War

( Tomdispatch.com) – “All Americans owe them a debt for — if nothing else — releasing the idealism locked so long inside a nation that has not recently tasted the drama of a social upheaval. And for making us look on the young people of the country with a new respect.” That’s how Howard Zinn […]

Environment

How Israel Killed Gaza’s Environment and Created an Unlivable Hellscape

Joshua Frank

By Joshua Frank | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – On a picturesque beach in central Gaza, a mile north of the now-flattened Al-Shati refugee camp, long black pipes snake through hills of white sand before disappearing underground. An image released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shows dozens of soldiers laying pipelines and what appear […]

Climate Crisis

Double Threat: Nukes and Climate Change in 2024

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) — Honestly, what strange creatures we are. Nothing stops us when it comes to destruction, does it? (And I’m not even thinking about the utter, ongoing devastation of Gaza.) I mean, give us credit as the new year begins. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about humanity isn’t our literature, our theater, our […]

Guns

Dear President Biden: About your Record on Guns, Arms, and Belligerence

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden Dear Joe, I would wish you a Happy New Year; but it seems trite and banal, given all the challenges and troubles you and our country face in 2024 – some inherited from previous administrations, others of your own making. Americans are 10 times more […]

Lebanon

5 Budding Wars we hope the World can Avoid in 2024

The Conversation

By Jessica Genauer, Flinders University | – (The Conversation) – Sadly, 2023 has been a violent one on the global stage. War broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, leading to the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis, including many children on both sides. And the bitter war between Russia and […]

Houthi

Gaza Crisis: US-Led Taskforce deploys in Red Sea and Considers Strikes on Yemen

The Conversation

By Basil Germond, Lancaster University | – The US is reportedly considering strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen that have been menacing commercial ships in the Red Sea since the conflict began in Gaza. The Pentagon has a range of options for missile attacks on Houthi positions and has moved the Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier […]

China

The US and China at Year’s End: Still Treading on the Precipice

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com) – This hasn’t exactly been a year of good news when it comes to our war-torn, beleaguered planet, but on November 15th, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping took one small step back from the precipice. Until they talked in a mansion near San Francisco, it seemed as if their […]

nuclear weapons

The Doomsday Machine is Still On: Nothing Can Be Changed until it is Faced

Tomdispatch

By Norman Solomon | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Top American officials in the “national security” establishment are notably good at smooth rhetoric and convenient silences. Their scant regard for truth or human life has changed remarkably little since 1971 when Daniel Ellsberg risked decades in prison to leak the Pentagon Papers to the world. During the […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel’s War on Gaza shouldn’t be America’s War

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com ) – One way of understanding the ongoing bloodbath pitting Israel against Hamas is to see it as just the latest chapter in an existential struggle dating back to the founding of the Jewish state in 1948. While the appalling scope, destructiveness, and duration of the fighting in Gaza may outstrip previous episodes, this […]