Dear Readers,

I write this under great duress, and against my better judgment: it has never been my policy to mix my personal life and my writing/professional life. This time, however, I don’t see how I can avoid it.

My regular readers will have noticed that I’ve skipped more than a couple of columns recently, with no explanation. Well, here’s the explanation: I have been diagnosed with late-stage adenocarcinoma cancer, and am now undergoing experimental therapy with the new drug Keytruda.

Under normal circumstances, this diagnosis would be a death sentence. However, Keytruda – recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration – for cases like mine, has proved to be a godsend for many patients previously thought hopeless. While the results are preliminary, they are hopeful: it looks like I have the key mutation that gives Keytruda one up on this terrible disease.

And I have to say one thing that might sound a bit odd: I will survive this. I don’t know why I have such certainty when it comes to this. Maybe I’m in denial. All I know is that, at the very core of my being, I know I’m going to come out on the other side of this whole and intact.

As sick as I am – and there are some days when I cannot rise from my sickbed – I can’t help but think that this illness is a temporary inconvenience that can and will be overcome. I have no doubt that some days I will be incapacitated and unable to write, however I intend to write as much as I can, whenever I can. And rest assured that I am still playing a key role as editorial director of Antiwar.com, and will continue to do so.

Which brings me to the point of this letter: we need your support – your financial support – like never before. We are living, as the old Chinese proverb puts it, in some interesting times – an era awash in the risk of war. On every front, in every region of the world, the US flag is planted firmly in the ground – and therein lies the potential for perpetual trouble.

For over 20 years, we here at Antiwar.com have been debunking the War Party’s lies, and, let me tell you, it hasn’t been easy. Today it’s especially hard, with both parties geared up for military intervention in different parts of the world: the Peace Party has nearly dropped out of sight!

Yet the American people are sick of perpetual war, and this becomes more obvious every day: you can bet your bottom dollar that no ordinary American citizen is out there agitating for yet another Middle Eastern conflict. And of all our grandiloquent commentators who think we’re at war with Russia – or ought to be – I have yet to see a single one of these war birds enlist in the military as an example to others.

Rumors of war, confirmation of my own health issues – I realize this letter is heavy-lifting, but again I want to impress upon you my essential optimism. No matter what happens to me, Antiwar.com will continue, just as it always has, thanks to our hardworking and ever-faithful staff.

But we can’t do it without your financial support. So please give as much as you can as soon as you can. And while I’m confidant I’ll come out just fine with my health issues, frankly I’m much more worried about Antiwar.com – but, then again, that’s always been the case. Every fundraiser makes me panic: cancer, not so much. Please make your donation today.

Sincerely,

Justin Raimondo

Editorial Director

Antiwar.com

P.S And, yes, your donation is tax-deductible.