Why Can’t Anti-Imperial Wars Be Justified?

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, June 22, 2022

Let’s say that we are participants in a popular democratic socialist human-rights-loving movement and successful and fairly-elected national government, and we’re invaded and overthrown by a rightwing military, foreign or domestic, with horrific violence. What should we do?

I’m not asking what can we do that might have better results than doing nothing. Almost anything meets that standard.

I’m not asking what can we do that we’ll be able read more

Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Playing with Fire in Ukraine

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

As Alfred McCoy suggests today, we’re now in the latest version of a “cold war” when it comes to Russia and China. Let’s take a minute, though, to think about that grim term, which, until relatively recently, seemed to be a relic of history. During the original Cold War, it had a meaning that’s seldom grasped now. Keep in mind that, in those years, there were all-too-many read more

Talk World Radio: Irvin Waller on Ending Violent Crime

AUDIO:

Talk World Radio is recorded as audio and video on Riverside.fm — except when it can’t be and then it’s Zoom. Here is this week’s video and all the videos on Youtube.

VIDEO:

This week on Talk World Radio, we’re talking about ending violent crime. Our guest Irvin Waller is emeritus professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa, and author of, among other works, the incredibly useful book, Science and the Secrets of Ending Violent Crime. His website read more

Canada’s War Problem

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, June 20, 2022
With thanks to World BEYOND War, WILPF, and RootsAction for useful resources.

Why shouldn’t Canada buy F-35s?

The F-35 is not a tool of peace or even of military defense. It is a stealth, offensive, nuclear-weapons-capable airplane designed for surprise attacks with the potential to intentionally or accidentally launch or escalate wars, including nuclear war. It is for attacking cities, not just other airplanes.

The F-35 is one of the weapons with read more

Best of TomDispatch: Ann Jones, War Wounds

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

America’s Father’s Day was first celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Washington State. That was only a few years before Ann Jones’s father went to war. His was the Great War which turned out — with its trenches of frozen mud, rats and lice, poison gas, and machine-gun death — to be not so great. It was supposed to be the War to End all Wars, but all it did was bequeath read more

Russia’s Justifications for Its War in Ukraine Don’t Hold Up

The Russian government’s justifications for its war in Ukraine―the largest, most destructive military operation in Europe since World War II―are not persuasive.

Although, in defending the Russian invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s primary emphasis has been on the threat of Ukraine joining NATO, that action, had it occurred, would have been perfectly legitimate under international law.  The UN Charter, which is an instrument of international law, does not read more

Tomgram: Chomsky and Barsamian, In Ukraine, Diplomacy Has Been Ruled Out

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

Can you even remember when it began? Doesn’t it seem like forever? And the timing — if forever can even be said to have timing — has been little short of miraculous (if, by miraculous, you mean catastrophic beyond measure). No, I’m not talking about the January 6th attack on the Capitol and everything that led up to and followed it, including the ongoing televised hearings. read more

McNamara’s Son on Some of His Father’s Lies About Vietnam


(a current image of the house that the McNamara’s lived in in Washington DC)

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, June 15, 2022

Pretty much anything that complicates the story of a person is a good corrective to the tendency to simplify and caricature. So, one has to welcome Craig McNamara’s book, Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today. Craig’s father, Robert McNamara was Secretary of War (“Defense”) for much of the war on Vietnam. He’d read more