Ukraine Without Ukrainians, Earth Without Life

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 5, 2022

After the U.S. has spent months privately telling Ukraine not to negotiate peace and publicly telling Ukraine to help itself to an all-you-can-eat weapons buffet with breaks to pose for heroic portraits, and not long at all after telling Congress Members to beat themselves with whips for suggesting negotiating peace, the White House has privately asked Ukraine to pretend to be open to peace negotiations because it looks bad to have Russia willing read more

At 11:00 on 11/11 Remember that WWIII Is No More Needed Than the First Two

At the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis it was generally permissible in the United States to say you supported negotiations for peace and disarmament — I mean without declaring your hatred for China or liberals or black people. Had it not been so, we might not be here to talk about it.

But it was not so at the time of World War I. At that time, you could get locked in prison for peace talk. Had there been nuclear weapons at the time, we might not be here to talk about it.

It’s useful, after read more

The U.S. Choice Not to End This War Is Fog Fact #1

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 1, 2022

What a fog fact is, is a fog fact, i.e. a fact that’s not seriously disputed but also not widely known by people who would find it incredibly important. It’s incredibly important to be aware that there are well-established facts out there that one doesn’t know about but would care passionately about if one managed to get at them through the fog of sports, weather, and every idiotic utterance of Herschel Walker or Joe Biden.

The fact that read more

Tomgram: Engelhardt, The Last Word?

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An Obituary for Our World And I’m Not Kidding! By

Oddly enough, I’ve read obituaries with fascination from the time I was quite young. And yet, in all these years, I’ve never really reflected on that fact. I don’t know whether it was out of some indirect fascination with death and the end of it all or curiosity about the wholeness (or half-ness or brokenness) of an individual life in full. But here’s the odd thing: read more

Conservative Governance Has Undermined U.S. Life Expectancy

Although, in recent decades, American conservatives have embraced what they call the “Right to Life,” they have certainly done a poor job of sustaining life in the United States.  That’s the conclusion that can be drawn from a just-published scientific study, “U.S. state policy contexts and mortality of working-age adults.”

Funded by a grant from the U.S. National Institute on Aging and prepared by a group of U.S. and Canadian researchers, the study found a close relationship, in the read more

Never Withdraw a Demand for Diplomacy

As in most wars, both sides of the one in Ukraine have predicted total victory month after month — with no evidence that either side has ever been remotely right about that.

The U.S. is establishing a seemingly permanent infrastructure for a forever war, the two most likely eventual endings of which are nuclear apocalypse or negotiated peace.

Is it really going to be unacceptable to have a preference for peace? Must it be forbidden read more