The desire to anticipate what the future holds is not new. The Delphic oracle in the eighth century BC held a prestigious and authoritative position in the Greek world, providing predictions and guidance to both city-states and individuals. In 1555, Nostradamus’ Les Propheties attracted an enthusiastic following, and even today many …
Read More »Monthly Archives: August 2021
Washington’s Hegemony Perches Over the Horizon
Far away on the frontier of the American empire, thousands of US troops remain surrounding the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. No longer is the military mission to wage war in support of Washington’s nation-building project. It’s now about helping Americans and Afghans escape the likely ire of the onset of …
Read More »Let’s Take the Profit Out of War
CEOs shouldn’t have a financial stake in the murderous mass violence of modern warfare. In the 21st century, many of us are used to the murderous mass violence of modern warfare. After all, we grew up living it or hearing about it. The 20th century rates as the deadliest in human history — …
Read More »CABLE NEWS MILITARY EXPERTS ARE ON THE DEFENSE INDUSTRY DOLE
The retired four-star general Jack Keane has been making the cable news rounds, offering scathing criticism of the White House in wake of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. On Wednesday, he appeared on Fox News, where he told host Harris Faulkner that the administration “made a terrible mistake in pulling our troops out …
Read More »Insane U.S. Plan to Spend Billions on Weaponizing Space Makes Defense Contractors Jump for Joy
Insane U.S. Plan to Spend Billions on Weaponizing Space Makes Defense Contractors Jump for Joy—But Rest of World Cowers in Horror at Prospect of New Arms Race Leading to World War III Imagine this scenario from the year 2045: The U.S. and China, after years of belligerence, go to war …
Read More »The Evil that Men Do Lives after Them
How about some accountability for Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen? If you want to know how the United States wound up with “government by stupid” one need only look no farther than some of the recent propaganda put out by members of Congress, senior military officers and a certain …
Read More »The Lessons the U.S. Will Probably Not Learn from Afghanistan
It’s not even important that wars be won but that they be eternally prepared for by buying ever-greater numbers of ever-more complex and ever-more useless weapons systems. The maudlin coverage of the U.S.’s botched exit from Afghanistan will go on for months, maybe years. It will do as much good …
Read More »America’s Merchants of Death Then — and Now
More Afghan-like tragedies will be inevitable until we squeeze the personal profit out of prepping for war. We denizens of the 21st century have become somewhat accustomed — inured might be the better word — to the murderous mass violence of modern warfare. We shouldn’t find that at all surprising. The …
Read More »The Endless Shadow of the War on Terror
Living with it forever and a day It ended in chaos and disaster. Kabul has fallen and Joe Biden is being blamed (by congressional Republicans in particular) for America’s now almost-20-year disaster in Afghanistan. But is the war on terror itself over? Apparently not. It seems like centuries ago, but do you remember …
Read More »The All-American Base World
It was the spring of 2003 during the American-led invasion of Iraq. I was in second grade, living on a U.S. military base in Germany, attending one of the Pentagon’s many schools for families of servicemen stationed abroad. One Friday morning, my class was on the verge of an uproar. Gathered around our …
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