Tomgram: Nick Turse, A Blank Check for Endless War

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

Here’s the question that comes to my mind as 2022 begins: If soon after the global war on terror began — with no special sources of inside information, nothing — I could see perfectly well that it was going to be a disaster, why couldn’t the people who mattered? It’s not like it was magic or something. It was obvious as hell.

And yet the crew running our government read more

The Washington money pit: FLASH! Pentagon Fails Audit! (Again!)

By Dave Lindorff

That’s what should have been the biggest news of 2021.  

Instead, the story, which broke on November 17, was largely ignored or buried. The nations two main newspapers, the Washington Post and the New York Times, have simply ignored it. Other news organizations stenographically quoted Pentagon officials as admitting that they failed again” but saw progress,” and as promising that they would achieve a clean” audit by… get this … 2027.

read more

Surveillance Concerns: The Good, the Bad, and the Xenophobic

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, December 28, 2021

Thom Hartmann has written an enormous number of great books, and the latest is no exception. It’s called The Hidden History of Big Brother in America: How the Death of Privacy and the Rise of Surveillance Threaten Us and Our Democracy. Thom is not the least bit xenophobic, paranoid, or war-inclined. He dishes out criticism — most of it clearly well-merited — to numerous governments including the one in Washington, D.C. Yet I think read more

Talk World Radio: Greta Zarro on Peace Activism in 2021

AUDIO:

Talk World Radio is recorded as audio and video on Riverside.fm. Here is this week’s video and all the videos on Youtube.

VIDEO:

This week on Talk World Radio we’re talking about peace activism in 2021 and looking ahead to 2022. Our guest Greta Zarro is Organizing Director for World BEYOND War, where I’m Executive Director. Greta previously worked as New York Organizer for Food & Water Watch. There, she campaigned on issues related to fracking, genetically engineered read more

Tomgram: Engelhardt, Thanks a Million for 2021!

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

My Year and Welcome to ItWhat a Boost(er) It Was for Me! By Tom Engelhardt  

Whether the pandemic that’s swept the world started from a bat or not, as 2021 ends, I think it’s safe to say that we’re all far battier than we were when it began.

In my neighborhood at least, as this year draws to a close, that old Lone Ranger line, “Who was that masked man?,” again applies to just about anyone. In fact, as Delta cases read more

At Long Last, Ban Weaponized Drones


An artist in Pakistan attempted to make U.S. drone pilots face the fact that they were killing children.

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, December 21, 2021

Former President Barack Obama recently tweeted that the day of a school shooting was the worst day of his presidency. Well, it certainly shouldn’t have been a good day, but, seriously, what the filibuster? Was it a bad day because children were killed and he didn’t order their killing?

It’s bad enough having a drone murder program, but read more

Chilean voters give a new meaning to ‘This changes everything!’: Leftist Presidential Candidate’s Landslide Promises Clean Sweep of Pinochet’s Fascist Legacy

By Dave Lindorff

Ever since the 9-11 attack on the US, people here had this mantra that 9-11 “changed everything.”  It’s a gross overstatement of course. The country has been moving steadily into becoming a “national security” state since President Harry Truman launched it with the creation of the CIA and the National Security Agency. Since then, like a ratchet, we’ve had a gradually metastasizing police state and ever more intrusive central government, read more

Tomgram: Andrew Bacevich, Mission Unaccomplished

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

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch” is an old American adage. Venerable, time-tested, and seemingly true, though here’s an exception: retired general, disgraced former CIA chief, and leaker of classified information, David Petraeus.

For years, I’ve presented the retired general with an opportunity for that rarest of opportunities, a noon nosh out for nothing. More read more

Talk World Radio: Kathy Kelly on Ending Wars

AUDIO:

Talk World Radio is recorded as audio and video on Riverside.fm. Here is this week’s video and all the videos on Youtube.

VIDEO:

This week on Talk World Radio, we’re discussing the state of war and peace in the world with peace activist Kathy Kelly. Kathy’s efforts to end wars have led her to living in war zones and prisons over the past 35 years. In 2009 and 2010, Kathy was part of two Voices for Creative Nonviolence delegations which visited Pakistan to learn more about read more