Militarism

The AfPak Train Wreck

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:10:57 -0500

by Conn Hallinan

When President Barack Obama laid out his plan for winning the war in Afghanistan, behind him stood an army of ghosts: Greeks, Mongols, Buddhists, British, and Russians, all whom had almost the same illusions as the current resident of the Oval Office about Central Asia. The first four armies are dust. But there are Russian survivors of the 1979-89 war that ended up killing 15,000 Soviets and hundreds of thousands of Afghans as well as virtually wrecking Moscow's economy.

Escalating Afghan War Mocks Hopes of Peace, Good Will

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:27:04 -0500

by Caroline Arnold

"Each time history repeats itself, the price goes up." "Why do the nations so furiously rage together, and why do the people imagine a vain thing?"
"As a species, we're doomed by hope, then?"

Living in Shock and Infamy, Years Later

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:39:32 -0500

by James Carroll

When the waves of Japanese dive bombers flew in on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the good news was that the US Navy had previously sent its Pacific fleet aircraft carriers out to sea. Otherwise, they would have been sunk or damaged at their moorings as the fleet's battleships were. It was those surviving carriers that turned the tables on Japan little more than a half-year later at the Battle of Midway.

Obama’s First Nine Months: Change We Can Believe In?

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:08:59 -0500

by Gary Olson

In the 2009 film The Messenger, we follow two officers from the Casualty Notification Office from Fort Dix, New Jersey as they knock on doors to inform relatives of loved ones recently killed in action in Iraq. These scenes are almost unbearable to watch as we witness the reactions to this heartbreaking news. It struck me that these emotionally affecting scenes on screen are as as close as most of us get to the grim reality of war.

US Navy Plots Arctic Push

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:14:32 -0500

by Ian MacLeod

The U.S. navy is planning a massive push into the Arctic to defend national security, potential undersea riches and other maritime interests.

An "Arctic roadmap" by the Department of the Navy details a five-year strategic plan to expand fleet operations into the North in anticipation that the frozen Arctic Ocean will be open water in summer by 2030.

America Owned by Its Army

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:35:16 -0500

by William Pfaff

It is possible that the creation of an all-professional American army was the most dangerous decision ever taken by Congress. The nation now confronts a political crisis in which the issue has become an undeclared contest between Pentagon power and that of a newly elected president.

Escalating Afghanistan: What Did You Do in the Class War, Daddy?

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:36:27 -0400

by Peter Laarman

Thirty-four years ago this month the young James Fallows published (in the Washington Monthly) what still remains a definitive article about the class divide in times of war—“What Did You Do in the Class War, Daddy?” I still have a yellowed original copy somewhere. Fallows was writing about the sickening reality that as a Harvard student he, like so many other Ivy Leaguers, could quite easily avoid fighting in Vietnam. They had the ways and means to avoid military service: exemptions, deferments, lawyers, connections.

War Is a Hate Crime

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:16:03 -0400

by Chris Hedges

Violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is wrong. So is violence against people in Afghanistan and Iraq. But in the bizarre culture of identity politics, there are no alliances among the oppressed. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr.

US Workers Starved Into Service

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:24:49 -0400

by Sandy LeonVest

It was only a matter of time before the nation’s skyrocketing unemployment translated into new recruits for the most powerful military force in the world.

With the official US unemployment rate at 10 percent and climbing (that’s more than 15 million people struggling to put food on the table) and nearly double that number if you include part-time wage-earners who need full-time jobs, never mind all of those ‘discouraged workers,’ it’s little wonder that so many of the nation’s jobless are flocking into its military recruitment offices.

Obama's Choice: Failed War President or the Prince of Peace?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:54:13 -0400

by Nick Turse

When the Nobel Committee awarded its annual peace prize to President Barack Obama, it afforded him a golden opportunity seldom offered to American war presidents: the possibility of success. Should he decide to go the peace-maker route, Obama stands a chance of really accomplishing something significant. On the other hand, history suggests that the path of war is a surefire loser. As president after president has discovered, especially since World War II, the U.S.