Month

Archives: National Security State

Could Trump’s War of Words with China turn Hot?

By Rajan Menon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - Forget those “bad hombres down there” in Mexico that U.S. troops might take out. Ignore the way National Security Adviser Michael Flynn put…

Is Steven Bannon marching America toward Messianic Apocalypse?

By John Feffer | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | - - What does it mean for international relations when the most powerful country in the world becomes a pariah state? [In] Der…

Trump’s 5th Bankruptcy: Budget-Busting Trillions to US Department of War

By William D. Hartung | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - At over $600 billion a year and counting, the Pentagon already receives significantly more than its fair share of federal funds. …

German Ambassador 1933: “Hostility to Jews Aimed Mainly at ‘Immigrants'”

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Here are two newspaper articles from spring, 1933. They concern the issue of early Nazi policy toward Germany's Jews. In the first, the…

This time Dr. Strangelove is President: On the Political Psychology of Donald Trump

By Daniel Brumberg | (Informed Comment) | - - Is Donald Trump rational? Is he sane? Often posed before his election, this question is now a matter of urgent debate among commentators,…

Trump Is Carpet-Bombing . . . U.S. Foreign Policy

By Phyllis Bennis | ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) | - - Already Trump is super-charging U.S. militarism, gutting diplomacy, and punishing the victims of wars Washington started. Very soon, Donald…

From Ugly American to American Bully

By William J. Astore | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - I came of age during America's Cold War with the Soviet Union, witnessing its denouement while serving in the U.S. military.…

Your Presidency Sucks: The Republican Party and its Orange Bunny

By David Faris | (Informed Comment) | - - When the late Roger Ebert saw director Vincent Gallo’s film The Brown Bunny at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003, he gave it…

Along with pardoning Manning, Obama should have repealed 1917 Espionage Act

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - In a daring and bold move that showed his profound humanitarian side, President Obama has commuted the 35-year sentence of Chelsea Manning, a…

Dangers of Trump’s Militarization of Government

By Rut Diamint | (The Conversation) | - - Should Latin Americans be concerned that Donald Trump has picked General John Kelly to lead the United States Department of Homeland Security? Kelly…

Assange Agrees to Extradition if US Releases Chelsea Manning

TeleSur | - - Manning is currently serving a 35-year sentence in solitary confinement for handing over 700,000 sensitive documents from the U.S. State Department. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will agree to…

All the President’s Deniers

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - This week, we've seen a parade of Donald J. Trump's far-right cabinet appointees attempting to tone themselves down (with help from pliant GOP…

Last Year the US Dropped 26,171 Bombs on 7 Muslim-Majority Countries

TeleSur | - - The countries include Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. In the waning days of the Obama administration, new research by the Council on Foreign Relations, CFR,…

How the Arrogance of Cold War Triumph brought us this Low

By Andrew J. Bacevich | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - The fall of the Berlin Wall in October 1989 abruptly ended one historical era and inaugurated another. So, too, did the…

Comey should be fired if it’s the last thing Obama Does

By William W. Keller | (Informed Comment) | - - James Comey is keeping a low profile these days. Not even a peep. Not even after the FBI, CIA, and NSA finally…

Those Times the NSA Hacked America’s Allies

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The hysteria about Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee servers and the phishing scam run on Hillary…

Circus of Liars: How Trump & GOP are Twisted into Pretzels over Putin Hack

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Donald J. Trump has picked another fight with the elders of his own Republican Party, over whether Russia engaged in hacking aimed at…

GOP Russia Hawks attack Trump: McCain Says he Must ‘Stand Up’ to Putin

TeleSur | - - On Friday, Trump congratulated Putin for not retaliating to Obama's expulsions. On the same day a top aide to President-elect Donald Trump said the White House may have…

President Big Brother: 1984 is 32 Years Late

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - Can you doubt that we’re in a dystopian age, even if we’re still four weeks from Donald Trump entering the Oval Office?…

Why is the US at War in Yemen and will Trump Escalate?

By Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - The long national nightmare that was the 2016 presidential election is finally over. Now, we’re facing a worse terror: the reality of a…