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.

Good Evening, Vietnam

Although Vietnam flooded instantly back into American consciousness as the invasion of Iraq was launched in March 2003 – along with its ancient vocabulary from “hearts and minds” to “quagmire” (or the deeply referential “Q-word”) – for the Bush administration the rhetorical reference point was World War II and its aftermath. From Churchillian phraseology to … Continue reading “Good Evening, Vietnam”

‘Today Is Better Than Tomorrow’

Right now, we have on the table a “possible exit strategy” from Iraq – James A. Baker’s Iraq Study Group report [.pdf] – that, once you do the figures, doesn’t get the U.S. even close to halfway out the door by sometime in 2008; and that report is already being rejected by the Republican and … Continue reading “‘Today Is Better Than Tomorrow’”

Impunity and Immunity

An early impulse of Bush administration officials after the attacks of September 11, 2001 was to take off “the gloves,” or, as CIA Director George Tenet put it (so Ron Suskind tell us in his book, The One Percent Doctrine), “the shackles.” Those were the “shackles” that they believed had been placed on the imperial … Continue reading “Impunity and Immunity”

How More Produces
Less in Iraq

[Note for TomDispatch readers: Be on the lookout – former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega, who took over TomDispatch last week, is tentatively scheduled to appear on The Colbert Report tonight. Don’t forget to be the first person in the neighborhood to “indict” the president by picking up a copy of de la Vega’s … Continue reading “How More Produces
Less in Iraq”

The Iraq Study Group Rides to the Rescue – of the Empire

Finally, the president and the New York Times agree. In a news conference with the Iraqi prime minister last week, George W. Bush insisted that there would be no “graceful exit” or withdrawal from Iraq; that this was not “realism.” The next day the Times, in a front-page piece (as well as “analysis” inside the … Continue reading “The Iraq Study Group Rides to the Rescue – of the Empire”

Iraq’s Insurgency
Does It on the Cheap

On Sunday, in a front-page New York Times piece (“U.S. Finds Iraq Insurgency Has Funds to Sustain Itself“), John Burns and Kirk Semple reported that a federal “interagency working group,” looking into the finances of the various branches of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, had come to the conclusion that it was now financially self-sustaining. … Continue reading “Iraq’s Insurgency
Does It on the Cheap”

Bringing Bush to Court

Keep in mind, I’ve run TomDispatch.com for only a few years, but I’ve been a book editor in mainstream publishing for over 30 years. Sometime last spring, I was on the phone with former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega talking about books she might someday write, when she suddenly said to me, “You know … Continue reading “Bringing Bush to Court”

What It Means to ‘Salvage US Prestige’ in Iraq

Things are always complicated. In the Washington Post, for instance, James Mann, author of Rise of the Vulcans, recently suggested that it was far “too simplistic” to claim “the appointment of Robert M. Gates to replace Donald Rumsfeld [represents] the triumph of Bush the Father’s administration over Bush the Son’s.” Still, I prefer the analysis … Continue reading “What It Means to ‘Salvage US Prestige’ in Iraq”