William Astore

William Astore

William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), who has taught at the Air Force Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School, and now teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. He welcomes reader comments at wjastore@gmail.com.

Articles by this author

Nineteen years into a new century, with its forever wars on terror still ongoing across startlingly large stretches of the planet, the U.S. military is now turning as well to preparations for future wars with its so-called peer competitors (China and Russia). (Photo: DVIDSHUB/flickr/cc) Views
Tuesday, July 09, 2019
The Riptide of American Militarism
Put up with me for just a moment while I wax literary. It turns out that, if French novelist Marcel Proust lived today, he might have had to retitle his Remembrance of Things Past as Remembrance of Things Present , or even more sadly, Things Future . As an ex-military man who lived through part of...
Read more
Views
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
The American Cult of Bombing and Endless War
From Syria to Yemen in the Middle East, Libya to Somalia in Africa, Afghanistan to Pakistan in South Asia, an American aerial curtain has descended across a huge swath of the planet. Its stated purpose: combatting terrorism. Its primary method: constant surveillance and bombing -- and yet more...
Read more
Views
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
How the Pentagon Took Ownership of Con Man Donald Trump
Donald Trump is a con man. Think of Trump University or a juicy Trump steak or can’t-lose casinos (that never won ). But as president, one crew he hasn't conned is the Pentagon. Quite the opposite, they've conned him because they've been at the game a lot longer and lie (in Trump-speak) in far...
Read more
Views
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
The Death of Peace: How the US Empire Starts Wars, But Refuses to End Them
“ Veni, Vidi, Vici ,” boasted Julius Caesar, one of history’s great military captains. “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed that famed saying when summing up the Obama administration’s military intervention in Libya in 2011 -- with a small alteration. “We...
Read more
Turn now to the invasion of Iraq: in May 2003, President George W. Bush cockily announced “Mission Accomplished” from the deck of an aircraft carrier, only to see victory in Baghdad degenerate into insurgency and a quagmire conflict that established conditions for the rise of the Islamic State. (Photo: DVIDSHUB/flickr/cc) Views
Monday, January 28, 2019
The U.S. Military’s Lost Wars
One of the finest military memoirs of any generation is Defeat Into Victory, British Field Marshal Sir William Slim’s perceptive account of World War II’s torturous Burma campaign, which ended in a resounding victory over Japan. When America’s generals write their memoirs about their never-ending...
Read more
If you ask—and few Americans do these days—why this country’s losing wars persist, the answer should be, at least in part: because there’s no accountability. (Photo:Flickr/cc) Views
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Why American Leaders Persist in Waging Losing Wars
As America enters the 18th year of its war in Afghanistan and its 16th in Iraq, the war on terror continues in Yemen , Syria, and parts of Africa, including Libya, Niger , and Somalia . Meanwhile, the Trump administration threatens yet more war, this time with Iran . (And given these last years,...
Read more
"When we blur sports and the military, adding corporate agendas into the mix, we're not just doing a disservice to our troops and our athletes; we’re doing a disservice to ourselves.' (Photo: Shaun King/Facebook) Views
Monday, August 20, 2018
Why Can’t We Just Play Ball?
As long as I can remember, I’ve been a sports fan. As long as I can remember, I’ve been interested in the military. Until recently, I experienced those as two separate and distinct worlds. While I was in the military -- I served for 20 years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force -- I did, of course,...
Read more
"The United States has no real need for a new, stealthy, super-expensive, nuclear-capable, deep-penetrating strategic bomber for use against “peer” rivals China and Russia." (Photo: Department of Defense) Views
Monday, June 04, 2018
The Military-Industrial Complex Strikes (Out) Again
Did you know the U.S. Air Force is working on a new stealth bomber ? Don’t blame yourself if you didn’t, since the project is so secret that most members of Congress aren’t privy to the details. (Talk about stealthy!) Known as the B-21 Raider , after General Doolittle’s Raiders of World War II fame...
Read more
Views
Thursday, March 15, 2018
The Fog of America's Phony War
Overseas, the United States is engaged in real wars in which bombs are dropped, missiles are launched, and people (generally not Americans) are killed, wounded, uprooted, and displaced . Yet here at home, there’s nothing real about those wars. Here, it’s phony war all the way. In the last 17 years...
Read more
"In our country, civilians should be in charge of the war makers, end of story." (Photo: Alejandro Alvarez/Twitter) Views
Monday, February 05, 2018
Our Enemy, Ourselves
Whether the rationale is the need to wage a war on terror involving 76 countries or renewed preparations for a struggle against peer competitors Russia and China (as Defense Secretary James Mattis suggested recently while introducing America’s new National Defense Strategy ), the U.S. military is...
Read more

Pages