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.

If the Government Does It, It’s Legal

Indefinite detention of the innocent and guilty alike, without any hope of charges, trial, or release: this is now the American way.  Most Americans, however, may not care to take that in, not even when the indefinitely detained go on a hunger strike.  That act has certainly gotten Washington’s and the media’s collective attention.  After all, could there … Continue reading “If the Government Does It, It’s Legal”

Filling the Empty Battlefield

Chalmers Johnson’s book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire was published in March 2000 — and just about no one noticed.  Until then, blowback had been an obscure term of CIA tradecraft, which Johnson defined as “the unintended consequences of policies that were kept secret from the American people.”  In his prologue, the former consultant … Continue reading “Filling the Empty Battlefield”

Shell Shock Lite

“Shell shock,” the psychological scourge of World War I, occurred after “a man has been buried, lifted, or otherwise subjected to the physical effects of a bursting shell or other similar explosive.”  So wrote Charles Myers, an officer in the British army’s medical corps, in his 1940 book, Shell Shock in France, 1914-18. Additionally, he noted, … Continue reading “Shell Shock Lite”

The Enemy-Industrial Complex

The communist enemy, with the “world’s fourth largest military,” has been trundling missiles around and threatening the United States with nuclear obliteration.  Guam, Hawaii, Washington: all, it claims, are targetable.  The coverage in the media has been hair-raising.  The U.S. is rushing an untested missile defense system to Guam, deploying missile-interceptor ships off the South … Continue reading “The Enemy-Industrial Complex”

How the Pentagon Corrupted Afghanistan

America’s post-9/11 conflicts have been wars of corruption, a point surprisingly seldom made in the mainstream media. Keep in mind that George W. Bush’s administration was a monster of privatization. It had its own set of crony corporations, including Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel, and various oil companies, as well as a set of mercenary rent-a-gun outfits like Blackwater, DynCorp, and Triple … Continue reading “How the Pentagon Corrupted Afghanistan”

Obama’s Risky Middle East Fantasy

Had you searched for “Israel, nuclear weapons” at Google News in the wake of President Obama’s recent trip to the Middle East, you would have gotten a series of headlines like this: “Obama: Iran more than a year away from developing nuclear weapon” (CNN), “Obama vows to thwart Tehran’s nuclear drive” (the Times of Israel), … Continue reading “Obama’s Risky Middle East Fantasy”

American Anniversaries from Hell

It’s true that, last week, few in Congress cared to discuss, no less memorialize, the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.  Nonetheless, two anniversaries of American disasters and crimes abroad — the “mission accomplished” debacle of 2003 and the 45th anniversary of the My Lai massacre — were at least noted in passing in our world.  In my hometown … Continue reading “American Anniversaries from Hell”

Ten Years on, Iraqis ‘Have No Future’

In the lead-up to the war in Iraq, President George W. Bush made a promise.  “The Iraqi people can be certain of this,” he said. “The United States is committed to helping them build a better future.”  A decade later, his successor, Barack Obama, seemed to suggest the U.S. had kept its end of the bargain.  On … Continue reading “Ten Years on, Iraqis ‘Have No Future’”

Drone Warfare is Neither Cheap, Nor Surgical, Nor Decisive

Just who is doing the killing?  That was the question that came up when the U.S. and sometime ally Pakistan got into a war of words over who was responsible for air strikes that killed up to nine people — including two purported al-Qaeda senior commanders — in Pakistan’s restive tribal belt early last month.  … Continue reading “Drone Warfare is Neither Cheap, Nor Surgical, Nor Decisive”

How to Tell War Stories

Here’s how I met Nick Turse.  I have a friend who’s a professor of public health and one day in 2003 he asked me if I’d be willing to spend a little time with one of his graduate students who was doing some curious work on the Vietnam War.  This student had read my book The … Continue reading “How to Tell War Stories”