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.

Driving a Flattened Iraq

In October 2003, the TV series Frontline did a show from Iraq, “Truth, War, and Consequences,” that featured a remarkable scene shot the previous April, not long after American troops arrived in Baghdad. A group of GIs have captured some Iraqis whom they accuse of stealing wood. As an instant punishment in the “Wild West” … Continue reading “Driving a Flattened Iraq”

Kashmir’s Untouched Village

I met Muzamil Jaleel, the Kashmir Bureau Chief for the Indian Express, last spring while teaching at the University of California (Berkeley) Graduate School of Journalism. He was on a brief leave from his civil-war-torn land, but every passing story he happened to tell about his life spoke of the carnage he had left behind. … Continue reading “Kashmir’s Untouched Village”

Winners and Losers in Iraq

Here were a few headlines from yesterday’s papers: “Bush Urges Congress Join Him on Budget Cuts” (Reuters); “President Offers Budget Proposal With Broad Cuts” (New York Times); “Bush Spending Plan Hits Social Programs” (Boston Globe); “Bush: Budget Cuts Part of Broader Economic Agenda” (Los Angeles Times); “Bush’s Budget Cuts Would Fall Near Main Street” (Christian … Continue reading “Winners and Losers in Iraq”

Resisting the Homeland Security State

Okay, under the rubric of “the war on terror” (which turns out to be just so versatile, so useful for so many much-desired but once back-burner policies, programs, and products), the military is having a grand old time protecting us from the Enemy up close and personal, right in our own, previously unlawful-to-occupy backyards. But, … Continue reading “Resisting the Homeland Security State”

The Emergence of the Homeland Security State

Since ancient Rome, imperial republics have invariably felt a tension between cherished republican practices at home and distinctly unrepublican ones abroad; or put another way, if imperial practices spread far enough beyond the republic’s borders and gain enough traction out there in the imperium, sooner or later they also make the reverse journey home, and … Continue reading “The Emergence of the Homeland Security State”

The Iraq Election: Another Dead End?

In the United States, the long-awaited Jan. 30 Iraqi election, assessed below by Dilip Hiro, might be labeled the “until” election or, more recently, the “in-the-days-before” election. Since “sovereignty” was turned over to the interim Iraqi government last June (a previous “until” event), American officials have been predicting – and American press and TV reports … Continue reading “The Iraq Election: Another Dead End?”

Extra! Extra! Read Nil About It!

“‘It’s a finesse to give power to Rumsfeld – giving him the right to act swiftly, decisively, and lethally,’ the first Pentagon adviser told me. ‘It’s a global free-fire zone.’” (Seymour Hersh, "The Coming Wars," the New Yorker magazine) George Bush’s all-foreign-policy inaugural address offered a globe-enveloping neocon version of a Pax Americana world. Analyses … Continue reading “Extra! Extra! Read Nil About It!”

What Is Wrong With Torture

Recently, I wrote once again about the spread of torture as a way of life in the Bush administration’s offshore imperium. I offered my version of a national “self-portrait” for the New Year (“American Gothic”) and considered the latest torture news, now practically pouring through leaks in the Washington and Pentagon bureaucracy. While I was … Continue reading “What Is Wrong With Torture”

Does the Future Stand a Chance?

Here’s a strange, small tale of our times, as reported from Washington by Guy Dinmore in the sober British Financial Times. According to an anonymous counterinsurgency expert Dinmore evidently interviewed, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has a “brutally accurate” picture of the deteriorating situation in Iraq and “its potential dangers.” But, writes Dinmore, “a member … Continue reading “Does the Future Stand a Chance?”

Desolate Fallujah: City Without a Future?

The other day I posted a Dahr Jamail piece entitled, Iraq: The Devastation, but another word has recently come to mind that, I suspect, might apply no less aptly to Iraq and other areas where the Bush administration is exerting its muscle. That word is “desolation.” Let’s forget for a minute the recent Newsweek report … Continue reading “Desolate Fallujah: City Without a Future?”