Maj. Danny Sjursen, USA (ret.)

What is Trump really up to? It’s almost unknowable. At the same time that the president was pulling (some) troops out of Northeast Syria, giving an antiwar speech, and then sending other troops back into Syria to "secure the oil," he also quietly sent another 1800 service members into Saudi Arabia. What little Trump did … Continue reading “Saudi Bases and the Bin Ladens: A Love Story”

This article originally appeared at TruthDig. Now they’ve decided to speak out! For years, I’ve published searing critiques of America’s senior generals and admirals for their failure to speak out publicly against U.S. foreign policy and warmongering. Specifically, I’ve argued that it’s their duty to loudly dissent, and if necessary resign, in opposition to the … Continue reading “Now the Generals Speak Up?”

We are through the looking glass, Alice. For years now I’ve lambasted the U.S. Congress for shirking it’s constitutionally mandated duty to actually declare and oversee America’s wars. Now, in a cruel joke of sorts, it has finally decided to do so, symbolically voting to condemn the president for pulling troops out of a Syrian … Continue reading “Crackpot Congress: The Hyper-Hypocrisy of the Syria Vote”

This article originally appeared at TruthDig. I hate to say I told you so, but well … as predicted, in the wake of Trump’s commanded military withdrawal from northeast Syria, the once U.S.-backed Kurds cut a deal with the Assad regime. (And Vice President Mike Pence has now brokered a five-day cease-fire.) Admittedly, Trump the … Continue reading “Trump’s Ending of Wars Could Derail the Democrats”

"Farm boys with guns." That’s how then Captain Sjursen described average Taliban fighters while serving in Kandahar province. I was speaking to a Reuters reporter that shadowed me for a few days – since I was a New Yorker – to mark the then 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks way back in 2011. Much … Continue reading “Endless Afghanistan: War Without Justification”

This article originally appeared at TruthDig. The man is so beautifully bland. In fact, I’d wager that only a tiny segment of Americans could name the current Secretary of Defense – and far fewer could pick him out of a lineup. Perhaps that’s the point. President Trump, a celebrity ham, has tired of sharing the … Continue reading “Secretary of Defense, Incorporated”

First, the (mostly) good news: President Trump appears poised, finally, to end the US military mission in Northeast Syria. The move would constitute the first actual follow-through on the promises of candidate Trump to avoid "stupid" and terminate "endless" Mideast wars. That’s no small thing. Furthermore, while the outcome in Syria is likely to be … Continue reading “The United States of Betrayal”

"I want no prisoners, I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better you will please me." – General Jacob Smith to subordinates on Samar Island during the Philippine-American War (1902) Not so long ago, in November 2010, I took command of B Troop, 4th Squadron, 4th US Cavalry … Continue reading “A Picture (of a War Crime) Is Worth a Thousand Words”

"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance" ~ Albert Maysles Fifty two years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. broke with the white liberal establishment, the Lyndon Johnson administration, and the U.S. military when he bravely declared America "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." King, now canonized, sanitized, and co-opted even by his conservative opponents … Continue reading “Locked, Loaded, and Ludicrous”

This article originally appeared at TruthDig. “I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost.” ~ John Bolton, in his Yale University 25th reunion book Fitting words from the gold standard in Washington “chicken hawks.” For John Bolton has made a career … Continue reading “John Bolton’s Living Obituary”