Pentagon

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – I recently dug my mother’s childhood photo album out of the depths of my bedroom closet. When I opened it, I found that the glue she had used as a girl to paste her life in place had given way, and on many pages the photos […]

Militarization

Has the US Military become a B Movie Alien for the rest of the World?

contributors

By William J. Astore | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – Perhaps you’ve heard the expression: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Cartoonist Walt Kelly’s famed possum, Pogo, first uttered that cry. In light of alien disaster movies like the recent sequel Independence Day: Resurgence and America’s disastrous wars of the twenty-first […]

Foreign Policy

A new American Century or a Century of Wars and Refugees?

Juan Cole

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – Vladimir Putin recently manned up and admitted it. The United States remains the planet’s sole superpower, as it has been since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. “America,” the Russian president said, “is a great power. Today, probably, the only superpower. We accept that.” Think […]

Counter-Terrorism

Is Bombing Fallujah into Rubble from the air really a Winning Strategy?

contributors

By William J. Astore | (Via Tomdispatch.com ) | – – In the era of the long war on terror, Thursday, June 2nd, 2016, was a tough day for the U.S. military. Two modern jet fighters, a Navy F-18 Hornet and an Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon, flown by two of America’s most capable pilots, […]

Militarization

The over-teched over-priced Weapons that Ate the Pentagon

contributors

By Andrew Cockburn | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – These days, lamenting the apparently aimless character of Washington’s military operations in the Greater Middle East has become conventional wisdom among administration critics of every sort. Senator John McCain thunders that “this president has no strategy to successfully reverse the tide of slaughter and mayhem” in […]

Militarization

The Iraq War isn’t Over; it is waged here, in our Hospitals every Day

contributors

By Mark Wilkerson | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – Memorial Day is over. You had your barbeque. Now, you can stop thinking about America’s wars and the casualties from them for another year. As for me, I only wish it were so. It’s been Memorial Day for me ever since I first met Tomas […]

Foreign Policy

Multi-Trillion Dollar Bridge to Nowhere in the Greater Middle East

contributors

By Andrew J. Bacevich | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – We have it on highest authority: the recent killing of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan marks “an important milestone.” So the president of the United States has declared, with that claim duly echoed and implicitly endorsed […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

In Fight against ISIL, does US have to Choose between Turkey & YPG Kurds?

contributors

By James Miller | ( RFE/ RL ) The fight against extremists from the Islamic State (IS) militant group is heating up on two fronts. Since May 23, a coalition consisting of the Iraqi army and primarily Shi'ite militias, backed by U.S. air strikes, has advanced towards Fallujah, 40 kilometers west of Baghdad. There are […]

National Security State

The Pentagon’s War on Accountability: At $600 Bn a Year, Why aren’t any Wars being Won?

contributors

By William D. Hartung | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – Now you see it, now you don’t. Think of it as the Department of Defense’s version of the street con game, three-card monte, or maybe simply as the Pentagon shuffle. In any case, the Pentagon’s budget is as close to a work of art as you’re […]