Author: Tom Engelhardt

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

Can you even imagine a world where the response of President George W. Bush to al-Qaeda’s acts of horror in September 2001 wasn’t the launching of “the Global War on Terror” which, from Afghanistan and Iraq across the Middle East and deep into Africa, became a global set of disastrous conflicts that might, in truth, have been al-Qaeda’s dream? Well, dream on.

And while read more

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

Pentagon expert William Hartung first wandered into TomDispatch in March 2008, less than seven years after this country’s Global War(s) on Terror were launched, full-scale disasters that were already costing the American taxpayer a fortune and a half — or perhaps, given the subject, all too literally an arm and a leg. As he read more

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

In a Lost Universe (With You Know Who) Creating a Genuine Hell on Earth By Tom Engelhardt

Imagine yourself in space, looking down on our world and yet unable to return any time soon.

Consider it our bad luck, in fact, that Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams were the two Americans sent to the International Space read more

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It’s strange when you think about it. Today, TomDispatch regular Frida Berrigan offers a look at the staggering number of taxpayer dollars that go to just one major arms manufacturer in one city in America, New London, Connecticut, where she lives. It’s a company that’s read more

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We normally think of wartime and peacetime as two distinct and separate realities. When wars end, they end. Period. Unfortunately, when it comes to modern wars, that’s been anything but the case, as TomDispatch regular Andrea Mazzarino makes clear in a striking fashion today. She read more

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Here’s a strange connection between Israel and the United States. Let me put it to you as a kind of quiz: Which two leaders on this planet have, at least in part, organized their political lives to avoid trial convictions and/or possible jail time? Yes, in case you hadn’t guessed, I’m thinking of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former American president read more

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Once upon a time, there was something thrilling in record-breaking events like Babe Ruth’s 60th home run of the 1927 season. But today, maybe not. After all, we’ve just lived through the read more

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I was born on July 20, 1944, in the midst of the Second World War. Barely a year later, the U.S. ended that conflict in the Pacific by dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and creating two all-too-literal hells on Earth.

To this day, fortunately, no other nuclear weapons have ever been used (if, that is, you don’t count all the ones tested, read more

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When is it my turn to retire? That question represents both a distinct kind of horror and a certain luxury. Yes, one day you can simply stop and, even if you’re lucky enough not to be in instant need, as aging TomDispatch regular Rebecca Gordon vividly reminds us today (says 80-year-old read more

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Keep in mind that the man who first made his reputation — The Apprentice aside — and his fortune as a real estate developer has remarkably few plans to develop anything (housing included) that would help most Americans. Count on one thing, though: he’ll read more