Author: David Swanson

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, September 9, 2021

U.S. high schools should teach courses on Guantanamo: what not to do in the world, how not to make it even worse, and how not to compound that catastrophe beyond all shame and recovery.

As we tear down Confederate statues and continue brutalizing victims in Guantanamo, I wonder if in 2181, had Hollywood still been around, it would have made movies from the perspective of Guantanamo’s prisoners while the U.S. government commited new and different read more

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 failures of September 11th and the failures of the global war launched on September 12th. Our guest Coleen Rowley is a retired special agent and former Minneapolis Division legal counsel of the FBI who taught constitutional law and law enforcement ethics to FBI agents and other law enforcement, then became a whistleblower about the FBI’s read more

I know, I know, journalism is so bad you don’t really want it saved or really see what saving it would mean — much less want it saved by some evil abomination like atheism. And we’ve never actually had democracy. And I’ve got no business mentioning your family, especially in the same breath as something as disgusting as atheism. But hear me out.

I’m thinking of those members of your family who believe they should eat horse medicine or that the earth’s climate is doing OK or that Iraqis read more

By Gorilla Radio, September 5, 2021

LISTEN HERE.

Many took heart when America announced an end to its military occupation of Afghanistan last month. But optimism for a beginning of peace in that benighted country’s decades-long state of civil conflict and uncertainty is now clouded by bellicose statements made in Washington by an administration that seems to want to end its war and fight it too. Following a recent attack against civilians and American troops at Kabul’s airport, in a speech delivered read more

By David Swanson

When you imagine ending a war, do you imagine the U.S. President lamenting the human cost of the war’s financial expense while simultaneously demanding that Congress increase military spending — and while mentioning new wars that could potentially be launched?

Do you picture him blowing up families with missiles from robot airplanes, and committing to continuing those “strikes” while maintaining that such things don’t constitute continuing the war?

Did you hope that if read more

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: Better late and diastrously than never. It’s never too soon to end a war, even if you don’t really end it, tell lots of lies about it, and increase military spending to prepare for more wars.

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

Download from LetsTryDemocracy.

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Malika Ahmadi, two, died in a U.S. drone strike on Kabul today, her family says. Has the war of 20 years cost us the ability to care?

The war on Afghanistan and the war on Iraq that it was a means of helping start, and all the other spin-off wars leave (if you count only bombing from above as leaving) millions dead, millions injured, millions traumatized, millions homeless, the rule of law eroded, the natural environment devastated, government secrecy and surveillance and authoritarianism increased read more

The Washington Post has been a leading promoter of the Rules Based Order, which some have confused with a pro-democracy initiative. The Post has, however, assembled a powerful case against democracy, that we all need to take seriously if we want to be, you know, serious.

I want to highlight just the most recent two additions to the anti-democracy argument that by now is quite overwhelmingly established.

On August 29th, a column read more

In some future lovely little war, perhaps with China or some other demonized target, some percentage of the U.S. public may suddenly exclaim: “Hey, since when does a draft include young women as well as men?!” Old tunes will be revised and sung in protest with lyrics about being the first one on your block to have your daughter come home in a box. The tragedies will be played out in tears and screams and flag-covered propaganda-regurgitating rationalizations. read more