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William J. Astore

William J. Astore , a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), has taught at the Air Force Academy, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the Pennsylvania College of Technology. His personal blog is BracingViews.com. He can be reached at wjastore@gmail.com.

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Arms Sales
America’s Perpetual Wars you Aren’t Supposed to Notice

America’s Perpetual Wars you Aren’t Supposed to Notice

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In his message to the troops prior to the July 4th weekend, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin offered high praise indeed. “We have the greatest fighting force in human history,” he tweeted, connecting that claim to the U.S. having patriots of all colors, creeds, and backgrounds “who bravely volunteer to defend […]

Arms Sales
An Iron Curtain Has Descended on America

An Iron Curtain Has Descended on America

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Decline. It’s a word that hasn’t been much in the American vocabulary, though, as retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, historian, and TomDispatch regular William Astore suggests today, it certainly should have been. In fact, you could argue that we’re talking about 30-plus years of all-American decline, during much of which, after […]

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

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 […]

Congress
A Highway to Peace or a Highway to Hell?  The Vast Power of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex

A Highway to Peace or a Highway to Hell? The Vast Power of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com) – In April 1953, newly elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a retired five-star Army general who had led the landings on D-Day in France in June 1944, gave his most powerful speech. It would become known as his “Cross of Iron” address. In it, Ike warned of the cost humanity would pay if Cold […]

National Security State
Can the Military-Industrial Complex Be Tamed?  Cutting the Pentagon Budget in Half Would Finally Force the Generals to Think

Can the Military-Industrial Complex Be Tamed? Cutting the Pentagon Budget in Half Would Finally Force the Generals to Think

William J. Astore

By William J. Astore | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – My name is Bill Astore and I’m a card-carrying member of the military-industrial complex (MIC). Sure, I hung up my military uniform for the last time in 2005. Since 2007, I’ve been writing articles for TomDispatch focused largely on critiquing that same MIC and America’s […]

Pentagon
Why does the Pentagon Budget Really Keep Growing? When Democracies Pursue Imperial Dominance it doesn’t End Well

Why does the Pentagon Budget Really Keep Growing? When Democracies Pursue Imperial Dominance it doesn’t End Well

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com) – Imagine this scenario for a moment: a “great power” watches another major power fight a war in a nearby nation for 10 years before its army limps home defeated and, not so very long after, that country implodes. A little over a decade later, by then unofficially the “last superpower” on planet […]

nuclear weapons
The Madness of Nuclear Warfare, Alive and Well in America

The Madness of Nuclear Warfare, Alive and Well in America

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com) – Hey, cheer up because it truly is a beauty! I’m talking about this country’s latest “stealth bomber,” the B-21 Raider, just revealed by Northrop Grumman, the company that makes it, in all its glory. With its striking bat-winged shape and its ability to deliver a very big bang (as in nuclear weapons), […]

Pentagon
Lie all you can Lie:  Dishonesty Plagues America’s War Machine

Lie all you can Lie: Dishonesty Plagues America’s War Machine

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – As a military professor for six years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in the 1990s, I often walked past the honor code prominently displayed for all cadets to see. Its message was simple and clear: they were not to tolerate lying, cheating, stealing, or similar dishonorable acts. Yet that’s exactly […]

Conspiracy Theories
Afraid of *Everything* – The Paranoid Nature of American Foreign and Domestic Policy

Afraid of *Everything* – The Paranoid Nature of American Foreign and Domestic Policy

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – I have a brother with chronic schizophrenia. He had his first severe catatonic episode when he was 16 years old and I was 10. Later, he suffered from auditory hallucinations and heard voices saying nasty things to him. I remember my father reassuring him that the voices weren’t real and asking […]

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