The Trump administration has quietly ramped up a vicious bombing – and covert raiding – campaign in Somalia amid a global coronavirus pandemic. Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has provided any explanation for the deadly escalation of a war that Congress...
Recently, there’s been rather heated debate – a sort of progressive civil war – over what’s being called "lesser evil" voting. To Biden, or not to Biden; that seems the existential question. However, most discussion centers on whether Joe Biden would be a...
The bullet holes were what stuck with me. I visited the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina during the summer of 2016, at the head of the West Point civil rights history staff ride – a two week trip across the American South...
Dark times breed – maybe demand – dark humor. Iraq and Afghanistan taught me as much. The coronavirus makes it plain as day; so does Donald Trump. Look, the guy is a buffoon and – if you happen to be the wrong color or live in the wrong country – kind of a monster....
Manicheanism means murder. Amidst the present pandemic, America’s irrationally dyadic global typecasting, and consequent capacity for cruelty, are on unusually flagrant display. Consider this the macabre gift of COVID-catalyzed reality exposure. From Uncle Sam’s...
The last time a West Point class graduated early – or having completed less than eight semesters – was in 1945, at the end of the Second World War. Until now. Though the circumstances are somewhat dissimilar – cadets have been taking online classes since their virtual...
Everyone has heard, ad nauseam, about the "Special Relationship" between the United States and Britain. Accordingly, the few Americans who dare identify their country as an empire – past or present – tend to analogize with the British model. While the...
Empire exposure is the ghastly gift of coronavirus. Not that everyone can see it: consider that the "Drop Dead Fred" effect of corporate media duopoly. Imperialism has, after all, long been America’s imaginary friend: unspoken, publicly invisible – those who dare...
Originally posted at TomDispatch. I’m sure you still remember them. The president regularly called them “my generals.” They were, he claimed, from “central casting” and there were three of them: retired Marine Corps General John Kelly,...
"To everything (turn, turn, turn) There is a season (turn, turn, turn) And a time to every purpose, under heaven… A time to kill, a time to heal… A time for peace, I swear it's not too late" ~ "Turn, Turn, Turn," as performed by the Byrds (1965) –...
