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.

The Proliferation Game

Globalization, what a concept. You can get a burger prepared your way practically anywhere in the world. The Nike Swoosh appears at elite athletic venues across the United States and on the skinny frames of T-shirted children playing in the streets of Calcutta. For those interested in buying an American automobile – a word of … Continue reading “The Proliferation Game”

How to Control the Story, Pentagon-Style

Acts matter. Here’s how Dahr Jamail, a young mountain guide and volunteer rescue ranger in Alaska (who did freelance writing in the “off-season”) describes his rash decision, back in 2003, to cover George W. Bush’s Iraq War in person: “I decided that the one thing I could do was go to Baghdad to report on … Continue reading “How to Control the Story, Pentagon-Style”

Invading Washington

Over the last seven years, it’s often been said that George W. Bush exists in a bubble. When it comes to the cast of characters in his administration – and the Washington Consensus generally – it turns out he isn’t alone. The other night I watched Harvard academic Joseph Nye and former Deputy Secretary of … Continue reading “Invading Washington”

Are You With Us… or Against Us?

Before I met Jonathan Schell, I already knew him in the best way possible: on the page. Even in his days as a neophyte journalist in Vietnam, he committed a writer’s greatest act of generosity. First in the pages of The New Yorker, and then in his books, he took readers to places most of … Continue reading “Are You With Us… or Against Us?”

Fighting Whom in Iraq?

Think for a moment of what has happened in Iraq since the Bush administration’s shock-and-awe invasion in March 2003. There are, by now, perhaps a million dead Iraqis, give or take a few hundred thousand. If a typical wounded-to-dead ratio of 3:1 holds, then you’re talking about up to 4 million war, occupation, and civil-war … Continue reading “Fighting Whom in Iraq?”

If We Lose Iraq,
You’re to Blame

You know there’s trouble ahead when Iraq, in its present state, is the good news story for Bush administration policy. While various civilian and military officials from the president on down have been talking up “success” in Iraq and beating the rhetorical war drums vis-à-vis Iran, much of the remainder of the administration’s foreign policy … Continue reading “If We Lose Iraq,
You’re to Blame”

Baseless Considerations

Advice to a Young Builder in Tough Times I know. Times are tough. Here, in the United States, the bottom’s threatening to blow out of the housing market. Here, construction companies are laying off employees, and builders are wondering where their next jobs are likely to come from. But there’s still hope that can be … Continue reading “Baseless Considerations”

Why Did We Invade Iraq Anyway?

History… phooey! Or, more mildly, Americans traditionally aren’t much interested in it and the media largely don’t have time for it either. For one thing, the past is often just so inconvenient. On Monday, for instance, there was a front-page piece in the New York Times by Elisabeth Bumiller on Robert Blackwill, one of the … Continue reading “Why Did We Invade Iraq Anyway?”

American Disengagement

(Note to TomDispatch readers: A favor: In addition to everyone who bookmarks TomDispatch, over 18,000 of you now get e-mails letting you know whenever a new piece has been posted. [Many tens of thousands more read pieces from the site reposted elsewhere.] Most new readers sign up for those e-mails thanks to word of mouth, … Continue reading “American Disengagement”

(Un)Fair Game

Evidently, Blackwater, the now infamous private security company whose hired guns, working for the State Department, mowed down at least 17 Iraqis in a Baghdad square recently, wants to soften its image. (I wonder why?) The New York Times‘ Paul von Zielbauer just reported that the company has redesigned its logo. Once, according to him, … Continue reading “(Un)Fair Game”