National Security State

By Tom Engelhardt | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – With General John Campbell’s tour of duty in Afghanistan finished, a new commander has taken over. Admittedly, things did not go well during Campbell’s year and a half heading up the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) there, but that’s par for the course. In late 2015, while […]

Far Right

The US is a Center-Left Country; Why is its politics FrankenRight?

contributors

By: Paul Street | ( TeleSur | – – In a recent column opinion writer Roger Cohen notes that “Europe is alarmed by America’s’ embrace of a latter-day Mussolini” – namely Donald Trump. What Democracy? In a recent column the liberal New York Times opinion writer Roger Cohen notes that “Europe is alarmed by America’s’ […]

Far Right

Numbers Game: Can the Republican Establishment still Defeat Trump?

contributors

Francesca Fiorentini | (AJ+ Video Report) | – – “Donald Trump is well on his way to the Republican nomination for president. But Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich think they can stop him. Here’s how.” AJ+: ” Can Donald Trump Be Stopped?”

Foreign Policy

5 Surprising Truths about Terrorism

contributors

By Joseph S. Nye | (Project Syndicate) | – – SAO PAULO – American politics has been captured by terrorists. In December 2015, polls showed that one in six Americans, some 16% of the population, now identify terrorism as the most important national problem, up from just 3% in the previous month. This is the […]

Drone Warfare

Money Pit: America’s Forever War in Mideast has Gained us What, Exactly?

contributors

Tom Engelhardt | (Tomdispatch.com) | It may be hard to believe now, but in 1970 the protest song “War,” sung by Edwin Starr, hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. That was at the height of the Vietnam antiwar movement and the song, written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, became something of a […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Washington’s Twenty-First-Century Opium Wars

contributors

By Alfred McCoy | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – In October 2001, the U.S. launched its invasion of Afghanistan largely through proxy Afghan fighters with the help of Special Operations forces, American air power, and CIA dollars. The results were swift and stunning. The Taliban was whipped, a new government headed by Hamid Karzai […]

Militarization

After 14 Years it sinks in: Maybe US is just not Good at Asian Counter-Insurgency

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – Here’s my twenty-first-century rule of thumb about this country: if you have to say it over and over, it probably ain’t so. Which is why I’d think twice every time we’re told how “exceptional” or “indispensable” the United States is. For someone like me who can still […]

Foreign Policy

Pentagon, running out of Smart Bombs, will Double anti-ISIL Budget

contributors

TeleSur | – – Despite the deep social and economic issues President Barack Obama is confronted with, military expenditure was conceived as a priority. The Pentagon plans to spend four more times in [Europe] defense in 2017 than in 2016 in order to have sufficient military capability to support to its European NATO allies, the […]

Featured

Rhetorical Terror: GOP Candidates Pledge War Crimes, Carpet-Bombing, Asian Land Wars

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – At the Trumpless GOP debate Thursday evening, the candidates once again promised to bankrupt us with military and intelligence spending and to commit vast war crimes with reckless disregard for the lives of women, children and non-combatant men, of the sort not openly plotted since the […]