The Empires That Brought Us Here

Image from https://worldbeyondwar.org/militarism-mapped

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, October 13, 2021

Empire is still (or newly, as it wasn’t always) a touchy subject in the U.S. Empire. Most people in the United States would deny that the United States has ever had an empire, just because they’ve never heard of it, and so it must not exist. And those who tend to talk about the U.S. empire the most either tend to be supporters of violent anti-imperial struggles (as outdated a notion as read more

Talk World Radio: Yves Engler on the Canadian Military

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

This week on Talk World Radio: Stand on Guard for Whom? — A People’s History of the Canadian Military. That’s the title of the new book, his twelfth, from our guest Yves Engler. His website is YvesEngler.com

Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.

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Imagine a World with U.S.-China Cooperation

On September 10, 2021, during an important diplomatic meeting that occurred by telephone, U.S. President Joseph Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping affirmed the necessity of a better relationship between their two nations.  According to the official Chinese summary, Xi said that “when China and the United States cooperate, the two countries and the world will benefit; when China and the United States are in confrontation, read more

Harry Potter and the Secret of COP26

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, October 10, 2021

“Blimey, Harry!” exclaimed Ronald Weasley, his face pressed to the window, peering out at the swiftly passing countryside as the glistening red Hogwarts Express belched coal smoke into the sky on its way north to Glasgow for the COP26 climate conference. “If the secret that you have to find is both known and unknown to all Muggles, then it follows that it’s known to a lot of us too. And it also follows” — Ron turned to face his friend read more

CrossTalk | Military accountability?

“The Biden administration’s decision to leave Afghanistan was correct and long overdue. However, the way America’s longest war ended is a different question. It was a botched affair. The generals will most likely never be held to account. But a lone Marine lieutenant colonel does face a court martial. Is this justice? CrossTalking with Medea Benjamin, David Swanson, and Sara Flounders.”

Nobel Committee Gets Peace Prize Wrong Yet Again

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.”

That there are numerous candidates who plausibly meet the criteria and could have been appropriately awarded a Nobel Peace Prize read more

Tomgram: Karen Greenberg, Apologies All Around (Unfortunately, Not)

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

Just in case you didn’t realize it, the lost war in Afghanistan was their fault, not ours. If we had any fault at all, as Secretary of Defense and former Iraq War commander Lloyd Austin pointed out at a Senate hearing last week, it was not fully grasping how bad our Afghan allies — in other words, the very government and military we had created there — were. read more

Talk World Radio: Punishment Without Trial

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

This week on Talk World Radio: a new book called Punishment Without Trial: Why Pleabargaining Is a Bad Deal. The author, Carissa Byrne Hessick, is the Ransdell Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law, where she also serves as the director of the Prosecutors and Politics Project. Before joining the faculty at UNC, she taught read more

Tomgram: John Feffer, The Potential Pitfalls of a Green New Deal

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

Recently, I stumbled across an old book project of mine, long forgotten. It was something I had been writing in perhaps 1998 and 1999 but never finished. In reading through it, I was surprised to discover a reference to climate change (“…even the unlikely removal of every nuclear weapon from this earth wouldn’t come close to purging the planet of exterminatory consciousness read more