Pentagon

By Andrew J. Bacevich | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – First came Fallujah, then Mosul, and later Ramadi in Iraq. Now, there is Kunduz, a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan. In all four places, the same story has played out: in cities that newspaper reporters like to call “strategically important,” security forces trained and […]

National Security State

How Henry Kissinger created a world of bad guys Armed to the Teeth

contributors

By Greg Grandin | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – The only person Henry Kissinger flattered more than President Richard Nixon was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. In the early 1970s, the Shah, sitting atop an enormous reserve of increasingly expensive oil and a key figure in Nixon and Kissinger’s move into the Middle […]

al-Qaeda

US-trained Syria rebels gave weapons to al-Qaeda Pentagon confirms

contributors

RT | – – “The U.S. military has revealed that American -trained Syrian rebels surrendered equipment to an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in exchange for safe passage. They handed over pick-up trucks and ammunition. A spokesman for the military described the move as “very concerning”. ” RT: “US-trained Syria rebels gave weapons to al-Nusra Islamists, […]

National Security State

Why are U.S. Special Ops Forces Deployed in 135 Nations?

contributors

By Nick Turse | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – You can find them in dusty, sunbaked badlands, moist tropical forests, and the salty spray of third-world littorals. Standing in judgement, buffeted by the rotor wash of a helicopter or sweltering beneath the relentless desert sun, they instruct, yell, and cajole as skinnier men playact under their […]

Pentagon

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, PTSD and the Psychology of War

contributors

By Arnold Oliver | (Informed Comment) | – – More than five years ago a soldier named Bowe Bergdahl left his U.S. Army unit in Afghanistan. He was captured, imprisoned in brutal conditions for five years, and finally released in a prisoner exchange in 2014. The Army is now considering whether he should be court-martialed […]

Bush

How Bush/Cheney’s War Plans delayed an Iran Deal for a Decade

contributors

By Farhang Jahanpour | (Inter Press Service) | – – OXFORD (IPS) – When negotiations between Iran and the European “Troika” broke down, the reformist government of Mohammad Khatami was discredited in the eyes of the Iranian electorate which had seen the futility of negotiating with the West. Despite Iran’s support for the U.S. invasion […]

Democratic Party

Clinton Calls For Tougher Response To Russia On Syria, Ukraine

contributors

By RFE/RL | – – WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state who is now a leading contender to be the next president, has called for a stronger response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine and Syria, saying Moscow’s objectives were “to stymie, to confront, and to undermine American power whenever and wherever.” […]

Militarization

How the Sept. 11 Attacks Changed American Lives Forever

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.org) | – – Fourteen years later and do you even believe it? Did we actually live it? Are we still living it? And how improbable is that? Fourteen years of wars, interventions, assassinations, torture, kidnappings, black sites, the growth of the American national security state to monumental proportions, and […]

Foreign Policy

Why Dick Cheney is just as wrong about Iran as he was about Iraq

contributors

By William Beeman | (Informed Comment) | – – There are so many lies in Dick Cheney’s address to the AEI that one hardly knows where to begin in refuting them. He claims that the “international community” has called for the complete cessation of uranium enrichment by Iran. The “international community” apparently consists of Israel […]