Pentagon

By Danny Sjursen | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – We walked in a single file. Not because it was tactically sound. It wasn’t — at least according to standard infantry doctrine. Patrolling southern Afghanistan in column formation limited maneuverability, made it difficult to mass fire, and exposed us to enfilading machine-gun bursts. Still, in 2011, […]

Donald Trump

America’s Special Ops Perpetual World War

contributors

Nick Turse | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – The tabs on their shoulders read “Special Forces,” “Ranger,” “Airborne.” And soon their guidon — the “colors” of Company B, 3rd Battalion of the U.S. Army’s 7th Special Forces Group — would be adorned with the “Bandera de Guerra,” a Colombian combat decoration. “Today we commemorate […]

Bashar al-Assad

Russo-US dog fights over Syria?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Yara Bayoumi at Reuters reports on the complicated minuet being danced by Russia, the Syrian Air Force, and the United States. The Syrian Air Force was bombing positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US euphemism for the leftist Kurds of the YPG. The US Air […]

Arms Sales

Mattis overrules Trump on Qatari “terrorism,” sells it $12 bn in F-15s

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis defied his boss Donald Trump on Wednesday and inked a deal with the Qatar government to sell it $12 billion in F-15 fighter jets. Qatar hosts a US air base, al-Udeid, where some 11,000 US military personnel are based, and from […]

Iran

The Mystery of Washington’s Iran Derangement Syndrome

contributors

By Danny Sjursen | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – “Everywhere you look, if there is trouble in the region,” Secretary of Defense James Mattis told reporters on a mid-April visit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, “you find Iran.” I must admit that when I stumbled across that quote it brought up uncomfortable personal memories. East Baghdad, […]

Authoritarianism

Should the Pentagon be Propping up Dictatorships around the World?

Juan Cole

By David Vine | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – Much outrage has been expressed in recent weeks over President Donald Trump’s invitation for a White House visit to Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, whose “war on drugs” has led to thousands of extrajudicial killings. Criticism of Trump was especially intense given his similarly […]

Afghanistan

How America’s Myth of the Infallible Generals gets us in Trouble

contributors

By Danny Sjursen | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – More, more, more. I was guilty of it myself. Commanding a small cavalry troop of about 85 soldiers in southwest Kandahar Province back in 2011, I certainly wanted and requested more: more troopers, more Special Forces advisers, more Afghan police, more air support, more supplies, more […]

Militarization

How Many Defeats have Americans bought with $5 Trillion in War Costs?

contributors

By William D. Hartung | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – When Donald Trump wanted to “do something” about the use of chemical weapons on civilians in Syria, he had the U.S. Navy lob 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield (cost: $89 million). The strike was symbolic at best, as the Assad regime ran bombing […]

Donald Trump

End the Imperial Presidency: Do we Really Want Trump Assassinating and Launching Wars at Will?

contributors

By Andrew Bacevich | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Since the late eighteenth century, the United States has been involved in an almost ceaseless string of wars, interventions, punitive expeditions, and other types of military ventures abroad — from fighting the British and Mexicans to the Filipinos and Koreans to the Vietnamese and Laotians to […]