Shut the Doors on a Disgraced Military School

Human rights activists, religious leaders, and military veterans will descend on Fort Benning, Ga. this weekend to demand the closing of a notorious military training facility that has tutored some of Latin America's most brutal soldiers and dictators.

Robert Gates: As Bad As Rumsfeld?

"As Bad As Rumsfeld?"  The title jars, doesn't it.  The more so, since Defense Secretary Robert Gates found his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, such an easy act to follow.  But the jarring part reflects how malnourished most of us are on the thin gruel served up by the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM).

Keep Secretary Gates? This Simple Test Should Decide

As the Bush administration's mass exodus gets underway, President-elect Obama is hearing from a lot of quarters that his cabinet should include one key holdover. According to this thinking, he should leave the Pentagon in the hands of its current Secretary, Robert Gates. Fortunately, the new president will have in-hand an easy way to judge whether or not this is a good idea.

A large bipartisan cohort thinks it is.

What Is NorthCom Up To?

This week and into next, NorthCom and NORAD are conducting a joint exercise called "Vigilant Shield '09."

The focus will be on "homeland defense and civil support," a NorthCom press release states.

From November 12-18, it will be testing a "synchronized response of federal, state, local and international partners in preparation for homeland defense, homeland security, and civil support missions in the United States and abroad."

Northcom, Africom and Other Threats

Why remember May 4, 1970 in October 2008?  It is the day that a clear message was sent with military might that Americans are not immune from attacks felt around the world.

The Trillion Dollar Tag Sale

Wars, bases, and money. The three are inextricably tied together.

The Grand Illusion of American Power

The other day I went to hear my favorite soldier-scholar, Andrew Bacevich, give a talk at Boston University, where he teaches. A retired colonel and Vietnam veteran, Bacevich's new book is called "The Limits of Power, The end of American Exceptionalism."

Bacevich has migrated from a conservative outlook to what might be called a neo-Niebuhrean position - his thinking being influenced by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, whom Bacevich calls "the most clear-eyed of American prophets."

'In a Way, It’s Surprising That There Aren’t More Bodies Piling up at Military Bases All Over This Nation'

The October 14, 2008 editorial in the Fayetteville, NC Observer "Our View: Military domestic violence needs more aggressive prevention. http://fayobserver.com/article?id=307304) focused on the murder of four military women in North Carolina and contained a startling comment: "In a way, it's surprising that there aren't more bodies piling up at military bases all over this nation."   The Observer is the newspaper that serves Fort Bragg, one of the military's largest bases.