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William J. Astore

Pentagon
Daring Look a Sacred Cow in the Teeth: Military Spending and National (in)Security

Daring Look a Sacred Cow in the Teeth: Military Spending and National (in)Security

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In an age when American presidents routinely boast of having the world’s finest military, where nearly trillion-dollar war budgets are now a new version of routine, let me bring up one vitally important but seldom mentioned fact: making major cuts to military spending would increase U.S. national security. Why? Because real national […]

Counter-Terrorism
Bombing Muslims for Peace: Isn't It Time to Put Our Toy Soldiers Away (Along with Our Illusions)?

Bombing Muslims for Peace: Isn’t It Time to Put Our Toy Soldiers Away (Along with Our Illusions)?

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Like many American boys of the baby-boomer generation, I played “war” with those old, olive-drab, plastic toy soldiers meant to evoke our great victory over the Nazis and “the Japs” during World War II. At age 10, I also kept a scrapbook of the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and […]

Arms Sales
Weapons R US: Confessions of a Recovering Arms Addict

Weapons R US: Confessions of a Recovering Arms Addict

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Perhaps you’ve heard of “Makin’ Thunderbirds,” a hard-bitten rock & roll song by Bob Seger that I listened to 30 years ago while in college. It’s about auto workers back in 1955 who were “young and proud” to be making Ford Thunderbirds. But in the early 1980s, Seger sings, “the plants […]

National Security State
What would real National Defense Look Like?  Maxims for a Very Different Pentagon

What would real National Defense Look Like? Maxims for a Very Different Pentagon

William J. Astore

( Middle East Monitor ) – A progressive Pentagon? Talk about an oxymoron! The Pentagon continues to grow and surge with ever larger budgets, ever more expansive missions (for example, a Space Force to dominate the heavens and yet more bases in the Pacific to encircle China), and ever greater ambitions to dominate everywhere, including […]

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 […]

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