Originally appeared at TomDispatch. Honestly, can you believe it? Only a couple of weeks after Israeli forces targeted and killed four Al Jazeera journalists in a tent outside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, it happened again. This time, at least five journalists,...
Researching the Roots of War
I have spent the bulk of my career — on and off since the late Carter Administration — following the money that drives war and repression. What I have finally learned after so many decades of doing research on the war machine is that while research is critical, it...
The Detached Cruelty of Air Power
The one thing you can say about Donald Trump in his second term in office is that, whatever he may be doing at home, he’s not fighting any wars abroad, right? Well, actually, wrong! Yes, American ground troops are no longer actively fighting wars around the world, but...
The Atomic Nightmare, Then and Now
Originally published at TomDispatch. No kid is under a desk anymore — and isn’t that strange when you think about it? After all, when I “ducked and covered” like Bert the Turtle at school in the 1950s by huddling under my desk as sirens howled outside the classroom...
I Love America – Now It’s Bombing My Family in Iran
Originally published at TomDispatch. In a world where so much else is happening including, only recently, savage American and Israeli strikes against Iran, Gaza has become little more than background noise. Yes, that 25-mile strip of land and its towns and cities have...
Illness and Endless Wars
Reprinted from TomDispatch. Hey, you remember that guy, right? You know, the candidate who, in his third campaign for president in 2024 insisted that he was the one who would remove this country’s “warmongers and America-last globalists” and that returning him to the...
The Military-Industrial Complex Is Riding High
Originally published at TomDispatch. The Senate is on the verge of passing the distinctly misnamed “big beautiful bill.” It is, in fact, one of the ugliest pieces of legislation to come out of Congress in living memory. The version that passed the House recently would...
Resistance Works: How Small Groups Took on Great Powers
Originally published at TomDispatch. At a time when many may feel that good news has gone the way of the dodo, look no further than the homeland of that long-extinct bird – Mauritius – for a dose of encouragement. There, among the islands of the Indian Ocean, news can...
Ending Militarism in America
Originally appeared at TomDispatch. In September 2007, retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and historian William Astore emailed me out of the blue. He’d been reading articles at TomDispatch, the website I set up soon after the 9/11 attacks to deal with this country’s...
A New Military-Industrial Complex Arises
Reprinted from TomDispatch. Last April, in a move generating scant media attention, the Air Force announced that it had chosen two little-known drone manufacturers – Anduril Industries of Costa Mesa, California, and General Atomics of San Diego – to build prototype...


