Tom Engelhardt

An editor in publishing for the last 25 years, Tom Engelhardt is the author of The End of Victory Culture, a history of American triumphalism in the Cold War era, now out in a revised edition with a new preface and afterword, and Mission Unaccomplished, TomDispatch Interviews With American Iconoclasts and Dissenters. He is at present consulting editor for Metropolitan Books, a fellow of the Nation Institute, and a teaching fellow at the journalism school of the University of California, Berkeley. Visit his Web site. This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com.

Generals bin Laden and Bush

Today, in his usual remarkable way, Mark Danner takes stock of the president’s failed War on Terror abroad. One day, we will also need to take full stock of George W. Bush’s War on Terror at home. After all, conceptually speaking, the War on Terror lay at the heart of everything he and his top … Continue reading “Generals bin Laden and Bush”

How to Disintegrate a City

Once again last week, the president and his men surged into the headlines, announcing that we had just zipped past yet another of those Iraqi “turning points.” Or, as George W. Bush put it while speaking at the Pentagon (and perhaps dreaming of the days back in 2005 when he could still happily mention “victory” … Continue reading “How to Disintegrate a City”

The Golden Age of the Military-Entertainment Complex

Recently, photographic portraits of nine World War I vets (all 105 or older when taken) were unveiled at a Pentagon ceremony. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates then noted that, when it comes to their war, “There is no big memorial on the National Mall. Hollywood has not turned its gaze in this direction for decades.” … Continue reading “The Golden Age of the Military-Entertainment Complex”

Who Got Iraq Right?

Just imagine: You run a flagship national newspaper, the New York Times. It’s the fifth anniversary of President Bush’s catastrophic invasion of Iraq. Your own record of reportage in the period leading up to the invasion was not exactly sterling. So, for a change of pace, you decide to turn most of your double op-ed … Continue reading “Who Got Iraq Right?”

Philip K. Dick, Meet
George W. Bush

Imagine, for a moment, that you live in a small town somewhere near the Southern California coast. You’re going about your daily life, trying to scrape by in hard times, when the missile hits. It might have come from the Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) – its pilot at a base on the outskirts of … Continue reading “Philip K. Dick, Meet
George W. Bush”

The First Sixth-Anniversary- of-the-Iraq-War Article

Please don’t write in with a correction. I know just as well as you do that we’re approaching the fifth, not the sixth, anniversary of the moment when, on March 19, 2003, George W. Bush told the American people: “My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of … Continue reading “The First Sixth-Anniversary- of-the-Iraq-War Article”

Fidel Castro, the First Superdelegate

As the Obama-Clinton primary tussle threatens to go right through, perhaps, November 2010, the political news is everywhere: The superdelegates are “feeling the pressure”; those 795 nabobs of the Democratic Party, once meant in part as a brake against a popular Democrat from off-the-ranch threatening to run away with the nomination, now find themselves under … Continue reading “Fidel Castro, the First Superdelegate”

The Cost of a Week in Hell

How far off were they? Well, it depends on which figure you choose to start with. Here’s the range: According to key officials in the Bush administration back in 2002-2003, the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq was either going to cost $60 billion, or $100-$200 billion. Actually, we can start by tossing that top figure … Continue reading “The Cost of a Week in Hell”

The Commander-in-Chef Cooks Up a Storm

In the week that oil prices once again crested above $100 a barrel and more Americans than at any time since the Great Depression owed more on their homes than the homes were worth; in the year that the subprime market crashed, global markets shuddered, the previously unnoticed credit-default swap market threatened to go into … Continue reading “The Commander-in-Chef Cooks Up a Storm”

The World’s Most Wanted

On Feb. 13, Imad Moughniyeh, a senior commander of Hezbollah, was assassinated in Damascus. “The world is a better place without this man in it,” State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said: “one way or the other he was brought to justice.” Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell added that Moughniyeh has been “responsible for more … Continue reading “The World’s Most Wanted”