When President Obama went to Hiroshima, the American media focused on what he would – or wouldn’t – say about Harry Truman’s horrendous war crime against the Japanese people. Would he apologize? Leaving aside how one apologizes for such a monstrous act – short of committing seppuku – as it turned out he just spoke …
Continue reading “The Ongoing Rape of Japan”
Israeli society is constantly swerving to the Right and, by doing so, the country’s entire political paradigm is redefined regularly. Israel is now "ruled by the most extreme rightwing government in its history" has grown from being an informed assessment to a dull cliché over the course of only a few years. In fact, that …
Continue reading “Israel’s Future is Terrifying: Moshe Ya’alon and Israel’s Disconcerting ‘Morality’”
Originally posted at TomDispatch. Here’s last week’s good news on America’s war fronts: finally, there’s light at the end of the tunnel! From one end of the Greater Middle East to the other, things are looking up for Washington. A U.S. Air Force drone struck for the first time in Baluchistan province and took out …
Continue reading “America’s Sinkhole Wars”
During May, at least 4,164 people were killed and 2,396 were wounded in Iraq. At least 116 people were killed and 34 were wounded in recent violence.
As the nation once again honors American war dead on Memorial Day, instead of spouting the usual nationalistic platitudes that U.S. soldiers fought to keep the country "safe and free," perhaps we should analyze whether that is really true. Since the 9/11 attacks, more than double the number of Americans killed in those terrorist attacks …
Continue reading “Memorial Day Should Make Us Rethink Platitudes About the US Military”
The breakout of World War I upended many lives, including those of two great thinkers: the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises and the American journalist Randolph Bourne. The young Mises had just revolutionized the economics of money and the business cycle. And he was on the verge of still more breakthroughs when his career was interrupted by the Great … Continue reading “The Sociology of War”
At least 259 people were killed in Iraq on Monday. Bombers attempted to draw attention away from the front lines in Khazar and Fallujah by attacking Baghdad.
This article originally appeared on Memorial Day 2012 We might as well get rid of Memorial Day, for all the good it does us. Originally “Decoration Day,” the last Monday in May has been the designated time for us to remember the war dead and honor their sacrifice – while, perhaps, taking in the lessons …
Continue reading “Abolish Memorial Day”
Today, Americans will seize the opportunity to sleep in an extra day, fire up the family grill, and maybe – probably not, but maybe – wheel out to a family cemetery, lay flowers on graves, and contemplate the memories of their beloved for a few minutes. Veterans’ organizations will parade in celebration of their own …
Continue reading “This Memorial Day, Remember the Victims of Democide”
Peshmerga forces launched a new operation in northern Iraq, and Coalition troops may be assisting them.