Tomgram: Engelhardt, The End? (Not Yet!)

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Prophesies, Then and Now My Life at World’s End By

Indulge me for a moment. This is how “The Prophecy” in my 1962 high school yearbook began. It was written by some of my classmates in the year we graduated from Friends Seminary in New York City.

“Being an historian, I am jotting down these notes out of habit, but what I saw and experienced two days ago I am sure no one else as civilized as I am will ever see. I am writing read more

How to Reduce Military Spending

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, March 22, 2023

It ought to be easy. Open bank vault, remove weapons dealers, close bank vault. In reality, we need a ton of tools, work, and luck.

In constant dollar terms, after Korea, Vietnam, Reagan’s second term, and Obama’s first term U.S. military spending went down, just never as much as it had gone up. So, ending wars, including Cold Wars, may help.

We now have a war underway in which the U.S. participation is understood as primarily spending read more

“War Made Easy” Film Panel Discussion Featuring Norman Solomon, Dennis Kucinich, Kathy Kelly & more

On the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the documentary War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death is getting renewed attention. The film takes a blistering look at how U.S. media outlets from Fox News to MSNBC enthusiastically disseminated propaganda and helped sell wars that would directly kill thousands of American troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan people. This documentary is based on the acclaimed book by Norman Solomon, and narrated read more

Tomgram: Andrew Bacevich, Duck and (Re)Cover?

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I can still remember sneaking into one of those old Broadway movie palaces (of the sort you can see in Edward Hopper’s classic painting) with two friends. It was 1959, in the midst of a global “Cold War,” and I was 15 years old, too young as I recall to be allowed in to see Stanley Kramer’s On the Beach without a grown-up.

We sat in the first row of the balcony (it was read more

On April 2nd, Let’s Take Peace into Our Own Hands

World BEYOND War supports getting in the streets everywhere on April 2nd for peace and nonviolent action with Europe for Peace. World BEYOND War members in Europe will spread the word and take part, and we will encourage our chapters around the world to join in. I’m executive director of World BEYOND War, and I live in the United States where antiwar activism is most needed and least present. We have lots of excuses: the vast distances over which we are spread out, the intense propaganda read more

Speaking Truth to Empire

“Speaking Truth to Empire” on KFCF 88.1 FM independently owned and locally operated in Fresno since 1975, Dan Yaseen interviews Christian Sorensen a former U.S. Air Force Arabic linguist, novelist, military analyst, and independent journalist. His work mainly focuses on the U.S. defense industry and war profiteering. The topic of discussion is Military Industrial Congressional Complex. His website is www.warindustrymuster.com

World BEYOND War: What the United Nations Should Be

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, March 18, 2023

I want to begin with three lessons from 20 years ago.

First, on the question of launching a war on Iraq, the United Nations got it right. It said no to the war. It did so because people around the world got it right and applied pressure to governments. Whistleblowers exposed U.S. spying and threats and bribes. Representatives represented. They voted no. Global democracy, for all its flaws, succeeded. The rogue U.S. outlaw failed. But, not only did read more

Iraq and 15 Lessons We Never Learned

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, March 17, 2023

The peace movement did a great many things right in the first decade of this millennium, some of which we’ve forgotten. It also fell short in many ways. I want to highlight the lessons I think we’ve most failed to learn and suggest how we might benefit from them today.

  1. We formed uncomfortably large coalitions. We brought together war abolitionists with
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Tomgram: Rebecca Gordon, Singing the “Bourgeois Blues”

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

On my way home from the doctor’s office, I regularly pass the New York apartment building where I grew up. I would invariably stop, stare, and feel an overwhelming desire to visit the place I hadn’t seen in perhaps 60 years. The street door hadn’t changed a bit.

A few months ago, on a whim, I looked for the buzzer to apartment 6D, pressed it, and a woman’s voice answered. read more