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.

A Young Man’s Death in Iraq

I‘m too old for the typical Web site with lots of posted back-and-forth commentary. So the TomDispatch e-mail box is – and often I regret this – normally my own private adventure. I’m regularly amazed by the letters that come in, many encouraging, some stunningly thoughtful (often with striking turns of phrase), and every now … Continue reading “A Young Man’s Death in Iraq”

Dating Cheney’s Nuclear Drumbeat

In a recent piece, "The Media’s Roving Eye," trying to establish a timeline that would offer context for the Plame case, I wrote the following: “Vice President Cheney started the administration’s atomic drumbeat to war in Iraq with a series of speeches on Saddam’s supposed nuclear capabilities and desires beginning in August of 2002. (The … Continue reading “Dating Cheney’s Nuclear Drumbeat”

Unraveling the Plame Case

The Media’s Roving Eye by Tom Engelhardt Oh what a tangled web we weave When we first practice to deceive… I‘ve written regularly about the media’s inability to connect the dots. The other day a reporter out in the far-flung reaches of our imperium wrote in to TomDispatch pointing to a front-paged dot that no … Continue reading “Unraveling the Plame Case”

The Spies Who Came in From the Hot Tub

Like so much else in our moment, it contravened laws the U.S. had once signed onto, pretzeled the English language, went directly to the darkside, was connected to various administration lies and manipulations that preceded the invasion of Iraq, and was based on taking the American taxpayer to the cleaners. I’m talking about a now-notorious … Continue reading “The Spies Who Came in From the Hot Tub”

Iraq’s Dead Unnamed and Unnoticed

On July 23, 2003, not quite four months after Baghdad had been occupied by American troops, TomDispatch published a piece by Jack Miles, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book God: A Biography, entitled “How Many Iraqis Have We Killed?” At that time, less than 100 Americans had died in the “postwar” era in Iraq, while … Continue reading “Iraq’s Dead Unnamed and Unnoticed”

Cyberstalking the Recruitable Teen

At some level, the situation is simple enough. As retired Lt. Col. Charles A. Krohn, former Army deputy chief of public affairs at the Pentagon and in Baghdad, put it recently in the Washington Post, the Bush administration has “basically committed most of the Army’s active forces (including much of the National Guard), rotating them … Continue reading “Cyberstalking the Recruitable Teen”

Boy President in a Failed World?

On Thursday morning, with the London bombings monopolizing the TV set, I watched our president take that long, outdoor, photo-op walk from the G-8 summit meeting to the microphones to make a statement to reporters. Exploding subways, a blistered bus, the dead, wounded, dazed, and distraught just then staggering through our on-screen morning, and there … Continue reading “Boy President in a Failed World?”

The Smash of Civilizations

Another successful landmark has been reached in our occupation of Iraq: The World Monuments Fund has just placed the country on its list of the Earth’s 100 most endangered sites. (“Widespread looting, military occupation, artillery fire, vandalism, and other acts of violence are devastating Iraq, long considered the cradle of human civilization.”) This is the … Continue reading “The Smash of Civilizations”

Chasing Zarqawi

Just in the last few days, according to USA Today, a “propaganda video purportedly made by al-Qaeda-linked terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi” has been released showing suicide attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq supposedly inspired by or ordered by him. Since George Bush first mentioned him in October 2002 in a speech in Cincinnati as … Continue reading “Chasing Zarqawi”

They Died for Their Country

“In this time of testing, our troops can know: The American people are behind you. Next week, our nation has an opportunity to make sure that support is felt by every soldier, sailor, airman, Coast Guardsman, and Marine at every outpost across the world. This Fourth of July, I ask you to find a way … Continue reading “They Died for Their Country”