US politics

By Rebecca Gordon | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – Introduction, by Tom Engelhardt To this day, it remains difficult to take in the degree to which the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq destabilized the Greater Middle East from the Chinese border to Libya. Certainly, as the recent Republican and Democratic presidential debates suggest, Americans have […]

Bush

Yes, George W. Bush bears some Responsibility for US Vulnerability on 9/11

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Donald Trump-Jeb Bush tiff over whether George W. Bush “kept us safe” is another example of how Donald Trump is better than Karl Rove at politics. Rove had some success with his doctrine of attacking people on their strengths. Like a spiteful child, Trump attacks […]

National Security State

Former Detainees Sue CIA Torture Psychologists

contributors

By Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian | (The Young Turks) | – – “Ten months after the Senate released its report on the CIA’s illegal torture program, the ACLU is getting involved. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian (The Point), hosts of the The Young Turks, break it down. “Three former CIA detainees are suing over […]

Bernie Sanders

While Sanders Scores Small Donors, Clinton and Bush Buoyed by Wall Street

contributors

By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org | – – In terms of support from financiers, ‘no other candidates came close to Clinton and Bush’ “She’s gonna all of a sudden become Mrs. Wall Street if she’s elected,” one banker said of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. While the 2016 U.S. presidential election fundraising […]

Afghanistan

Still underestimating al-Qaeda & Taliban despite 1500 Military Analysts

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – That figure stunned me. I found it in the 12th paragraph of a front-page New York Times story about “senior commanders” at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) playing fast and loose with intelligence reports to give their air war against ISIS an unjustified sheen of success: […]

Bernie Sanders

Thanks to Sanders, Democratic Party Just Debated Capitalism

contributors

By Sarah Lazare, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org) | – – Presidential hopefuls broke usual parameters of discourse when they debated capitalism versus socialism Tuesday night. Breaking the usual parameters of election season discourse, Democratic presidential hopefuls Tuesday night debated the merits of capitalism on the national stage—a development that many attribute to the candidacy […]

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders: Why I’m sick of Clinton’s email

contributors

CNN | (Video interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders) | – – Sen. Bernie Sanders says he is tired of talking about Hillary Clinton’s emails instead of focusing on income equality and other issues affecting Americans.” (Democratic Debate) Bernie Sanders: Why I’m sick of Clinton’s email

Bernie Sanders

Debate: Clinton slams Iran, Putin & supports Syrian Rebels; Sanders rejects Intervention

Juan Cole

Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Foreign policy came up a bit in the Democratic Party debate. One form it took was a series of clashes over Hillary Clinton’s 2002 vote to authorize the Bush Iraq War. Lincoln Chafee, then a Republican senator, opposed that vote and was the only Republican senator to […]

Militarization

Endless Rounds of “Vietnamization” as America’s Colonial Armies Collapse one by One

contributors

By Andrew J. Bacevich | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – First came Fallujah, then Mosul, and later Ramadi in Iraq. Now, there is Kunduz, a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan. In all four places, the same story has played out: in cities that newspaper reporters like to call “strategically important,” security forces trained and […]