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.

Immoral Relativism

“At a breakfast meeting with reporters, Wolfowitz said he hasn’t read the [Downing Street] memos because he doesn’t want to be ‘distracted’ by ‘history’ from his new job as head of the world’s leading development bank. He returned this weekend from a tour of four African nations. “‘There’s a lot I could say about what … Continue reading “Immoral Relativism”

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”

Smoking Signposts to Nowhere

Imagine that the Pentagon Papers or the Watergate scandal had broken out all over the press – no, not in the New York Times or the Washington Post, but in newspapers in Australia or Canada. And that, facing their own terrible record of reportage, of years of being cowed by the Nixon administration, major American … Continue reading “Smoking Signposts to Nowhere”

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”

The Scalping Party

It didn’t take long for the war crimes to begin – in Afghanistan, in Guantánamo, in Iraq. By November 2003, Mike Davis was writing about them for TomDispatch. And in introducing his piece, “The Scalping Party,” I suggested that the seeds of our future were well-planted and already beginning to sprout their monstrous crop. I … Continue reading “The Scalping Party”

The Scourge of Militarism: Rome and America

In September 2003, only four months after our president’s “Mission Accomplished” moment on the USS Abraham Lincoln, it was already evident to some of us that neocon dreams of establishing a robust Pax Americana on the planet were likely to be doomed in the sands of Iraq – but that, in the process, the American … Continue reading “The Scourge of Militarism: Rome and America”

Bases, Bases Everywhere

The last few weeks have been base-heavy ones in the news. The Pentagon’s provisional Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) list, the first in a decade, was published to domestic screams of pain. It represents, according to the Washington Post, “a sweeping plan to close or reduce forces at 62 major bases and nearly 800 minor … Continue reading “Bases, Bases Everywhere”

Crossing Nuclear Thresholds

Call it Star Wars, parts VII-XXII; but last week, just as Revenge of the Sith was opening galaxy-wide – multiplexes on Tatooine alone were expected to pull in billions – reporter Tim Weiner revealed on the front page of the New York Times that a new presidential directive will soon essentially green-light the future U.S. … Continue reading “Crossing Nuclear Thresholds”

The Return of the Body Count

On March 19, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld discussed the “metrics” of measuring success in Iraq with Steve Inskeep of National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Here is part of that interview: “NPR: I want to start, Mr. Secretary, with something you said recently. You were at a meeting with troops, taking questions from troops. You … Continue reading “The Return of the Body Count”