Pentagon

By William D. Hartung | – (Tomdispatch.com) – I’ve been writing critiques of the Pentagon, the national security state, and America’s never-ending military overreach since at least 1979 — in other words, virtually my entire working life. In those decades, there were moments when positive changes did occur. They ranged from ending the apartheid regime […]

Climate Crisis

After the Cold War: Is the Climate Crisis the US Military’s Biggest Enemy?

Michael T. Klare

(Tomdispatch.com) – It was Monday, March 1, 2032, and the top uniformed officers of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps were poised, as they are every year around this time, to deliver their annual “posture statement” on military readiness before the Senate Armed Services Committee. As the officers waited for the committee members […]

Donald Trump

Trump Fails again to Bring our Troops Home from Mideast: Mulling Escalation of 14,000 v. Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s Pentagon is allegedly mulling sending 14,000 US troops to the Middle East to counter Iran. Although the Pentagon pushed back against the initial report, that had only said they were considering the troop escalation, and the Pentagon did not deny considering it. Trump has sent 14,000 troops to the […]

Pentagon

You Mean we’re at War in Somalia? The Hidden Costs of U.S. Airstrikes

The Conversation

By Bryce W. Reeder | The US is an active participant in the war against Al-Shabaab in Somalia, efforts that have increased in the last few years under the Trump Administration. The strategy involves using airstrikes to assist Somali ground forces in recapturing territory controlled by Al-Shabaab. In addition, there have been attempts to take […]

Climate Crisis

All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change

Michael T. Klare

(Tomdispatch.com) – The Situation Room, October 2039: the president and vice president, senior generals and admirals, key cabinet members, and other top national security officers huddle around computer screens as aides speak tokey officials across the country. Some screens are focused on Hurricane Monica, continuing its catastrophic path through the Carolinas and Virginia; others are […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Debacle in the Desert: A Post Mortem on the Kurdish-American Military Alliance (1941-2019)

Brian Glyn Williams

(Informed Comment) – An “After-Action” Report on the Kurds’ Vital Role in The Defeat of ISIS and Death of “God’s Shadow on Earth”: On October 26th US Delta Forces, acting on intelligence provided to them by their trusted Kurdish allies, launched a dangerous, long-distance heliborne raid from Iraq, across a region in northern Syria that […]

Afghanistan

What hope for a New Generation of US Troops graduating into the Forever Wars?

Danny Sjursen

(Tomdispatch.com) – Patches, pins, medals, and badges are the visible signs of an exclusive military culture, a silent language by which soldiers and officers judge each other’s experiences, accomplishments, and general worth. In July 2001, when I first walked through the gate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point at the ripe young age […]

National Security State

America: Bases, Bases, Everywhere, and Not a Base in Sight

Nick Turse

( Tomdispatch.com) – They called it Castle Black, an obvious homage to the famed frozen citadel from the HBO series Game of Thrones. In the fantasy world of GoT, it’s the stronghold of the Night’s Watch, the French Foreign Legion-esque guardians of the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. This Castle Black, however, was all […]

Donald Trump

Too Inept to end the fruitless US Forever Wars: Trump v. the National Security State

Andrew J. Bacevich

(Tomdispatch.com) – Let us stipulate at the outset that Donald Trump is a vulgar and dishonest fraud without a principled bone in his corpulent frame. Yet history is nothing if not a tale overflowing with irony. Despite his massive shortcomings, President Trump appears intent on recalibrating America’s role in the world. Initiating a long-overdue process […]