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.

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”

Withdrawal: Seize the Moment

Republican Congressman Walter B. Jones (famed for insisting that the Congressional cafeteria re-label French fries as “freedom fries” on its menu), a man who represents North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District, home to the Marine’s Camp LeJeune, voted enthusiastically for the Iraq war, but recently changed his mind. Last week, he became one of four congressional … Continue reading “Withdrawal: Seize the Moment”

The Actually Existing Occupation

[Note: I couldn’t resist interrupting my “Best of TomDispatch” series – there are still two to go – to bring you the latest Jonathan Schell “Letter from Ground Zero” columns from the upcoming issue of the Nation magazine, whose editors have been kind enough, as ever, to let me post it.] Welcome to Iraq… but … Continue reading “The Actually Existing Occupation”