Originally posted at TomDispatch. On December 9th, the Washington Post covered Donald Trump's offhand, if long expected, announcement of the ousting of retired Marine General John Kelly from an embattled White House. Its report focused on the chief of staff’s...
Originally posted at TomDispatch. After six all-American decades in business, Toys "R" Us crashed in 2018, closing its 735 U.S. stores and filing for bankruptcy. As it happens, however, the Washington-branded outfit, Mistreatment and Misconduct "R" Us (or M&M "R"...
Originally posted at TomDispatch. Imagine, for a moment, a country that no longer rebuilds or reinforces its sagging infrastructure but just can’t stop pouring money into its military. Oh wait, you don’t have to imagine that at all! You just have to look...
Originally posted at TomDispatch. It’s now more than 17 years later, years in which American commanding generals in Afghanistan repeatedly hailed the U.S. military’s “progress” there and regularly applauded the way we had finally “turned...
Originally posted at TomDispatch. “I'm going to Saigon,” said Secretary of Defense James Mattis last month before correcting himself. “Ho Chi Minh City – former Saigon.” It was the fifth time that Mattis would meet with his Vietnamese...
Originally posted at TomDispatch. He was the candidate who, while talking to a foreign policy expert, reportedly wondered "why we can’t use nuclear weapons." He was the man who would never rule anything out or take any "cards," including nuclear...
Originally posted at TomDispatch. In June, Austin “Scott” Miller, the special-ops general chosen to be the 17th U.S. commander in Afghanistan, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Like so many of the generals who had preceded him, he...
Originally posted at TomDispatch. We’re already two years past the crystal anniversary and eight years short of the silver one, or at least we would be, had it been a wedding – and, after a fashion, perhaps it was. On October 7, 2001, George W. Bush launched the...
Originally posted at TomDispatch. The following excerpt from Tom Engelhardt’s book The End of Victory Culture is posted with permission from the University of Massachusetts Press. 1. “Hey, How Come They Got All the Fun?” Now that Darth Vader’s...
Originally posted at TomDispatch. It was May 2017. The Saudis were growing increasingly nervous. For more than two years they had been relying heavily on U.S. military support and bombs to defeat Houthi rebels in Yemen. Now, the Senate was considering a bipartisan...
