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 Empire Goes on Defense

In September 2002, Arab League head Amr Moussa warned that an invasion of Iraq would “open the gates of Hell” in the Middle East. Four years later, with those gates – at least in Iraq – open wide enough to drive a tank through, the look of the Bush administration is suddenly in rapid flux. … Continue reading “The Empire Goes on Defense”

Dubya Votes for Dunkin’

Last Wednesday, the president held a news conference in the wake of that election thumpin’ in which he announced the sacking of Donald Rumsfeld, made (strained) jokes, pledged himself to bipartisan good feelings, and even volunteered to recommend some “Republican interior decorators” to help Nancy Pelosi pick out drapes for her new office. He spoke … Continue reading “Dubya Votes for Dunkin’”

Apple Pie, Mom, and
a Story for a Lost War

Here we are just days beyond the strange event that passes for an election in our country. Election Day now turns out to be just the almost-last step in a grueling season of serial elections called “opinion polls,” whose fluctuations are meant to tell us ahead of time how we are likely to vote. That … Continue reading “Apple Pie, Mom, and
a Story for a Lost War”

Outlaw Empire Meets the Wave

The wave – and make no mistake, it’s a global one – has just crashed on our shores, soaking our imperial masters. It’s a sight for sore eyes. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen an election like midterm 2006. After all, it’s a truism of our politics that Americans are almost never driven … Continue reading “Outlaw Empire Meets the Wave”

November Surprise

Are we really surprised? The Saddam Hussein verdict, scheduled for Oct. 16 and then suddenly delayed last month (supposedly because the Iraqi special tribunal needed more time) to Nov. 5, the last news cycle before the U.S. midterm election, has now come in, and the former dictator (and monster) is guilty. The Bush administration, struggling … Continue reading “November Surprise”

Prison Planet

The evil nature of our enemies has, it turns out, certain advantages – at least when secret imprisonment and torture are at stake. The Bush administration has proved adamantly unwilling to talk to, or deal with, the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, except when it came to parking terror suspects we wanted tortured on … Continue reading “Prison Planet”

Move Over, GI Joe and
Han Solo

It’s hard even to remember anymore the true state of the U.S. military as the Vietnam War ground toward its bloody end. By the late 1960s, the statistics flowing back to Washington about the American war machine were enough to give any general nightmares. Drug-taking was rampant. (By 1971, up to 60 percent of returning … Continue reading “Move Over, GI Joe and
Han Solo”

Fiasco Then, Fiasco Now

[One of the sections below is devoted to Riverbend, the pseudonymous “girl blogger” of Baghdad. For it, I read the collection of her blog entries that the Feminist Press at CUNY published in 2005, Baghdad Burning, Girl Blog from Iraq, and then the newest volume, Baghdad Burning II, More Girl Blog from Iraq, just now … Continue reading “Fiasco Then, Fiasco Now”