Pentagon

By William J. Astore | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – When it comes to the “world’s greatest military,” the news has been shocking. Two fast U.S. Navy ships colliding with slow-moving commercial vessels with tragic loss of life. An Air Force that has been in the air continuously for years and yet doesn’t have enough […]

Desertification

On 9/11: How we slighted the real Threat, Climate Change, and Hyped Terrorism

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The US is commemorating the victims of September 11 today at the same time it is mourning the serial devastation that struck Texas and Florida. Both are key moments in our history. The problem is that we over-did our response to 9/11 and have ignored the […]

Pentagon

Space Wars: The Pentagon Wants Trillions for High Tech

contributors

But they haven’t won any wars down here recently By Alfred W. McCoy | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – [This piece has been adapted and expanded from Alfred W. McCoy’s new book, In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power.] Not quite a century ago, on January 7, […]

Donald Trump

What are American Soldiers really still dying for in the Mideast?

contributors

By Danny Sjursen | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – I used to command soldiers. Over the years, lots of them actually. In Iraq, Colorado, Afghanistan, and Kansas. And I’m still fixated on a few of them like this one private first class (PFC) in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2011. All of 18, he was short, scrawny, […]

Donald Trump

The only Winners around Trump are the People who messed up the Mideast

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – It was bloody and brutal, a true generational struggle, but give them credit. In the end, they won when so many lost. James Comey was axed. Sean Spicer went down in a heap of ashes. Anthony Scaramucci crashed and burned instantaneously. Reince Priebus hung on for […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Pentagon Admits it Low-Balled Public on Troop Levels

contributors

TeleSur | – – The news comes prior to a boost in U.S. forces as part of Trump’s “new approach” to quelling the Afghan insurgency. In a rare step toward transparency, the Pentagon has revealed that about 11,000 U.S. troops are currently fighting in the 16-year-long war in Afghanistan, nearly a quarter more than the […]

Displaced and Refugees

20,000 Civilians Trapped in besieged ISIL capital: “The Worst Place on Earth”

Juan Cole

By Roshni Majumdar | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS, Aug 28 2017 (IPS) – The battle to reclaim Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL/Da’esh), has raised concerns among top UN officials as at least 20,000 civilians remain trapped under heavy fire in the city. […]

Afghanistan

US Prepares for More Airstrikes in Afghanistan

contributors

TeleSur | – – The number of U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan has already dramatically spiked since Trump took office in January. Fighter pilots at the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan are preparing for more air attacks after President Donald Trump announced his plans for a new war strategy last week. After a months-long review […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is now officially James Mattis’ war

contributors

By Simon Reich | (The Conversation) | – – Donald Trump’s speech on his administration’s strategy in Afghanistan – in which he announced the introduction of an unspecified number of new combat troops, without a mission and without a specified end date, in a strategy that abandoned nation building but entailed war-fighting – clearly contravened […]