War

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has resulted in the deaths so far of more than 8,700 Ukrainian civilians, including more than 500 children. It has caused a massive drop in the country’s economic output, with GDP declining by 29.1 percent. And it has had widespread consequences for the […]

US Foreign Policy

The Wars we don’t (Care to) See: Aggression Made Easy

Tomdispatch

By David Barsamian and Norman Solomon ( Tomdispatch.com ) – [The following is excerpted and adapted from David Barsamian’s recent interview with Norman Solomon at AlternativeRadio.org.] David Barsamian: American Justice Robert Jackson was the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. He made an opening statement to the Tribunal on November 21, 1945, because there was […]

Featured

On Memorial Day, We’re Finally not in a Shooting War, but if We’re not Careful We could Fall into One

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Memorial Day, the United States is not in a significant shooting war. It seems to me that the best way to honor our more than 1.1 million war dead is to work to keep it that way. Memorial Day should be not a paean to war but a solemn […]

Afghanistan

The Water Wars Begin: Did Climate Change contribute to Saturday’s Deadly Iran-Afghan Border Clash over Helmand River?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reports that on Saturday deadly clashes broke out between Iranian border guards in the Zabul district of Sistan and Baluchistant Province and their opposite numbers on the Afghanistan side in the Keng District of Nimruz Province. Tasnim wrote, “Conscript “Mehdi Ahmadi” was martyred while guarding the […]

Sudan

Sudan Conflict: Why a Humanitarian Truce is Proving so hard to Secure – and What that means for People on the Ground

The Conversation

By Nonhlanhla Dube, Lancaster University | – Reports out of Sudan of continuing violence suggest that the seven-day ceasefire organised during talks in Jeddah – the seventh attempt to end the violence in Sudan – is crumbling. A fighter plane was shot down over Khartoum on May 24 and residents report intense fighting breaking out […]

National Security State

The Privatization of War, American-Style

Andrea Mazzarino

( Tomdispatch.com ) – The way mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his private army have been waging a significant part of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has been well covered in the American media, not least of all because his firm, the Wagner Group, draws most of its men from Russia’s prison system. Wagner offers […]

National Security State

Are the Best Years of My Country Behind Me? Reflections on a Long-Ago Tour of Los Alamos and the Trinity Atomic Test Site

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com) – I turn 60 this year. My health is generally good, though I have aches and pains from a form of arthritis. I’m not optimistic enough to believe that the best years of my life are ahead of me, nor so pessimistic as to assume that the best years are behind me. But […]

Africa

Sudan: the longer the Conflict Lasts, the higher the Risk of a regional War

The Conversation

By May Darwich, University of Birmingham | – The 2019 Sudan uprisings that ousted long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir and installed a military-civilian transitional government gave hope that the northern African country could finally transition to democratic rule. The country has been ruled by the military for most of its independence since 1956. But Sudan’s bumpy […]

Arms Sales

This is not Your Grandfather’s Military-Industrial Complex: Unwarranted Influence

Tomdispatch

By Ben Freeman and William D. Hartung ( Tomdispatch.com ) – The military-industrial complex (MIC) that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned Americans about more than 60 years ago is still alive and well. In fact, it’s consuming many more tax dollars and feeding far larger weapons producers than when Ike raised the alarm about the […]