Pentagon

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Memorial Day or Decoration Day (referring to the decoration of the graves of soldiers killed in combat) began after the Civil War and has been commemorated since 1868. It is no wonder that the mourning began then. Historian J. David Hacker has estimated that 750,000 troops died in the war, […]

Bush

George W. Bush denounces “the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq — I mean, Ukraine”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Michael Williams at the Dallas Morning News reports on George W. Bush’s speech at his presidential center at Southern Methodist University, during which the former president made what MSNBC’s Mehdi Hassan called “one of the biggest Freudian slips of all time.” Bush denounced the rigged elections that produced the dictatorship […]

Feminism

Women to the Rescue: Review of “Hope but Demand Justice” by Pat Hynes

Nick Mottern

A Review of “Hope, But Demand Justice” By Pat Hynes (Haley’s, 2022) — by Nick Mottern (Special to Informed Comment) – The basic conclusion that I came to after reading Pat Hynes’ “Hope, But Demand Justice” is this: If we humans are to survive, women must achieve decisive roles in governments, on an emergency basis, […]

National Security State

The Last Good Guys? Five Reasons Why Washington Can’t Break Its War Addiction

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Why has the United States already become so heavily invested in the Russia-Ukraine war? And why has it so regularly gotten involved, in some fashion, in so many other wars on this planet since it invaded Afghanistan in 2001? Those with long memories might echo the conclusion reached more than a […]

Pentagon

Bodies beyond Bucha: The Civilian Deaths You Haven’t Heard About

Nick Turse

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Madogaz Musa Abdullah still remembers the phone call. But what came next was a blur. He drove for hours, deep into the Libyan desert, speeding toward the border with Algeria. His mind buckled, his thoughts reeled, and more than three years later, he’s still not certain how he made that six-hour […]

Arms Sales

The New Gold Rush: How Pentagon Contractors Are Cashing in on the Ukraine Crisis

William D. Hartung

By William D. Hartung and Julia Gledhill | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought immense suffering to the people of that land, while sparking calls for increased military spending in both the United States and Europe. Though that war may prove to be a tragedy for the world, one […]

Iraq War

From Mosul to Raqqa to Mariupol, Killing Civilians is a Crime no Matter Who Does it

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink ) – Americans have been shocked by the death and destruction of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, filling our screens with bombed buildings and dead bodies lying in the street. But the United States and its allies have waged war in country after country for decades, carving swathes of destruction through cities, towns […]

Afghanistan

Why didn’t US strikes on Afghan Weddings generate Press Outrage like Russia’s Killings of Civilians in Ukraine?

Nick Turse

( Tomdispatch.com ) – You’ve seen the grisly footage. You’ve read the harrowing reports. The evidence is everywhere and it’s as chilling as it is irrefutable. There was the young boy who was beaten and shot in cold blood; the man used for target practice; the old man thrown off a cliff; and the group […]

Inequality

It Goes up but Never Comes Down: What Would It Take to Reduce US Military Spending?

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com) – I have a question for you: What would it take in today’s world for America’s military spending to go down? Here’s one admittedly farfetched scenario: Vladimir Putin loses his grip on power and Russia retrenches militarily while reaching out to normalize relations with the West. At the same time, China prudently decides […]