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.

Returning to Cheyenne Mountain

Originally posted at TomDispatch. My childhood was a nuclear one and I’m not talking about the nuclear family. I’m thinking of those duck-and-cover moments when, with air raid sirens screaming outside, we went under our school desks, hands over head, to test out our readiness for a Cold War nuclear exchange and the coming of … Continue reading “Returning to Cheyenne Mountain”

Two Impulsive Leaders Fan the Global Flames

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Every now and then something lodges in your memory and seems to haunt you forever. In my case, it was a comment Newsweek attributed to an unnamed senior British official “close to the Bush team” before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. “Everyone wants to go to Baghdad,” he said. “Real … Continue reading “Two Impulsive Leaders Fan the Global Flames”

Fighting the War You Know (Even If It Won’t Work)

Originally posted at TomDispatch. In America’s Afghanistan, it’s all history – the future as well as the past, what’s going to happen, as well as what’s happened in these last nearly 16 years of war.  You’ve heard it all before: there were the various “surges” (though once upon a time sold as paths to victory, … Continue reading “Fighting the War You Know (Even If It Won’t Work)”

America at War Since 9/11

Originally posted at TomDispatch. At 36% to 37% in the latest polls, Donald Trump’s approval rating is in a ditch in what should still be the “honeymoon” period of his presidency. And yet, compared to Congress (25%), he’s a maestro of popularity. In fact, there’s just one institution in American society that gets uniformly staggeringly … Continue reading “America at War Since 9/11”

A Wide World of Winless War

Originally posted at TomDispatch. If you want a number, try 194. That’s how many countries there are on planet Earth (give or take one or two). Today, Nick Turse reports a related number that should boggle your mind: at least 137 of those countries, or 70% of them, already have something in common for 2017 … Continue reading “A Wide World of Winless War”

Trump’s Love Affair With the Saudis

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Not that anyone in a position of power seems to notice, but there’s a simple rule for American military involvement in the Greater Middle East: once the U.S. gets in, no matter the country, it never truly gets out again. Let’s start with Afghanistan. The U.S. first entered the fray there … Continue reading “Trump’s Love Affair With the Saudis”

The Summer of Love and the Winter of National Insecurity

It’s the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. What better place to celebrate than that fabled era’s epicenter, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, where the DeYoung Museum has mounted a dazzling exhibition, chock full of rock music, light shows, posters, and fashions from the mind-bending summer of 1967? If you tour the exhibit, you … Continue reading “The Summer of Love and the Winter of National Insecurity”

A Planet’s Future Threatened by the Fate of Its Children

Originally posted at TomDispatch. In her first interview since President Obama commuted her 35-year sentence and she was released from the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Chelsea Manning explained to Nightline co-anchor Juju Chang why she leaked documents about America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We’re getting all this information from all these different … Continue reading “A Planet’s Future Threatened by the Fate of Its Children”

America’s Real Red Scare

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Back in 2011, thinking about the implosion of the Soviet Union two decades earlier and what followed, I wrote: “In 1991, when the Soviet Union disappeared and the United States found itself the last superpower standing, Washington mistook that for a victory most rare. In the years that followed, in a … Continue reading “America’s Real Red Scare”

What Would War Mean in Korea?

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Here’s a reasonable question to ask in our unreasonable world: Does Donald Trump even know where North Korea is? The answer matters and if you wonder why I ask, just remember his comment upon landing in Israel after his visit to Saudi Arabia. "We just got back from the Middle East," … Continue reading “What Would War Mean in Korea?”