National Security State

By Karen J. Greenberg | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – One vivid image of the historical relationship between government power and individual liberties in America has long been the swing of the pendulum. It catches the nature of the perpetually changing balance between the two. When it comes to terrorism and civil liberties after 9/11, […]

Militarization

If Spec Ops are the future of the US Military, it isn’t Winning many Wars

contributors

By Nick Turse | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – Americans expect to be number one. First Lady Michelle Obama recently called the United States the “greatest country on Earth.” (Take that, world public opinion, and your choice of Germany!) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton went even further, touting America as “the greatest country that has ever been created.” Her rival, Donald […]

Arms Sales

America’s New Reality: Mad Bombers, Merchants of Death, & Lawmaking Harlots

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – Recently, sorting through a pile of old children’s books, I came across a volume, That Makes Me Mad!, which brought back memories. Written by Steve Kroll, a long-dead friend, it focused on the eternally frustrating everyday adventures of Nina, a little girl whose life regularly […]

Domestic Terrorism

Dear Generation Z: So sorry for bequeathing to you terrorism hysteria and all those Wars

contributors

By Peter Van Buren | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – I recently sent my last kid off for her senior year of college. There are rituals to such moments, and because dad-confessions are not among them, I just carried boxes and kept quiet. But what I really wanted to say to her — rather than […]

Featured

15 Years after 9/11, can we Recover our Republic?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Founding Fathers thought keeping a standing army was a danger to democracy. The great wars of the twentieth century appear to have imbued the United States with a permanent standing army, and this institution has been reinforced by the September 11 attacks. Or rather it […]

Far Right

The Republicans who fear that Trump isn’t Belligerent Enough

contributors

By Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – What Does It Mean When War Hawks Say, “Never Trump”? The Enemies of My Enemy May Be War Criminals By Rebecca Gordon It’s not every day that Republicans publish an open letter announcing that their presidential candidate is unfit for office. But lately this sort […]

National Security State

If the Military had Permission to Speak Freely: They might rescue us from the Politicians’ Forever War

contributors

By William J. Astore | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – The United States is now engaged in perpetual war with victory nowhere in sight. Iraq is chaotic and scarred. So, too, is Libya. Syria barely exists. After 15 years, “progress” in Afghanistan has proven eminently reversible as efforts to rollback recent Taliban gains continue to […]

Democratic Party

Russian & Iranian Press deplore Hillary Clinton Hawkishness; Israelis complain she’s Dove

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – How is the international press responding to the Democratic National Convention and the formalization of Hillary Clinton’s status as the party’s standard-bearer in the presidential campaign? BBC Monitoring helped me find these reports, which I’m paraphrasing or quoting from their translation: Boaz Bismuth in the Hebrew […]

Guns

Our American Crimes against the Future

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – I recently dug my mother’s childhood photo album out of the depths of my bedroom closet. When I opened it, I found that the glue she had used as a girl to paste her life in place had given way, and on many pages the photos […]