War Is A Crime

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I felt it then. I feel far more certain of it now. My dad, who died in 1983, was a member of what came to be known as the Greatest Generation, those who served in World War II. In fact, he volunteered the day after Pearl Harbor (though he was then old enough that he might not have been drafted) and ended up in the U.S. Army Air Corps — there was no separate Air Force in those read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 9, 2022

Remarks from this webinar.

Sometimes just for fun I try to figure out what I’m supposed to believe. I’m definitely supposed to believe that I can choose what to believe based on what pleases me. But I’m also supposed to believe that I have a duty to believe the right things. I think I’m supposed to believe the following: The greatest danger in the world is the wrong political party in the nation I live in. The second greatest threat to read more

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” —Lewis Carroll

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 9, 2022

It’s supposed to not exist. An alternative to mass killing.

In cases that call for war, other options cannot be considered. Otherwise, how would one justify wars?

So, how can it be that I’ve listed below 89 times that people were simply forced to choose war or to “Do Nothing,” and they chose something else entirely?

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AUDIO:

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

In her piece today, TomDispatch regular Frida Berrigan brings up a past I remember all too well. Indeed, I can still recall my teacher putting a radio on her desk when I was a schoolboy in the 1950s so we could hear what must have been read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 5, 2022

After the U.S. has spent months privately telling Ukraine not to negotiate peace and publicly telling Ukraine to help itself to an all-you-can-eat weapons buffet with breaks to pose for heroic portraits, and not long at all after telling Congress Members to beat themselves with whips for suggesting negotiating peace, the White House has privately asked Ukraine to pretend to be open to peace negotiations because it looks bad to have Russia willing read more

At the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis it was generally permissible in the United States to say you supported negotiations for peace and disarmament — I mean without declaring your hatred for China or liberals or black people. Had it not been so, we might not be here to talk about it.

But it was not so at the time of World War I. At that time, you could get locked in prison for peace talk. Had there been nuclear weapons at the time, we might not be here to talk about it.

It’s useful, after read more

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

Alice wouldn’t recognize America’s real-life tea party, which could hardly get madder (or so I say now). Instead of the Queen of Hearts — you know, the character in Alice in Wonderland who ordered read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 1, 2022

What a fog fact is, is a fog fact, i.e. a fact that’s not seriously disputed but also not widely known by people who would find it incredibly important. It’s incredibly important to be aware that there are well-established facts out there that one doesn’t know about but would care passionately about if one managed to get at them through the fog of sports, weather, and every idiotic utterance of Herschel Walker or Joe Biden.

The fact that read more

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An Obituary for Our World And I’m Not Kidding! By Tom Engelhardt

Oddly enough, I’ve read obituaries with fascination from the time I was quite young. And yet, in all these years, I’ve never really reflected on that fact. I don’t know whether it was out of some indirect fascination with death and the end of it all or curiosity about the wholeness (or half-ness or brokenness) of an individual life in full. But here’s the odd thing: read more