Pentagon

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The silly season has descended permanently on Washington, D.C., so that minor congressmen are calling for the resignation or even impeachment of President Joe Biden over the ISIL-K bombing at Abbey Gate in the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 26. Chris Cilizza called out the Nikki Haleys, […]

National Security State

Despite Departure from Afghanistan, America still Has an Archipelago of 750 Military Bases around the World

Tomdispatch

By Patterson Deppen | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – It was the spring of 2003 during the American-led invasion of Iraq. I was in second grade, living on a U.S. military base in Germany, attending one of the Pentagon’s many schools for families of servicemen stationed abroad. One Friday morning, my class was on the […]

Afghanistan

Why did a military superpower fail in Afghanistan?

The Conversation

By Arie Perliger | – The speed and efficiency with which Taliban forces were able to complete the occupation of most of Afghanistan, as well as the quick collapse of the Afghan government, has led to criticism of President Joe Biden’s decision to end U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and of the withdrawal’s logistics. But […]

Afghanistan

The Biden Doctrine and Afghanistan: Lean Counter-Terrorism and the end of Bloated Nation-Building

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden came out swinging on Monday in defense of his decision to get out of Afghanistan. The rapidity of the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani government in Kabul before the Taliban advance in the past week raised questions about the wisdom of the move among critics of the […]

Afghanistan

The Great Washington Ponzi Scheme in Afghanistan comes Crashing Down

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The United States lost the Afghanistan War a long time ago, as is quickly becoming apparent as the Taliban take city after city. After 2002, it was never clear what the US war aim was. You can’t win a war if you don’t have a clear objective. The war is […]

Democratic Party

In Bipartisan Infrastructure Package, opportunity to alter fundamental climate and economic priorities is being squandered

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – How to assess the infrastructure package? Lots of big numbers, but budgetary appropriations are moral statements, and this package disappoints. An opportunity to alter fundamental climate and economic priorities is being squandered. Perhaps no aspect of the American political economy is more iconic that the auto. Not […]

Children

America’s Child Soldiers: JROTC and the Militarizing of America

Tomdispatch

By Ann Jones | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – Congress surely meant to do the right thing when, in the fall of 2008, it passed the Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA). The law was designed to protect kids worldwide from being forced to fight the wars of Big Men. From then on, any country that coerced […]

Militarization

The Other Big Lie: For 30 Years, we’ve sent our Troops into Unwinnable Wars

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com) – “The thirty-year interregnum of U.S. global hegemony,” writes David Bromwich in the journal Raritan, “has been exposed as a fraud, a decoy, a cheat, [and] a sell.” Today, he continues, “the armies of the cheated are struggling to find the word for something that happened and happened wrong.” In fact, the armies […]

Mental Health

Moral Injury and Forever Wars: The after-action Military Suicides Americans don’t Want to Hear About

Tomdispatch

By Kelly Denton-Borhaug | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – This summer, it seemed as if we Americans couldn’t wait to return to our traditional July 4th festivities. Haven’t we all been looking for something to celebrate? The church chimes in my community rang out battle hymns for about a week. The utility poles in my neighborhood […]