Council's Commemorative session marking the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday Dec. 12, 2008. (AP/Keystone, Salvatore Di Nolfi)

American exceptionalism – the notion that the United States is unique among nations due to its traditions of democracy and liberty – has always been the foundation of the nation’s claim to moral leadership. As a country founded on ideals that are today are recognized the world over as fundamental principles of international norms, the U.S. utilizes

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15 Years Later, the World Is Still Reeling From the Decision to Invade Iraq

Brushing aside warnings that he was about to unleash Armageddon in the Middle East, George W. Bush launched an unprovoked attack on Iraq on March 19-20, 2003, the ramifications of which we are still grappling with today

Nat Parry
By Nat Parry
Men pray at a cemetery for Shia volunteer fighters killed fighting with ISIS militants in the Wadi al-Salam, or "Valley of Peace" cemetery in Najaf, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP/Anmar Khalil)

Robert Jackson, the Chief United States Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals, once denounced aggressive war as “the greatest menace of our time.” With much of Europe laying in smoldering ruin, he said in 1945 that “to initiate a war of aggression … is not only an international crime: it is the supreme international crime

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Trump’s Tainted CIA Nominations Recall Failure to Prosecute Bush-Era Torture

President Donald Trump’s nominations of Gina Haspel to lead the CIA and Mike Pompeo to be America’s top diplomat are the latest indications of steadily eroding human rights standards in the United States and the rollback of the rule of law that has characterized U.S. counterterrorism policies since Sept. 11, 2001.

Nat Parry
By Nat Parry
Iraqi Torture

President Donald Trump’s nominations of Gina Haspel to lead the CIA and Mike Pompeo to be America’s top diplomat are the latest indications of steadily eroding human rights standards in the United States and the rollback of the rule of law that has characterized U.S. counterterrorism policies since Sept. 11, 2001. Haspel, a CIA operative who

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