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.

Why Can’t We Just Play Ball?

Originally posted at TomDispatch. I can remember lying on my bed with a crumpled up piece of paper in my hand and throwing it at the wall while, in my mind, the announcer’s voice carried on: "It’s a long drive to right field… Furillo is going back, back, back… He leaps! He’s got it!" And … Continue reading “Why Can’t We Just Play Ball?”

America’s (Near) Thirty Years’ War

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Fair warning. Stop reading right now if you want, because I’m going to repeat myself. What choice do I have, since my subject is the Afghan War (America’s second Afghan War, no less)? I began writing about that war in October 2001, almost 17 years ago, just after the U.S. invasion … Continue reading “America’s (Near) Thirty Years’ War”

The Legacy of Infinite War

Originally posted at TomDispatch. It looks like TomDispatch may have a few less readers from now on. Perhaps it will surprise you, but judging by the mail I get, some members of the U.S. military do read TomDispatch – partially to check out the range of military and ex-military critics of America’s wars that this … Continue reading “The Legacy of Infinite War”

American Islamophobia’s Fake Facts

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Anti-Muslim activists in the United States were operating in a “post-truth era” and putting out “alternative facts” long before those phrases entered the language. For the last decade they have been spreading provable falsehoods through their well-organized network of publications and websites. A major theme of those falsehoods is telling the … Continue reading “American Islamophobia’s Fake Facts”

Trump’s Grand Strategy

Originally posted at TomDispatch. If you don’t happen to be part of Donald Trump’s base and you’re a member of the “fake media,” it’s a commonplace to assume that our president is a creature of impulse, a giant id with hardly rhyme, no less reason for what he does. News headlines and those of opinion … Continue reading “Trump’s Grand Strategy”

Making Sense of US Moves in the Middle East

Originally posted at TomDispatch. [Editor’s note: The Jewish Nation-State bill described here was passed early Thursday morning. This article was written before passage.] The report was devastating – or would have been, if anyone here had noticed it. “Between 2001 and 2017,” it concluded, “U.S. government efforts to stabilize insecure and contested areas in Afghanistan … Continue reading “Making Sense of US Moves in the Middle East”

Special Ops: 133 Countries Down, 17 to Go?

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Give them credit. As TomDispatch’s Nick Turse has so vividly reported over the last decade, America’s previously “elite” Special Operations forces — once small, specially trained units in a large military — have now essentially become a military in their own right, all 70,000 of them (larger, in fact, than many … Continue reading “Special Ops: 133 Countries Down, 17 to Go?”

Weaponized Keynesianism in Washington

Who could forget it? There were the $37 screws (no need to say who was getting screwed), the $2,043 nut (McDonnell Douglas made it specially for the U.S. Navy), the $7,622 coffee pot, the $74,165 aluminum ladder, and the $640 plastic toilet seats for the Air Force. All of those examples of Pentagon waste were … Continue reading “Weaponized Keynesianism in Washington”

How America’s Wars Fund Inequality at Home

Originally posted at TomDispatch. On the campaign trail in 2016, Donald Trump wasn’t shy when it came to the issue of debt. As he told Norah O’Donnell of CBS This Morning at the time, “I’m the king of debt. I’m great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me. I’ve made a fortune by using … Continue reading “How America’s Wars Fund Inequality at Home”

Is a War With China on the Horizon?

Originally posted at TomDispatch. There’s no other imperial tradition like it. For two millennia, dynasty after dynasty rose and fell, spread and shrank, reaching into Southeast Asia and far out into the steppes of Eurasia, its commercial fleets — 3,500 ships in the fourteenth century — voyaging as far as Africa. It’s true that ours … Continue reading “Is a War With China on the Horizon?”