Obama’s Mission Accomplished Moment?
And a Military-First Policy on a Destabilizing Planet
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.
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Energy Wars 2012
Last week, the president made a rare appearance at the Pentagon to unveil a new strategic plan for U.S. military policy (and so spending) over the next decade. Let’s leave the specifics to a future TomDispatch post and focus instead on a historical footnote: Obama was evidently the first president to offer remarks from a … Continue reading “Energy Wars 2012”
How Two Wars in the Greater Middle East Revealed the Weakness of the Global Superpower
It was to be the war that would establish empire as an American fact. It would result in a thousand-year Pax Americana. It was to be “mission accomplished” all the way. And then, of course, it wasn’t. And then, almost nine dismal years later, it was over (sorta). It was the Iraq War, and we … Continue reading “How Two Wars in the Greater Middle East Revealed the Weakness of the Global Superpower”
The Life and Death of American Drones
It’s 10 pm. Do you know where your drone is? Oh, the confusion of it all! The U.S. military now insists it was deeply befuddled when it claimed that a super-secret advanced RQ-170 Sentinel drone (aka “the beast of Kandahar“) that fell into Iranian hands on Dec. 4 — evidently while surveying suspected nuclear sites … Continue reading “The Life and Death of American Drones”
Did the Pentagon Help Strangle the Arab Spring?
Of all American military training programs around the world, the most publicized in recent years has been the one building up a local security force to replace U.S. (and NATO) troops as they ever so slowly withdraw from Afghanistan. By 2014, that country is supposed to possess an army and police force of at least … Continue reading “Did the Pentagon Help Strangle the Arab Spring?”
A New Cold War in Asia?
Last Friday, the U.S. military formally handed over its largest base in Iraq, the ill-named “Camp Victory,” to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The next morning, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius officially declared counterinsurgency wars in the Middle East dead in — if you don’t mind an inapt word — the water. (He … Continue reading “A New Cold War in Asia?”
He was 22… She was 12…
He was 22, a corporal in the Marines from Preston, Iowa, a "city" incorporated in 1890 with a present population of 949. He died in a hospital in Germany of "wounds received from an explosive device while on patrol in Helmand province [Afghanistan]." Of him, his high school principal said, "He was a good kid." He is … Continue reading “He was 22… She was 12…”
Thought Crime in Washington
When I arrived at Zuccotti Prison one afternoon last week, the “park” was in its now-usual lockdown mode. No more tents. No library. No kitchen. No medical area. Just about 30 leftover protesters and perhaps 100 of New York’s finest as well as private-security types in neon-green vests in or around a dead space enclosed … Continue reading “Thought Crime in Washington”
How the Movies Saved My Life
Every childhood has its own geography and every child is an explorer, as daring as any Peary or Amundsen or Scott. I was the mildest of children, such a picky eater that my parents called me a “quince” (a fruit sour enough, they insisted, to make your face pucker, as mine did when challenged by … Continue reading “How the Movies Saved My Life”
The Passing of the Postwar Era
Sometimes, just when you least expect it, symbolism steps right up and coldcocks you. So how about this headline for — in the spirit of our last president — ushering America’s withdrawal from Iraq right over the nearest symbolic cliff: “U.S. empties biggest Iraq base, takes Saddam’s toilet.” They’re talking about Victory Base, formerly — … Continue reading “The Passing of the Postwar Era”