Tom Engelhardt: The Sweet Nostalgia for War
Donald Trump and the triumph of fantasy The other day, I walked across much of Manhattan Island on the street where I grew up. Once upon a time, in a … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: Dystopian Donald
The Future According to Trump Can you doubt that we’re in a dystopian age, even if we’re still four weeks from Donald Trump entering the Oval Office? Never in our … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: Empire of Chaos
With President Trump, Is the American Experiment Over? The one thing you could say about empires is that, at or near their height, they have always represented a principle of … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: Resurrecting My Parents From the Dead for Election 2016
Creating a National Security State “Democracy” Or How the American Political System Changed and No One Noticed To say that this is the election from hell is to insult hell. … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: A 9/11 Retrospective — Washington’s 15-Year Air War
Bombs Away! Their Precision Weaponry and Ours. On the morning of September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda launched its four-plane air force against the United States. On board were its precision weapons: … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: We are now in a Brexit World
Here’s an unavoidable fact: we are now in a Brexit world. We are seeing the first signs of a major fragmentation of this planet that, until recently, the cognoscenti were … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: Donald Trump Is the Mosquito, Not the Zika Virus
Class of 2016, Tell Us Who We Are Graduates of 2016, don’t be fooled by this glorious day. As you leave campus for the last time, many of you already … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: The Real Meaning of Donald Trump
He’s a Sign of American Decline (Just Not in the Way You Think). “Low-energy Jeb.” “Little Marco.” “Lyin’ Ted.” “Crooked Hillary.” Give Donald Trump credit. He has a memorable way … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: On the Verge of the Great Unraveling
The figures are staggering. In what looks like a vast population transfer from a disintegrating Greater Middle East, nearly 200,000 refugees passed through Austria in September alone. About half a … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: Terminator Planet
How the U.S. Created Middle East Mayhem To this day, it remains difficult to take in the degree to which the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq destabilized the Greater … Continue reading
Howard Zinn: What the Classroom Didn’t Teach Me About the American Empire
[Ed. note from Tom Engelhardt: Here’s how I described Howard Zinn in 2005 when I met him for a TomDispatch interview: “He’s tall and thin, with a shock of white hair. … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: Mantra for 9/11
Exceptional Pain Dispensed by the Indispensable Nation Fourteen years later and do you even believe it? Did we actually live it? Are we still living it? And how improbable is … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: What It Means When You Kill People On the Other Side of the Planet and No One Notices
Where Did the Antiwar Movement Go? Let me tell you a story about a moment in my life I’m not likely to forget even if, with the passage of years, … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: My War on Terror — Letter to an Unknown American Patriot
Dear American Patriot, I wish I knew your name. I’ve been thinking about you, about all of us actually and our country, and meaning to write for a while to … Continue reading →