To call the Pentagon’s massive and escalating budget a “defense” budget is nothing less than internalized corruption of language that undermines our capacities to think clearly and talk straight It’s bad enough that mainstream news outlets routinely call the Pentagon budget a “defense” budget. But the fact that progressives in Congress …

In an era of global surveillance capitalism, the rich can flit around the world with their vast fortunes while the rest of us are forever trapped by borders. Perhaps more than anything else, the Pandora Papers—the tranche of documents published Sunday night, which reveal the secret wealth of the world’s rich and powerful—tell …

President Joe Biden did what his three predecessors could or would not: halt a seemingly endless war. It took two decades, but American troops no longer are fighting in Afghanistan. An important aspect of the US withdrawal was closing Washington’s bases, which once spread across the country. Uncle Sam left …

In hundreds of films and TV shows, every single word and image has been closely scrutinized and signed off on by senior military figures, all in an effort to convince viewers into supporting deadly and grossly immoral campaigns around the world. HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA — The (official) 20-year U.S. occupation of …

The United States cannot afford to maintain a war economy. Such a hyper-militarized economy is inciting dangerous tensions between nuclear powers, as well as eroding the very material foundations of American society. Food hunger in the United States has reached shocking levels with new figures showing that some 60 million Americans are …

The bad news stemming from the ill-planned and ill-managed U.S. evacuation of the Afghan capital just kept coming in. The Washington Post put it this way in blowing the whistle on the culminating disaster: “U.S. military admits ‘horrible mistake’ in Kabul drone strike that killed 10 Afghans.” Following the August 26th terrorist attack outside …

Over the past weeks, multiple crises have merged: a crisis of democracy with the most significant attack on voting rights since Reconstruction; a climate crisis with lives and livelihoods upended in the Gulf Coast and the Northeast by extreme weather events and in the West by a stunning fire season; and an economic crisis in …

Citizens around the world are calling on their governments to ratify the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty—and the United States has a leading role to play. Sunday marked the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. This 8th year commemorating the day was declared by the United Nations as a …

Chris Hedges: The political and economic disempowerment that is the consequence of oligarchy infantilizes a population. The competing systems of power are divided between alternatives which widen the social and political divide—and increase potential for violent conflict. The competing systems of power in the United States are divided between oligarchy and …

After half a century studying the issue, here’s lesson number one: Wars are bad and empire is folly. For over 50 years I have been writing about foreign policy—mostly America’s, but those of other nations as well. I think I have a pretty good grasp of places like Turkey, China, …