A blog about a criminal enterprise
The war in Ukraine provides us with yet another opportunity to consider what might be done about the wars that continue to ravage the world.
The current Russian war of aggression is particularly horrific, featuring a massive military invasion of a smaller, weaker nation, threats of nuclear war, widespread war crimes, and imperial annexation. But, alas, this terrible war is but one small part of a history of violent conflict that has characterized thousands of years of human existence.
Is there
By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, October 7, 2022
I’ve just read In Search of Monsters to Destroy by Christopher J. Coyne. It’s published by the Independent Institute (which seems dedicated to untaxing the rich, destroying socialism, and so forth). The book begins by citing as influences both peace advocates and rightwing economists.
If I had to rank the reasons I want to abolish war, the first one would be avoiding nuclear holocaust, and the second would be investing in socialism instead.
The Nobel Committee has yet again awarded a peace prize that violates the will of Alfred Nobel and the purpose for which the prize was created, selecting recipients who blatantly are not “the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses.”
With its eyes on the news of the day, there was no question that the Committee would find some way to focus on Ukraine. But
By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, October 6, 2022
(Note: Together with several other people, I sent this note to the Washington Post, asking for a meeting with their editorial board and criticizing their atrocious reporting on Ukraine. They declined to meet and suggested we send an op-ed. I send them an op-ed and they complained that I’d referenced
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
Consider it an irony first class. In 2017, Reality Winner, a former Air Force enlistee who had been working for a national security contractor at Fort Gordon, Georgia, would be prosecuted by the Trump Justice Department and
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
As I was reading today’s interview between David Barsamian of Alternative Radio and the remarkable Noam Chomsky, now
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By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, October 3, 2022
Chris Hedges’ latest book, The Greatest Evil Is War, is a terrific title and even better text. It doesn’t actually argue a case for war being a greater evil than other evils, but it sure does present evidence that war is tremendously evil. And I think in this moment of nuclear weapons threats, we can consider the case pre-established.
Yet the fact that we’re at major risk of nuclear apocalypse may not interest or move some people the way
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
The other day, a judge lifted a nearly 50-year-old injunction against a 150-year-old Arizona anti-abortion law. It allows that procedure only if a woman’s life is in jeopardy. A doctor who
By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, September 30, 2022
I wholeheatedly and enthusiastically recommend Andrew Bacevich’s latest book, On Shedding An Obsolete Past, to almost everybody. I have second thoughts only on recommending 350 pages of denouncing warmaking to those who are already out ahead of it and have come to understand the need to abolish wars and militarism before those things abolish us.
Bacevich names not one war relevant to the current day that he supports or justifies. He vaguely