Editorial Note: I am taking the week off in order to catch up on a few projects. But I’ll be back on Monday, so stay tuned to this space. – Justin Raimondo

This weekend and the following week marks a triple anniversary: on March 19, 2011, the US and its European and Middle Eastern allies launched an assault on Libya that resulted in hundreds of deaths, and the complete destruction of that country as a viable political entity. The “mainstream” media isn’t breathing a word of this, lest it causes us to remember that it was Hillary Clinton who ginned up this disaster.

Also, on March 24, 1999, the NATO alliance, led by the United States, began bombing the former Yugoslavia, a conflict that resulted in the creation of Kosovo, a gangster state run by criminals who have been credibly charged with trafficking in human organs and whose leadership is essentially the Albanian Mafia. (That war, by the way, can also be laid at Hillary’s doorstep.)

As I warned my readers at the time, the US alliance with the “Kosovo Liberation Army” has resulted in the unleashing of Albanian ultra-nationalism — and today we see that the Kosovo government is being violently challenged by a movement that seeks to create a “Greater Albania.”

Yes, the ides of March are certainly a favored time for launching wars: in 2003, it was on March 19 that George W. Bush launched the invasion of Iraq – the consequences of which are reverberating throughout the Middle East today in a paroxysm of violence and terrorism.

That none of these anniversaries are being acknowledged in the “mainstream” media is hardly surprising: they don’t want us to remember, in large part because these “journalists” were and are complicit in ginning up support for Washington’s wars. They are – for the most part – nothing but publicists for the War Party. And this is the reason for Antiwar.com – to provide the American people with the real story of what is being done in our name all across the globe.

Yes, the Ides of March are pretty action-packed on the home front as well. I see that Bernie Sanders has excused himself from attending the AIPAC conference being held Monday, on the grounds that he is engaged elsewhere. This will make his “radical” left-wing supporters happy, because they’ll be spared the embarrassment of having to watch Sanders prostrate himself before the Israel lobby – as he has done consistently throughout his career. Salon calls his refusal to attend a “bold move” – because running and hiding is the New Boldness.

Speaking of Israel and the 2016 presidential election: that was the subject of my talk at a recent conference on “Israel’s Influence: Good or Bad for America?” It was quite an experience speaking to an audience made up of many Muslims, leftists, and others not inclined to contemplate my contrarian view – which is that Donald Trump’s promise to be “evenhanded” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the most reasonable position of anyone in the race. Yet, as you can see below, the response was much more favorable than I thought it would be.

Speaking of Trump, the campaign to silence him is taking on new and more ominous dimensions: the “protesters” are openly proclaiming that their goal is to “shut down” Trump’s rallies. They even resorted to a roadblock to prevent rally goers from attending his Arizona events. And of course the “mainstream” media’s attempt to blame Trump for “provoking” violence by his words marches on: an attempt by a “protester” to assault the GOP candidate resulted in an admiring interview for assaulter Tommy DiMassimo and a piece in the Washington Post (where else?) justifying the interview. If this looks like an open invitation to future Trump assailants to win their fifteen minutes of fame, well then – yes, that’s precisely the point.

We haven’t seen this kind of concerted media campaign targeting a presidential candidate since the “mainstream” assault on Ron Paul. The whole point is to ignore who’s starting the fights that break out at his rallies and simply to surround the Trump campaign with a penumbra of violence.

Speaking of the presidential campaign, the leading Anti-Trump Candidate, Ted Cruz, has announced his foreign policy team, and what a list it is! Such familiar characters as Elliott Abrams and Michael Ledeen – the cream of the neocon crop – are prominently featured, along with the ineffable Frank Gaffney, of the Center for Security Policy. Gaffney represents the radical fringe of the neoconservative movement: He has spent the last few years advancing a conspiracy theory that the administration of George W. Bush was infiltrated by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. Anti-tax crusader and noted libertarian-leaning publicist Grover Norquist is singled out for special attention for the “crime” of being married to a Palestinian.

Will this cause Rep. Justin Amash, who has endorsed Cruz, to reconsider his support for a candidate who has the support of the War Party’s biggest wack-jobs? Don’t bet the farm on it….

Yes, beware the Ides of March, a time when the war at home as well as the wars at home and abroad tend to erupt in all their fury. And what better place to get a perspective on all these conflicts than right here on Antiwar.com?

A SCHEDULING NOTE: I’m taking a short break from writing this column: I’ll be out all this week. But never fear – I’ll be back on Monday, March 28. Of course, if Something Big happens, I’ll be here, but barring that tune in next week for the latest edition of “Behind the Headlines.”

NOTES IN THE MARGIN

You can check out my Twitter feed by going here. But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.

I’ve written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, with an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey, a Foreword by Patrick J. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richert and David Gordon (ISI Books, 2008).

You can buy An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (Prometheus Books, 2000), my biography of the great libertarian thinker, here.