David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015, 2016, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.
After reading and hearing wildly contradictory accounts of Ken Burns & Lynn Novick’s Vietnam War documentary on PBS, I decided I had to watch the thing. I agree with some of the criticism and some of the praise.
The documentary begins with the ludicrous idea that the U.S. government had good intentions. It ends with praise for the memorial in DC and its tragic list of names, without mention of the greater number of U.S. veterans of that war who have since died from suicide, much less theread more
This week on Talk Nation Radio we discuss the United States provision of weapons to dictatorships. We’re joined by Rich Whitney, who is an attorney from Carbondale, Illinois, now working as an appellate public defender. He is one of the founding members of the Illinois Green Party, currently serves on its Executive Committee, and in 2006 served as that party’s first-ever candidate for governor, winning over 360,000 votes, about 10.5 percent of the total. He is currently serving asread more
“Every day we live under a continuing resolution is a day we do damage to our military.” – Mac Thornberry, Chairman, House Armed Services Committee
WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF BOMBS
THE PROBLEM:
General Dunford said it best this spring, “Key precision guided munitions shortfalls are exacerbated by ongoing operations and may impact potential contingency response. Additionally, our current global inventories are insufficient for theater missile defense (TMD), standoff,read more
Thus far I’m underwhelmed by the candidates seeking to join Charlottesville’s City Council this year, as well as, of course, by the current members. In the wake of the fascist rallies, the electoral system does not seem to be responding particularly well.
I don’t go in for the usual moronic popularity contest wherein we’re supposed to figure out which candidate we’d most like to be friends with. Instead, I try to approximate direct democracy by figuring out which candidate will do theread more
The Afghanistan War documentary by Ken Burns III may someday be set for release in Spring 2074.
Or maybe not. The peace movement in the U.S. made Vietnam, rather than Korea, a topic for Burns. The peace movement is struggling to make people in the United States aware that the war on Afghanistan even exists, much less that it is entering its 17th year — making it something that people who still don’t recognize Native Americans as full humans call “the longest U.S. war.”
If there ever is such a PBS account of Vietghanistan, it will no doubt steer clear of the illegality, the lastingread more
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) — listen to my radio show with one of ICAN’s leaders two years ago here.
It’s conceivable that some Americans will now learn, because of this award, about the new treaty that bans the possession of nuclear weapons.
This treaty has been years in the works. This past summer 122 nations agreed on the language of it, including these words:
Yes, of course, every day that Congress goes on refusing to ban guns is more blood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. It’s immoral, disgraceful, embarrassing, and in large part a function of financial corruption. But it’s also in part a government operating within a culture of violence — albeit one that the same government plays a huge role in creating.
U.S. movies, tv shows, video games, music, news, and schools are uniquely and increasingly violent. Primates’ chief form of behavior isread more
On Oct 2, 2017, 20 of us gave 4-minute TED talks in Charlottesville and I won, allowing me to give a TED talk at the upcoming November 3, 2017, event at Charlottesville’s Paramount Theater. This was my 4-minute talk on “Why End War.” #TedXCville
“Peace” clubs in U.S. schools are likely to teach that a local bully is afraid and in need of help. They are much less likely to teach that about entities involved in the actual subject of peace (meaning the absence of war), such as — to take the example momentarily most prominent in U.S. propaganda — North Korea.
“Ignorance about the Korean war,” writes Blaine Harden, “has . . . led to the cartoonish ahistorical understanding many Americans still have of contemporary North Korea.read more
Scientists tell us that a single nuclear weapon could cause devastating climate change.
Donald Trump tells us . . . well, a bunch of incoherent gibberish that seems to include the illegal threat to use nuclear weapons if he should be in the mood to commit genocide in North Korea.
Meanwhile 122 countries have creates a treaty to ban the possession of nuclear weapons, and 53 have already signed it, these 53:
Compare that map with the map of countries that own nuclear weapons:
