McNamara’s Son on Some of His Father’s Lies About Vietnam


(a current image of the house that the McNamara’s lived in in Washington DC)

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, June 15, 2022

Pretty much anything that complicates the story of a person is a good corrective to the tendency to simplify and caricature. So, one has to welcome Craig McNamara’s book, Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today. Craig’s father, Robert McNamara was Secretary of War (“Defense”) for much of the war on Vietnam. He’d read more

Police Are a Lie

I wrote a book years ago called War Is A Lie, arguing that everything we’re told that supports war-making is untrue.

The parallels between the police-prosecution-prison system and the war system are extensive. I don’t mean the direct connections, the flow of weapons, the flow of veterans. I mean the similarities: the intentional failure to use superior alternatives, the ideology of violence used to justify horrible ideas, and the expense and corruption.

It’s not a mystery that diplomacy and read more

Talk World Radio: Aisha Jumaan on Yemen

AUDIO:

Talk World Radio is recorded as audio and video on Riverside.fm — except when it can’t be and then it’s Zoom. Here is this week’s video and all the videos on Youtube.

VIDEO:

Aisha Jumaan is the Founder and President of the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation. Jumaan has over 30 years of experience in public health, including in viral vaccine preventable diseases, cancer research, maternal & child health and nutrition, and women in development. She worked read more

The U.S. Government Locked Up This Californian Family, Then Insisted They Join the Military

The U.S. government took a family away from its house, jobs, schools, and friends, locked up all of its members, and then began ordering the male family members of the proper age to join the U.S. military and head straight off to war.

This wasn’t last month. This was in 1941. And it wasn’t at random. The family was of Japanese ancestry, and the incarceration was accompanied by the accusation of being subhuman creatures but also of being disloyal traitors. None of that makes it acceptable read more

The Eight Stupidest Things About Nuclear Weapons

1. Nukes are the “tough on crime” of foreign policy

Investing in children’s welfare and education costs less and reduces more crime than “tough on crime” policies which are often counterproductive, but voters in San Francisco just obeyed a bunch of corporate advertising and recalled a District Attorney because he had reduced crime rather than being “tough on crime.” Nuclear weapons cost tens of billions of dollars a year, plus the costs of the airplanes, submarines, bases, and troops. read more

Talk World Radio: Norman Solomon on Defusing Nuclear War

AUDIO:

Talk World Radio is recorded as audio and video on Riverside.fm — except when it can’t be and then it’s Zoom. Here is this week’s video and all the videos on Youtube.

VIDEO:

This week on Talk World Radio, we’re talking about Ukraine and nuclear weapons with Norman Solomon who is Co-Founder and National Director of RootsAction.org. Norman also founded the Institute for Public Accuracy in 1997 and is its executive director. Immersed in anti-war, social justice, read more

U.S. Military Spending Is Undebatable Because Indefensible

Spain, Thailand, Germany, Japan, Netherlands — The word has gone out that every government can buy a lot more weapons with either no debate at all or with all debate shut down by a single word: Russia. Do a web search for “weapons buying” and you’ll find story after story about U.S. residents solving their personal problems the way their government does. But search for the secret code words “defense spending” and the headlines look like a united global community of nations each doing read more

Talk World Radio: Jenny Ricks on Davos and Inequality

AUDIO:

Talk World Radio is recorded as audio and video on Riverside.fm — except when it can’t be and then it’s Zoom. Here is this week’s video and all the videos on Youtube.

VIDEO:

This week on Talk World Radio, we’re talking about Davos. Our guest Jenny Ricks, speaking to us from Johannesburg South Africa is the global convenor of Fight Inequality Alliance. See http://fightinequality.org

Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
read more

Position of World’s Governments on Ukraine Considered Insane Pacifism in U.S.

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, May 24, 2022

The stance taken on Ukraine by many of the governments of the world is outside acceptable debate in the United States.

The Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres has proposed a ceasefire, urged a negotiated settlement, and met with the President of Russia despite opposition in the West to doing so. Pope Francis has urged a ceasefire and negotiations, declared that no war can be justified, and encouraged workers to block weapons read more

A Future-Crime Memorial Day

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, May 23, 2022
https://worldbeyondwar.org/a-future-crime-memorial-day

This Memorial Day, we have a solemn responsibility to glorify participants in wars that will leave no survivors.

We should not lightly disregard the longstanding custom of celebrating only those who have already participated in orgies of mass murder.

But we also have a duty to look forward with what discernment we can muster. In the absence of an omniscient future-crime bureau, we can only act read more