Andrew J. Bacevich: What Obsessing About You-Know-Who Causes Us To Miss
24 Key Issues That Neither the Washington Elite Nor the Media Consider Worth Their Bother Donald Trump’s election has elicited impassioned affirmations of a renewed commitment to unvarnished truth-telling from … Continue reading
Diane Randall: Stop U.S. from Making the War in Syria Even Worse
More bombs won’t end the crisis in Syria. After more than six years of war, with millions displaced and a death toll of nearly half a million people, it’s clear … 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: 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
W.J. Astore: The Many Purposes of War
Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian military theorist who wrote at the end of the Napoleonic Era, is noted for saying that war is a continuation of politics. That saying explains … Continue reading
Sharon Doubiago: Bagdad, April 17, 2003
I wake in the night to my father, the end of the world again. Lightning strikes, rain pours down our bombs. I confess I want to live. I want—bomb … Continue reading
Noam Chomsky: The Costs of Violence
Masters of Mankind (Part 2) [This piece, the second of two parts, is excerpted from Noam Chomsky’s new book, Who Rules the World? (Metropolitan Books). Part 1 can be found … Continue reading
Marc Jampole: Mainstream Media Portrays War Contractors As Unsung Heroes
We really don’t know what Matt Sherman exactly did as a federal government contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite a long article about him in the Washington Post and a … Continue reading
Chris Hedges: We All Are Islamic State
Revenge is the psychological engine of war. Victims are the blood currency. Their corpses are used to sanctify acts of indiscriminant murder. Those defined as the enemy and targeted for … Continue reading
Alfred W. McCoy: How a Pink Flower Defeated the World’s Sole Superpower
America’s Opium War in Afghanistan After fighting the longest war in its history, the United States stands at the brink of defeat in Afghanistan. How can this be possible? How … Continue reading
Conn Hallinan: Adding Up the Costs of Hillary Clinton’s Wars
The Greek playwright Aeschylus — who fought at Marathon in 490 BC, the battle that defeated the first Persian invasion of Greece — had few illusions about the consequences of … Continue reading
W.J. Astore: America’s Military Strategy? Persistent Overreach
Reports that President Obama is considering even more troops and bases to fight ISIS in Iraq put me to mind of Roman general Publius Quinctilius Varus. Two millennia ago, Varus … Continue reading
