Pentagon

White Terrorism: Behind the 11 Oath Keepers charged with sedition are many more who have been trained by the US military

By Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko | – The leader of the Oath Keepers militia, Stewart Rhodes, must stay behind bars pending trial for his alleged role in the storming of the Capitol, a judge ruled on Jan. 26, 2022. While this means authorities can keep tabs on the whereabouts of Rhodes – and presumably […]

Pentagon

Did our Lost Imperial Wars turn America into our present Trumpian Dystopia?

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com) – In the long and storied history of the United States Army, many young officers have served in many war zones. Few, I suspect, were as sublimely ignorant as I was in the summer of 1970 upon my arrival at Cam Ranh Bay in the Republic of Vietnam. Granted, during the years of […]

Pentagon

Guantánamo’s Forever Elusive Endgame: Will We “Celebrate” Its 30th Anniversary?

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com ) – It’s now more than 20 years later and that American offshore symbol of mistreatment and injustice, the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is still open. In fact, as 2021 ended, New York Times reporter Carol Rosenberg, who has covered that notorious prison complex since its first day, reported on the Pentagon’s […]

nuclear weapons

Only Fools Replay Doomsday: The Cold War, Reborn and Resurgent

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In the early 1960s, at the height of America’s original Cold War with the Soviet Union, my old service branch, the Air Force, sought to build 10,000 land-based nuclear missiles. These were intended to augment the hundreds of nuclear bombers it already had, like the B-52s featured so memorably in the […]

Afghanistan

After Afghanistan, US military presence abroad faces domestic and foreign opposition in 2022

The Conversation

By Michael A. Allen, Carla Martinez Machain, and Michael E. Flynn | – In August 2021, the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan after fighting a war there for nearly 20 years. In addition to Afghanistan, the U.S. has reduced its military presence in several other conflict zones in recent years. It has lowered troop levels […]

Displaced and Refugees

America’s Bombing Wars Haven’t Ended, with 1,178 dropped under Biden

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

The Pentagon has finally published its first Airpower Summary since President Biden took office nearly a year ago. These monthly reports have been published since 2007 to document the number of bombs and missiles dropped by U.S.-led air forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria since 2004. But President Trump stopped publishing them after February 2020, […]

Pentagon

Congress Keeps Spending Nearly 1/4 of our Budget on the Pentagon, but it Hasn’t won any Wars for Decades

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Professional sports is a cutthroat business. Succeed and the people running the show reap rich rewards. Fail to meet expectations and you get handed your walking papers. American-style war in the twenty-first century is quite a different matter. Of course, war is not a game. The stakes on the battlefield are […]

Afghanistan

The Pentagon lost the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, so why are we upping its Funding to $778 billion?

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Where are you going to get the money? That question haunts congressional proposals to help the poor, the unhoused, and those struggling to pay the mortgage or rent or medical bills, among so many other critical domestic matters. And yet — big surprise! — there’s always plenty of money for the […]

Militarization

How to End America’s Forever Wars for Once and for All

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com) – As August ended, American troops completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan almost 20 years after they first arrived. On the formal date of withdrawal, however, President Biden insisted that “over-the-horizon capabilities” (airpower and Special Operations forces, for example) would remain available for use anytime. “[W]e can strike terrorists and targets without American boots […]