National Security State

( Code Pink) – At Bagram air-base, Afghan scrap merchants are already picking through the graveyard of U.S. military equipment that was until recently the headquarters of America’s 20-year occupation of their country. Afghan officials say the last U.S. forces slipped away from Bagram in the dead of night, without notice or coordination. The Taliban […]

Militarization

The other Big Lie undermining Democracy: Why our Recent Wars Began, and how Badly they were Bungled

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com) – Americans may already be lying themselves out of what little remains of their democracy. The big lie uniting and motivating today’s Republicans is, of course, that Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, won the 2020 presidential election. Other big lies in our recent past include the notion that climate change is nothing but […]

Arab World

Biden wants to end America’s 20-Year War on the Middle East: But Can He?

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Walden Bello | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Next September, when the last C-130 cargo aircraft and Chinook transport helicopters take off from the infamous Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan that has doubled as a CIA torture center for suspected jihadists, they will not only be leaving behind the site […]

Joe Biden

President Biden can’t Build America Back better until he Takes on the Permanent War Establishment

Juan Cole

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Is President Biden afflicted with the political equivalent of a split personality? His first several months in office suggest just that possibility. On the home front, the president’s inclination is clearly to Go Big. When it comes to America’s role in the world, however, Biden largely hews to pre-Trumpian precedent. So […]

Featured

Colonial Pipeline Failure Shows Electric Cars and Solar Panels are Key to US Security; How Petroleum Uncertainty Fueled World Wars

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Colonial pipeline hack has interrupted gasoline supplies brought from Texas to the Southeast. People are hoarding, and long gasoline lines are forming reminiscent of the 1970s, and some gas stations are closing for lack of supplies. The problems are likely temporary. Colonial was targeted by a ransom-ware attack, wherein […]

Joe Biden

Why the Pentagon Budget Never Goes Down: Joe Biden’s First 100 Days Were a Pentagon Prize

Tomdispatch

By Mandy Smithberger | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – The first 100 days of President Joe Biden’s administration have come and gone. While somewhat exaggerated, that milestone is normally considered the honeymoon period for any new president. Buoyed by a recent election triumph and inauguration, he’s expected to be at the peak of his power when […]

Militarization

Endless War Is A Feature of Our National Programming: On Pulling the Plug on the War Machine

William J. Astore

By William Astore | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – I know, I know: President Joe Biden has announced that our combat troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by 9/11 of this year, marking the 20th anniversary of the colossal failure of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to defend America. Of course, that other 9/11 […]

Militarization

No, getting out of Afghanistan doesn’t end America’s Forever Wars: A Lifetime “at War”

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) Here’s the strange thing in an ever-stranger world: I was born in July 1944 in the midst of a devastating world war. That war ended in August 1945 with the atomic obliteration of two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by the most devastating bombs in history up to that moment, given the […]

Afghanistan

The Graveyard of Empires Redux: America’s Ruinous Pursuit of Mission Impossible in Afghanistan

Rajan Menon

By Rajan Menon | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – On May 1st, the date Donald Trump signed onto for the withdrawal of the remaining 3,500 American troops from Afghanistan, the war there, already 19 years old, was still officially a teenager. Think of September 11, 2021 — the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and […]