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 Pentagon Befriends MySpace.com

Congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who co-chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children and billed himself as an enemy of pedophiles and online predators everywhere, just resigned over e-mails and instant messages sent to underage male congressional pages who “said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to … Continue reading “The Pentagon Befriends MySpace.com”

Iraq at the Gates of Hell

Recently, in one of many speeches melding his Global War on Terror and his war in Iraq, George W. Bush said, “Victory in Iraq will be difficult and it will require more sacrifice. The fighting there can be as fierce as it was at Omaha Beach or Guadalcanal. And victory is as important as it … Continue reading “Iraq at the Gates of Hell”

The Facts on the Ground

This August, a site of shame, shared by Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush, was emptied. Abu Ghraib prison is the place where Saddam’s functionaries tortured (and sometimes killed) many enemies of his regime, and where Bush’s functionaries, as a series of notorious digital photos revealed, committed what the U.S. press still likes to refer … Continue reading “The Facts on the Ground”

12 Steps to a Misfit Military

Recently, the Washington Post, and then the New York Times, reported a top-secret assessment by the Marines’ chief of intelligence that focused on the catastrophic situation of his undermanned Corps in the heartlands of Iraq’s Sunni insurgency. He concluded, according to the Post‘s Tom Ricks, that “the prospects for securing that country’s western Anbar province … Continue reading “12 Steps to a Misfit Military”

The Real Link Between 9/11 and Iraq (Finally) Revealed

You’ve heard the president and vice president say it over and over in various ways: There was a connection between the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and Iraq. Let’s take this seriously and consider some of the links between the two. Numbers and Comparisons At least 3,438 Iraqis died by violent means during July (roughly … Continue reading “The Real Link Between 9/11 and Iraq (Finally) Revealed”

Before 9/11, There Was 11/9

With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, American leaders declared “victory” in the Cold War no less firmly or repeatedly than our president has promised “victory” in his Global War on Terror – no less than 12 times, in fact, in an August speech to the American Legion National Convention. However, as Andrew Bacevich, author … Continue reading “Before 9/11, There Was 11/9”

9/11 in a Movie-Made World

[This article, which will appear in the Sept. 25 issue of The Nation (on the newsstands this week), is posted here with the kind permission of the editors of that magazine.] We knew it was coming. Not, as conspiracy theorists imagine, just a few top officials among us, but all of us – and not … Continue reading “9/11 in a Movie-Made World”

Making Sense of Our Iraq Disaster

The single most basic fallacy underlying the present American catastrophe in Iraq is the belief that the U.S. can somehow solve that country’s problems, however extreme and intractable they may seem; that, in short, we are part of the solution in Iraq, not part of the problem. Once you’re thinking that way, it’s always a … Continue reading “Making Sense of Our Iraq Disaster”

Oliver Stone’s WTC
and the Iraq War

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, remain both an overwhelming and under-considered horror. TomDispatch will devote the week leading up to the fifth anniversary of 9/11 to various reconsiderations of that moment. In the meantime, the anniversary season was inaugurated early by World Trade Center, Oliver Stone’s reverent blockbuster movie. Ruth Rosen went to see … Continue reading “Oliver Stone’s WTC
and the Iraq War”