War

By Frank Ledwidge, University of Portsmouth | – There will be no peace deals, no ceasefires and no surrenders in Ukraine. The next two months will bring what US defence officials have called “a knife fight” in the area the Ukrainian army call “The Joint Forces Operation” (JFO). We know this region better as Donbas. […]

Climate Crisis

Don’t Let War Hawks use Putin to Shift our Gaze from Our Huge Social Problems, from Racism to Climate

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com ) – I recently participated in a commemoration of Martin Luther King’s address “Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence,” originally delivered on April 2, 1967, at New York City’s Riverside Church. King used the occasion to announce his opposition to the ongoing war in Vietnam. Although a long time coming in […]

Cold War

I may have failed as a Tax Resister, but Corporate America is Hugely Successful at it

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com) – Every April, as income-tax returns come due, I think about the day 30 years ago when I opened my rented mailbox and saw a business card resting inside. Its first line read, innocently enough, “United States Treasury.” It was the second line — “Internal Revenue Service” — that took my breath away. […]

Displaced and Refugees

US Assistance to Saudi-Led Coalition Risks Complicity in War Crimes

Human Rights Watch

By Afrah Nasser Yemen Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division | – ( Human Rights Watch) – The protracted conflict in Yemen has killed almost a quarter of a million people directly or indirectly due to inadequate food, health care, and infrastructure. It has included unlawful attack after unlawful attack, with homes, hospitals, schools, […]

Russia

My Grandfather Fled Ukraine 140 Years Ago, Now it is an Icon of Our long History of War

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – Excuse me if I wander a little today — and if it bothers you, don’t blame me, blame Vladimir Putin. After all, I didn’t decide to invade Ukraine, the place my grandfather fled almost 140 years ago. I suspect, in fact, that I was an adult before I even knew such a […]

Inequality

It Goes up but Never Comes Down: What Would It Take to Reduce US Military Spending?

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com) – I have a question for you: What would it take in today’s world for America’s military spending to go down? Here’s one admittedly farfetched scenario: Vladimir Putin loses his grip on power and Russia retrenches militarily while reaching out to normalize relations with the West. At the same time, China prudently decides […]

Russia

Ukraine: are reports of Russian troops mutinying and deserting true? It’s happened before

The Conversation

By Natasha Lindstaedt, University of Essex | – Reports have emerged in recent days that Russian troops in Ukraine, stalled in their advance and suffering numerous military setbacks, have sabotaged their own equipment, refused to fight and carry out orders, and even, in one report, run over their own commander. Nato estimates that as many […]

Climate Crisis

The Five Horsemen of Today’s Apocalypse

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Once upon a time, the tutelary gods of nationalism and internationalism met for a chat. They had a superb perch above the clouds. From there, they could see everything happening on the Earth below and they set to arguing, as they so often did. Sophia, the goddess of internationalism, began by […]

Bush

US Deplores Russia’s ‘Shock and Awe’ against Ukraine, but Found its own Against Iraq “Spectacular”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The scenes of the horrible destruction that Russia is inflicting on Ukraine’s civilian cities, from Kharkiv to Mariupol, and the killing of nearly 1,000 civilians, including nearly 100 children, have tugged at the world’s heart strings — and rightly so. Nineteen years ago, when the George W. Bush regime unleashed […]