When Backing War Is the Only Sane Position, Leave the Asylum

By David Swanson

If you find yourself in a room, zoom, plaza, or planet in which only more war is considered a sane policy, check quickly for two things: which inmates are in charge, and are there any open windows handy. You may have to make the case for turning the place upside-down from within it, but you’ll have to figure out a way to get yourself considered sane first.

Logically, there are two basic things you can do with a war, continue it or end it. Typically you end it by negotiating an read more

Supporting Wars But Not Militaries

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

I’ve just become aware of and read the 2020 book by Ned Dobos, Ethics, Security, and The War-Machine: The True Cost of the Military. It makes a pretty strong case for the abolition of militaries, even while concluding that it may or may not have done so, that the matter should be taken on a case-by-case basis.

Dobos sets aside the question of whether any war can be justified, arguing instead that “there may be cases where the costs and read more

Talk World Radio: Hassan El-Tayyab: Stop Waging War on Yemen

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 discussing the war on Yemen with Hassan El-Tayyab, the legislative director for Middle East policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Prior to joining FCNL in August 2019, Hassan El-Tayyab was co-director of the national advocacy group Just read more

Speaking Truth to Empire

 “Speaking Truth to Empire” on KFCF 88.1 independently owned and locally operated since 1975 in Fresno, Dan Yaseen interviews Oliver Boyd-Barrett, Oliver is Professor Emeritus of Bowling Green State University, Ohio. He has published widely on issues to do with international journalism and propaganda. They discuss his recent article, “The Crisis in Ukraine is a Planetary Crisis Provoked by the U. S. that Threatens Nuclear War”.

Tomgram: Jane Braxton Little, From Drought to Deluge on a New Planet

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

Consider this perhaps the strangest thing of all in our all-too-strange world: the greatest crisis humanity has ever faced essentially never leads the news. Yes, the immediate crises of our world, most recently Vladimir Putin’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine, are 24/7 headlines for weeks at a time. And any set of events that read more

Ending Slavery in Washington DC and War in Ukraine

Last week I spoke to a very smart class of high school seniors in Washington DC. They knew more and had better questions for me than your average group at any age. But when I asked them to think of a war that was possibly justifiable, the first one somebody said was the U.S. Civil War. It later came out of course that at least some of them also thought Ukraine was justified in waging war right now. Yet, when I asked how slavery had been ended in Washington DC, not a single person in the room had read more

Per un Mondo Senza Guerra e Senza I Pensieri della Guerra / For a World BEYOND War and Beyond War Thinking

Di David Swanson, World BEYOND War, il 16 di marzo 2022

Il pericolo di un’apocalisse nucleare è più alto di quanto non lo sia mai stato. Non esisterebbe senza militari.

Il pericolo dell’apocalisse climatica è più alto di quanto non lo sia mai stato, se non è già garantito. Senza le forze armate sarebbe notevolmente diminuito e ci sarebbero finanziamenti quasi inimmaginabili con cui cercare di prevenirlo.

Ho pensieri molto affettuosi sull’Italia. È uno dei motivi per cui mi read more

Talk World Radio: Lee Camp on the Shutdown of RT America

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, Lee Camp. He was the host, head writer, & creator of “Redacted Tonight” for 8 years, until it was canceled due to U.S. sanctions. It was the only anti-war anti-corporate comedy show on U.S. TV. In the same week, Lee’s podcast “Moment of read more