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.

War, What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing

Originally posted at TomDispatch. It may be hard to believe now, but in 1970 the protest song “War,” sung by Edwin Starr, hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. That was at the height of the Vietnam antiwar movement and the song, written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, became something of a … Continue reading “War, What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing”

The US Military Suffers From Affluenza

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Here’s my little joke of the month: How do you spell Pentagon? M-O-R-E. Whether it’s funny or not, it couldn’t be more accurate. And that urge for more is fed endlessly by an American military that has increasingly become the only “option” on that mythical “table” in Washington where all options … Continue reading “The US Military Suffers From Affluenza”

The US Military Bombs in the Twenty-First Century

Here’s my twenty-first-century rule of thumb about this country: if you have to say it over and over, it probably ain’t so. Which is why I’d think twice every time we’re told how “exceptional” or “indispensable” the United States is. For someone like me who can still remember a moment when Americans assumed that was … Continue reading “The US Military Bombs in the Twenty-First Century”

The Peace Movement’s War Story

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Who even remembers the moment in mid-February 2003, almost 13 years ago, when millions of people across this country and the planet turned out in an antiwar moment unique in history? It was aimed at stopping a conflict that had yet to begin. Those demonstrators, myself included, were trying to put … Continue reading “The Peace Movement’s War Story”

How To Avert Real Change in Election 2016

Originally posted at TomDispatch. It was the grisliest of stories: a decade and a half ago a former KGB man, Alexander Litvinenko, defected to England and turned on the powers-that-be in his own country, accusing its leader of both acts of assassination and, among other things, pedophilia. Litvinenko died in 2006 thanks to a highly … Continue reading “How To Avert Real Change in Election 2016”

Failed States and States of Failure

Originally posted on TomDispatch. One of the charms of the future is its powerful element of unpredictability, its ability to ambush us in lovely ways or bite us unexpectedly in the ass. Most of the futures I imagined as a boy have, for instance, come up deeply short, or else I would now be flying … Continue reading “Failed States and States of Failure”

How To Succeed at Failing, Pentagon-Style

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Iraq and Afghanistan are separated by more than 1,000 miles and, although they both exist in what is now known as the Greater Middle East, they had little in common – at least until March 2003, when the Bush administration followed up its 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by invading Iraq. Since … Continue reading “How To Succeed at Failing, Pentagon-Style”

Enduring Bases, Enduring War in the Middle East

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Meet the hottest new commander in the increasingly secretive world of American warfare, Lieutenant General Raymond “Tony” Thomas. A rare portrait in the Washington Post paints him as a “shadowy figure” – an appropriate phrase for the general who has been leading the U.S. military’s “manhunters,” aka Joint Special Operations Command, … Continue reading “Enduring Bases, Enduring War in the Middle East”

How We Learned To Stop Worrying About People and Love the Bombing

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Torturers, rapists, murderers: for more than a decade as I researched my history of the Vietnam War, Kill Anything That Moves, I spent a good deal of time talking to them, thinking about them, reading about them, writing about them. They all had much in common. At a relatively young age, … Continue reading “How We Learned To Stop Worrying About People and Love the Bombing”

America Revisits the Dark Side

Originally posted at TomDispatch. They’re back! From the look of the presidential campaign, war crimes are back on the American agenda. We really shouldn’t be surprised, because American officials got away with it last time – and in the case of the drone wars continue to get away with it today. Still, there’s nothing like … Continue reading “America Revisits the Dark Side”