Pentagon

By William J. Astore | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – The word “affluenza” is much in vogue. Lately, it’s been linked to a Texas teenager, Ethan Couch, who in 2013 killed four people in a car accident while driving drunk. During the trial, a defense witness argued that Couch should not be held responsible for […]

Militarization

After 14 Years it sinks in: Maybe US is just not Good at Asian Counter-Insurgency

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – Here’s my twenty-first-century rule of thumb about this country: if you have to say it over and over, it probably ain’t so. Which is why I’d think twice every time we’re told how “exceptional” or “indispensable” the United States is. For someone like me who can still […]

Foreign Policy

Pentagon, running out of Smart Bombs, will Double anti-ISIL Budget

contributors

TeleSur | – – Despite the deep social and economic issues President Barack Obama is confronted with, military expenditure was conceived as a priority. The Pentagon plans to spend four more times in [Europe] defense in 2017 than in 2016 in order to have sufficient military capability to support to its European NATO allies, the […]

Featured

Rhetorical Terror: GOP Candidates Pledge War Crimes, Carpet-Bombing, Asian Land Wars

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – At the Trumpless GOP debate Thursday evening, the candidates once again promised to bankrupt us with military and intelligence spending and to commit vast war crimes with reckless disregard for the lives of women, children and non-combatant men, of the sort not openly plotted since the […]

Democratic Party

6 National Security Questions the Establishment Candidates don’t want to Answer

contributors

By Andrew J. Bacevich | ( Tomdispatch.com To judge by the early returns, the presidential race of 2016 is shaping up as the most disheartening in recent memory. Other than as a form of low entertainment, the speeches, debates, campaign events, and slick TV ads already inundating the public sphere offer little of value. Rather […]

Foreign Policy

‘We had to destroy the Country to save it, Sir!’ The US Imperial Treadmill in Iraq etc.

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com) One of the charms of the future is its powerful element of unpredictability, its ability to ambush us in lovely ways or bite us unexpectedly in the ass. Most of the futures I imagined as a boy have, for instance, come up deeply short, or else I would now […]

Foreign Policy

The Collapsed Iraqi Army: How to Succeed at Failing, Pentagon-Style

contributors

By Nick Turse | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – There’s good news coming out of Iraq… again. The efforts of a 65-nation coalition and punishing U.S. airstrikes have helped local ground forces roll back gains by the [so-called] Islamic State [group] (IS). Government forces and Shiite militias, for example, recaptured the city of Tikrit, while […]

Foreign Policy

A radical solution to Daesh/ ISIL: Stop Intervening in the Middle East

contributors

Peter Van Buren | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – How can we stop the [so-called] Islamic State [group]? Imagine yourself shaken awake, rushed off to a strategy meeting with your presidential candidate of choice, and told: “Come up with a plan for me to do something about ISIS!” What would you say? What Hasn’t Worked You’d […]

Pentagon

How We Learned to Stop Worrying About People and Love the Bombing

contributors

By Rick Shenkman | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – After Senator Ted Cruz suggested that the United States begin carpet bombing Islamic State (IS) forces in Syria, the reaction was swift. Hillary Clinton mocked candidates who use “bluster and bigotry.” Jeb Bush insisted the idea was “foolish.” Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, tweeted: “You […]