Pentagon

US spent $2.261 Trillion on Afghanistan War, in which ~240,000 Have Died; We could have Greened Half the Grid Instead

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Costs of War Project at Brown University has just brought out a new report on Afghanistan. The September 11, 2001 attacks were launched from Khost and Qandahar in Afghanistan by al-Qaeda, though it is not clear that this organization of Arab expatriates informed their Taliban hosts of what they […]

Epidemics

Making Sense of a Viral Military: The Pentagon’s Flawed Response to the Pandemic

Tomdispatch

By Andrea Mazzarino | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – Herd immunity? Don’t count on it. Not if that “herd” is the U.S. military. According to news reports, at least a third of active-duty military personnel or those in the National Guard have opted out of getting the coronavirus vaccine. That figure, by the way, doesn’t even […]

Afghanistan

No, Biden ending the Afghanistan War isn’t a Disaster: The disaster was Dropping 7,400 Bombs on the Country Annually

Juan Cole

President Biden announced Tuesday that he will completely withdraw US troops from Afghanistan around September 1. This move will bring to an end America’s longest war, which still costs $50 billion a year. Imagine what that money could do for the US if it is invested in green energy and infrastructure. Worse, a lot of […]

Pentagon

The Pentagon prefers a Conventional War it Can Win, but is likely stuck with Guerrilla Wars it Can’t

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – The future isn’t what it used to be. As a teenager in the 1970s, I watched a lot of TV science fiction shows, notably Space: 1999 and UFO, that imagined a near future of major moon bases and alien attacks on Earth. Movies of that era like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A […]

Featured

Iraq Announces end of US Combat Mission in Iraq, further reduction in 2,500 Troops now There

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Iraqi News Agency reports that Qasim al-Araji, Iraq’s National Security Adviser, said on Wednesday that his country had reached an agreement with Washington specifying that there would be no foreign military bases in Iraq. During a press conference alongside foreign minister Fuad Hussein, al-Araji added that the Biden administration […]

Far Right

Has the Far Right infiltrated the US Armed Forces?

Tomdispatch

By Nan Levinson | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – It was around noon and I was texting a friend about who-knows-what when I added, almost as an afterthought: “tho they seem to be invading the Capitol at the mo.” I wasn’t faintly as blasé as that may sound on January 6th, especially when it became […]

Pentagon

Can America finally kick the Habit? – “The Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World”

Liz Theoharis

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Fifty-four years ago, standing at the pulpit of Riverside Church in New York City, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his now-famous “Beyond Vietnam” sermon. For the first time in public, he expressed in vehement terms his opposition to the American war in Vietnam. He saw clearly that a foreign policy defined […]

Afghanistan

Our Longest War is Ending without Victory, but will we Even Notice?

Andrew J. Bacevich

“Ours is the cause of freedom. We’ve defeated freedom’s enemies before, and we will defeat them again… [W]e know our cause is just and our ultimate victory is assured… My fellow Americans, let’s roll.” — George W. Bush, November 8, 2001 ( Tomdispatch.com) – In the immediate wake of 9/11, it fell to President George […]

China

Washington’s Delusion of Endless World Dominion: China and the U.S. Struggle over Eurasia, the Epicenter of World Power

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com) – Empires live and die by their illusions. Visions of empowerment can inspire nations to scale the heights of global hegemony. Similarly, however, illusions of omnipotence can send fading empires crashing into oblivion. So it was with Great Britain in the 1950s and so it may be with the United States today. By […]