Maj. Danny Sjursen, USA (ret.)

Free advice: one way for an administration to avoid the ire of an International Criminal Court (ICC) is not to act like a mafia crime family. Appearances and all. Only discretion has never been Donald Trump’s game. The kid from Queens – who built a casino empire in mobbed-up 1980s Atlantic City – thrives in … Continue reading “International Racketeering: ‘Godfather’ Donald’s Mafia War on the ICC”

Take it from a penitent practitioner of drone warfare: Americans do not want these devices hovering over their cities. Only it’s already a reality. Literally as I type, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is flying a predator drone over Minneapolis, surveilling people protesting the police execution of George Floyd. Almost certainly, this particular prototype isn’t … Continue reading “Sovereignty Mockery: Drone Tyranny at Home and Abroad”

When a nation touts its own exceptionalism, that’s called patriotism. Absolute Americanism so red-blooded that it’s become mandatory for all political aspirants (think Obama’s "belief” with "his every fiber") to prostrate themselves at exceptionalism’s altar. Funny, when an individual believes himself exceptional – that’s diagnosable. Sociopaths afflicted with messiah complexes proclaim their exceptionalism. No one … Continue reading “Serving the Bottomless Kool-Aid: ‘Blame Russia’ Rides Again!”

Though the bizarre story has been subsumed by other events, last month’s aborted invasion of Venezuela should’ve hardly shocked anyone. The United States has long used mercenaries to do its bidding. They have provided Washington distance and deniability for unsavory operations. During the Cold War, the U.S. hoped this would limit domestic and international protest. … Continue reading “The ‘New’ American Mercenary: A Pocket History”

Donald J. Trump pretended to be presidential and the graduating cadets pretended to listen. Such are the life and times of a nation led by a reality television star who’s currently at war with his own military. Presidents regularly deliver West Point commencement addresses, or – on off year rotations to the Naval or Air … Continue reading “Nefarious Nostalgia: Trump’s West Point Address, by the Numbers”

"There are those who are seeking to equate dissent with disloyalty. It’s a dark day in our nation when high-level authority will seek to use every method to silence dissent. Something is happening, and people are not going to be silent." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. (1967) Look to the language. In the last 12 … Continue reading “Alone and UnAfraid: Welcome to Chickenhawk America”

"Crossing State lines to incite violence is a FEDERAL CRIME! Liberal Governors and Mayors must get MUCH tougher or the Federal Government will step in and do what has to be done, and that includes using the unlimited power of our Military and many arrests. Thank you!" President Donald Trump in a tweet, 1:20pm Saturday, … Continue reading “Dispatches From Kansas City: The ‘Insurrection’ That Wasn’t (May 30-31, 2020)”

Washingtonian elites have lived out the inverse of the popular Aesop’s Fable since at least 2008. That pivotal year – when power passed from buffoonish Emperor Bush to polite Emperor Obama – Congress formed the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) to "provide independent and objective oversight of Afghanistan reconstruction projects and activities." And, … Continue reading “SIGAR: The Boys Who Cry About Actual Wolves”

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Consider it strange. The U.S. has been fighting in Somalia on and off (mostly on) since the early 1990s. (Who, of a certain age, doesn’t remember the "Black Hawk Down" fiasco?) Almost 30 years later, at a time when the U.N. secretary-general, supported by dozens of countries, has reasonably enough called … Continue reading “The End of War As We Know It?”

Americans treasure their veterans; or so it seems. Every solitary soldier’s life matters, or is at least accounted for. Here the exactitude of the military’s casualty statistics tells the story. Such catalogues reflect more than a simple Pentagon penchant for lists – they are imbued with meaning, a sense of valuing American troops. Nothing of … Continue reading “Truth and Reconciliation: Veteran Accountability in a Time of Pandemic”