Robert C. Koehler

Robert C. Koehler

Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. His book, "Courage Grows Strong at the Wound" (2016). Contact him or visit his website at commonwonders.com.

Articles by this author

Afghan children look on as US soldiers from 2-77 Field Artillery MPs 359th Steel Warriors patrol in Nuristan Province on December 18, 2009. US President Barack Obama vowed December 10 that Afghanistan would not become a "permanent protectorate" of the United States as he defended his decision to begin withdrawing US forces in July 2011.(Photo: TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP via Getty Images) Views
Thursday, November 19, 2020
Beyond Simplistic ‘Peace’
So here’s an odd, mostly overlooked scrap of recent news: Donald Trump wants to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq before he leaves office, and is expected to announce a drawdown of troops in both countries. Currently there are approximately 4,500 troops in Afghanistan and 3,000 in Iraq. The...
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Former Vice President and presidential nominee Joe Biden addresses reporters on November 5, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo: Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images) Views
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Biden's Mandate Is for Deep Solutions, Not Donor-Class Fetishism of Bipartisan Compromise
And now . . . what? Joe Biden, in blatant defiance of the wishes of Donald Trump and the Republican Party, has won the vote and claimed the presidency. He will now, as he told the nation in his acceptance speech , begin attempting to "restore the soul of America" and "marshal the forces of decency...
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In his middle-of the-night rant, Trump got it half right. There’s a “very sad group of people” here, but their sorrow is due to their own disenfranchisement. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images) Views
Thursday, November 05, 2020
Listening To Trump Leaves Me Speechless
"Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Please sit. Thank you. This is without question the latest news conference I've ever had. Thank you. I appreciate it very much. And I want to thank the American people for their tremendous support, millions and millions of people voted for...
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We can start a nuclear war in five minutes, faster than we can order a pizza. (Photo: Pixabay/geralt/cc) Views
Thursday, October 29, 2020
The Parallel Universe of Peace
Here’s a piece of paradoxical news that puts even the looming U.S. presidential election in perspective: Nuclear weapons are now (or soon will be) . . . good Lord, illegal. Armageddon is against the law! No nuke-armed nation has, as far as I can tell, anything but contempt for this infringement on...
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Donald Trump, U.S. president and supreme leader of the country’s white supremacists, prefers the pretend America, professing as much in a proclamation he issued this year on Columbus Day. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) Views
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Columbus Day in Pretend America
Before the fake holiday known as Columbus Day completely disappears for another year, I want to grab hold of it for a moment and look at what it really has to offer us: a dizzying dose of historical realism. The scariest part about the legacy of Columbus, and Europe’s "Age of Discovery"—ah, the...
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Protesters hold up signs as they march during a demonstration over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in Minneapolis Police custody, in Boston, Massachusetts on May 31, 2020. (Photo: JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images) Views
Thursday, October 08, 2020
What Comes Next Is Up to Us
What if we stopped separating the looming national chaos into separate categories —racism, climate change, war, vote suppression, election theft, pandemic, science denial, white supremacy, police brutality, etc.—and tried looking at it all at once? This may be the legacy of Donald Trump, our first...
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Trump was immune to anything remotely factual and felt no compulsion to act with decorum during the debate, turning it into an interruption-fest and essentially forcing Joe Biden to unleash his contempt back at Trump. (Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images) Views
Thursday, October 01, 2020
Trump and the Lost Country
Where, oh where, is the United States of America—global leader, creator of democracy, hope of humankind? It certainly wasn't up there on the debate stage last night. When 9-year-olds start slinging insults at each other—"Is not!" "Is too!"—it's hard for platitudes to step in and re-establish a...
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Trump has made clear the likelihood that he will not accept the results of the election unless he’s the winner. (Photo: Ted Eytan/flickr/cc) Views
Thursday, September 24, 2020
Election 2020: The Coming Chaos
Is this the future, leaking into the present moment? “You have good genes, you know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it, don’t you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.” The speaker, of course, is Donald...
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An aerial shot of the chemical plants and factories that line the roads and suburbs of the area known as 'Cancer Alley' taken on October 15, 2013. (Photo: Giles Clarke/Getty Images.) Views
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Life in Cancer Alley
Shut up and let corporate America—and also, for that matter, corporate Taiwan—get on with its business. We have ethane to crack and plastic to produce. We dare not let America run out of shopping bags! Environmental racism? Don’t be ridiculous. This is the message the activists of Louisiana’s “...
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"Only direct democracy has the will to stand up for the victims of these wars—the millions and millions of displaced—and demand that the wars stop, no matter who is president," writes Koehler. (Photo: Thiago Santos/cc/flickr) Views
Thursday, September 10, 2020
Standing up To Trump . . . and Biden
When I ponder the likelihood of looming electoral chaos—uncounted votes, a defeated president who won’t leave office, the possible termination of American democracy (coming soon!)—I can’t avoid putting it into a larger context: We’ve always been, at best, a partial democracy, skewed in favor of the...
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