Arnold Isaacs

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Many men do monstrous things. And some men are very nearly monsters, capable of killing without compunction or remorse. In the everyday civilian world, we generally seek to lock them up. In war, they have a chance to fully flower. And if they serve in militaries that fight serial conflicts where … Continue reading “Moral Injury and America’s Endless Conflicts”

Originally posted at TomDispatch. “I’m going to Saigon,” said Secretary of Defense James Mattis last month before correcting himself. “Ho Chi Minh City – former Saigon.” It was the fifth time that Mattis would meet with his Vietnamese counterpart, Minister of National Defense Ngo Xuan Lich, and it marked the defense secretary’s first visit to … Continue reading “Misremembering Vietnam”

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Anti-Muslim activists in the United States were operating in a “post-truth era” and putting out “alternative facts” long before those phrases entered the language. For the last decade they have been spreading provable falsehoods through their well-organized network of publications and websites. A major theme of those falsehoods is telling the … Continue reading “American Islamophobia’s Fake Facts”

Honestly, if you’re trying to grasp our strange new world, this Washington Post headline gets you at least part of the way there: “New NSC Chief of Staff Is From Group That Believes Muslims Are Plotting to Take Over U.S.” No, that NSC isn’t the National Student Clearinghouse or the Norfolk Southern Corporation or the … Continue reading “Promoting Islamophobia in America”

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Almost 17 years after Washington’s war on terror was launched, déjà vu all over again hardly sums up the situation. Still, it’s a place to start. Take a headline from nearly a decade ago – July 2009, to be exact. By then, the American war in Afghanistan (the second Afghan War … Continue reading “Why Can’t the World’s Best Military Win Its Wars?”