Militarization

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Maybe Mark Esper isn’t having fun anymore as Secretary of Defense. On Wednesday he appeared to be trying to commit political suicide by president, as he openly rejected the idea of invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act to send US troops into states over the objection of their governors, broached by […]

Donald Trump

Can the president really order the military to occupy US cities and states?

The Conversation

By Jennifer Selin | – After a week of both peaceful protests and violent chaos in the wake of George Floyd’s death, President Donald Trump announced, “If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States […]

Militarization

A General once Warned against Military-Industrial Complex: Today’s West Point Mafia is It

Danny Sjursen

(Tomdispatch.com ) – Every West Point class votes on an official motto. Most are then inscribed on their class rings. Hence, the pejorative West Point label “ring knocker.” (As legend has it, at military meetings a West Pointer “need only knock his large ring on the table and all Pointers present are obliged to rally […]

Militarization

Killing Me Softly with Militarism: The Decay of Democracy in America

William J. Astore

(Tomdispatch.com) – When Americans think of militarism, they may imagine jackbooted soldiers goose-stepping through the streets as flag-waving crowds exult; or, like our president, they may think of enormous parades featuring troops and missiles and tanks, with warplanes soaring overhead. Or nationalist dictators wearing military uniforms encrusted with medals, ribbons, and badges like so many […]

Militarization

In Wars and Weapons We Trust: America’s Militarized Profession of Faith

William J. Astore

(Tomdispatch.com ) – When I was a teenager in the 1970s, I looked to the heavens: to God and Christianity (as arbitrated by the Catholic Church) and to the soaring warbirds of the U.S. military, which I believed kept us safe. To my mind then, they were classic manifestations of American technological superiority over the […]

Militarization

“Infinity War?” After 17 fruitless years in Afghanistan & elsewhere the US Military needs to Rethink

Arnold R. Isaacs

“This time, they think they have it right.” So declared an Associated Press story reporting an upbeat assessment by this country’s top military officer at the end of a five-day visit to Afghanistan earlier this spring. Marine General Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was heading home from the war zone, […]

Militarization

Militarizing the US Border Frontier for Fun and Profit

contributors

By Todd Miller | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – At first, I thought I had inadvertently entered an active war zone. I was on a lonely two-lane road in southern New Mexico heading for El Paso, Texas. Off to the side of the road, hardly concealed behind some desert shrubs, I suddenly noticed what […]

Militarization

America’s Forever Wars as Spectator Sport

contributors

By Andrew J. Bacevich | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – The purpose of all wars, is peace. So observed St. Augustine early in the first millennium A.D. Far be it from me to disagree with the esteemed Bishop of Hippo, but his crisply formulated aphorism just might require a bit of updating. I’m not a […]

Donald Trump

Voters & Congress need to Stop Warmongers like Bolton via War Powers Act

contributors

By Sarah van Gelder | (Yes! Magazine) | – – A widespread show of support at the local level could embolden lawmakers toward a no-first-use policy on nuclear weapons. “Yes, John Bolton Really Is That Dangerous” read a headline from the New York Times. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said he “can’t imagine a more reckless, […]