Pentagon

Russian officials deny the New York times claims that Moscow offered bounties to members of the Taliban movement for killing US soldiers, while the Kremlin-friendly analysts believe that the such “fake news” were fabricated in order to weaken the US President Donald Trump, as well as to serve as a pretext for more anti-Russia sanctions. […]

Militarization

How the Police and the Pentagon Are Bringing Our Wars Home

Foreign Policy in Focus

By William J. Barber and Phyllis Bennis Originally published in Inside Sources. ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Uniformed U.S. soldiers occupied the center of the city, where an armored personnel carrier was stationed at a major intersection. Was it Kabul or Atlanta? A U.S. military helicopter hovered over crowds of unarmed civilians, its down-drafts […]

Donald Trump

The Real Enemy: US Elites Squandered Trillions on War Spending and Underfunded Public Health

Tomdispatch

By Mandy Smithberger | – In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Washington has initiated its largest spending binge in history. In the process, you might assume that the unparalleled spread of the disease would have led to a little rethinking when it came to all the trillions of dollars Congress has given the Pentagon in […]

Militarization

Defund the Pentagon, Too

Sonali Kolhatkar

(Foreign Policy in Focus) – When Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced a resolution recently to cut $350 billion from the Defense budget, the only media outlets that covered her bill were independent progressive ones. In a statement on her website Lee said, “For years, our government has failed to invest in programs that actually keep […]

Militarization

Martin Luther King’s Giant Triplets: Racism, Yes, But What About Militarism and Materialism?

Andrew J. Bacevich

(Tomdispatch.com) – In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, Americans are finally — or is it once again? — confronting the racism that afflicts this country and extends into just about every corner of our national life. Something fundamental just might be happening. Yet to state the obvious, we’ve been here before. […]

Democracy

War Zone America

Tomdispatch

By Andrea Mazzarino | – (Tomdispatch.com) – Recently, in this Black Lives Matter protest moment, my five-year-old son looked at me and asked, “Mommy, where did all the brown people go? Did the police here shoot them?” We’d just moved to the outskirts of a more affluent rural town from a city where my son […]

Inequality

Bailouts for Weapons Firms, Tent Cities for Vets: Covid Reveals U.S. Military Priorities

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – On May 18, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) launched a Salvation Army-like charity drive asking the public for donations of money, food, and mobile phones to help an estimated 40,000 homeless veterans during the pandemic. More than one-half of all homeless veterans are African American and Hispanic, […]

Pentagon

The Outpouring of Grief over George Floyd’s Death gave America a chance at Rebirth: Will we take it?

Nick Turse

( Tomdispatch.com) – They were relegated to the protest equivalent of a ghetto. Their assigned route shunted them to the far fringes of the city. Their demonstration was destined for an ignominious demise far from any main thoroughfare, out of sight of most apartment buildings, out of earshot of most homes, best viewed from a […]

Colonialism

All the Lies Trump told the West Point Graduates about American Militarism

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It was bad enough that Trump endangered the health of the graduating class at West Point for the purposes of a photo op for his reelection campaign by insisting on bringing them back to campus. It was bad enough that he gave an alarming performance in which some observers saw […]