“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
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.
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
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
Can War Be Both Reformed AND Abolished?
Photo of Kunduz Hospital in Afghanistan via The Intercept.
By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, October 2, 2021
A recent article and a recent book have raised this familiar topic anew for me. The article is a super uninformed dud of a hatchet job on Michael Ratner by Samuel Moyn, who accuses Ratner of supporting war by trying to reform and humanize rather than end it. The critique is terribly weak because Ratner tried to prevent wars, end wars, AND reform wars. Ratner was at every antiwar event.
Tomgram: Andrew Bacevich, So Long, CENTCOM, and Good Riddance!
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
Forget old hot wars or even new cold ones — the weather’s clearly changing. In fact, according to a new study,
How to Prevent Terrorism
By David Swanson
Hi, this is David Swanson, executive director of World BEYOND War, campaign coordinator of RootsAction, and host of Talk World Radio. I was asked by the Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism for a video on foreign intervention and domination as an important factor in the spread of violence and extremism.
I’m not a huge fan of the word “extremism,” both because I think we should be extreme about things that merit it, and because the U.S. government distinguishes
Civic Initiative Save Sinjajevina to Receive the War Abolisher of 2021 Award
By World BEYOND War, September 27, 2021
Today, September 27, 2021, World BEYOND War announces as the recipient of the War Abolisher of 2021 Award: Civic Initiative Save Sinjajevina.
As already announced, the Lifetime Organizational War Abolisher Award of 2021 will be presented to Peace Boat, and the David Hartsough Lifetime Individual War Abolisher Award of 2021 will be presented to Mel Duncan.
An online presentation and acceptance event, with remarks from representatives of all three 2021 award
Talk World Radio: The Kaepernick Effect
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, The Kaepernick Effect is a new book by our guest Dave Zirin who is sports editor for The Nation and the author of 10 books on the politics of sports, including Jim Brown: Last Man Standing. His website is at EdgeofSports.com.
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.