Robert Koehler

After 12 years – including five years of solitary confinement at Belmarsh Prison in London – Julian Assange is free. God bless America! He wasn’t extradited to the U.S. to stand trial, where he faced a sentence of 170 years in prison for violating the so-called Espionage Act. Instead, he took a plea deal with … Continue reading “Assange’s Freedom Is Also Ours: To Tell the Truth”

For its victims, war is . . . yes, hell. For the rest of us – the onlooking and supportive patriots – war is an abstraction embedded in ignorance, a.k.a., public relations, served up for public consumption. At least that’s the way it’s supposed to be. The reality of war should never directly confront the … Continue reading “The War on Gaza: Public Relations vs. Reality”

“When militarism is addressed as a psychosocial disease, the absurd irrationality of its symptoms is clearly exposed.” These words are from a 1992 essay by N. Arther Coulter published in a journal called Medicine and War. Who would have guessed? They’re as relevant now as they were three decades ago. God bless Armageddon. As war … Continue reading “15 Seconds Until Nuclear Armageddon”

Nuclear sanity: ultimate (or, God help us, immediate) disarmament. Nuclear insanity: ongoing development and deployment, endless investment, eventual (either accidental or intentional) use. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., addressing Congress several weeks ago, made a heartfelt and powerful case for nuclear sanity, for a revamping of the system of mutually assured destruction, which gives certain national … Continue reading “The Billion Dollar Global Market for Nuclear Weapons”

War spews hell in all directions. Just ask the guys at Talon Anvil, a secret U.S. "strike cell" recently exposed by the New York Times as a unit with a reputation for ignoring the rules of engagement and killing lots and lots of civilians with drone strikes as it plays war with ISIS. Part of … Continue reading “Poisoning Ourselves With War”

War spews hell in all directions. Just ask the guys at Talon Anvil, a secret U.S. “strike cell” recently exposed by the New York Times as a unit with a reputation for ignoring the rules of engagement and killing lots and lots of civilians with drone strikes as it plays war with ISIS. Part of … Continue reading “The Many Ways War Is Poisoning Us”

A new defense budget looms. Maybe we’re running out of wars to fight, but no matter. The proposed figure before Congress is bigger than ever: $778 billion. How fascinating – and how irrelevant – that the vote is scheduled just a few days after the New York Times published its investigation of a U.S. airstrike … Continue reading “How Many Dead Kids Before We Admit US ‘National Security’ Is a Lie?”

The Pentagon’s offer of “condolence money” to the relatives of the ten people (seven of them children) who were killed in the final U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan – originally declared righteous and necessary – bears a troubling connection to the government’s ongoing efforts to get its hands on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and punish … Continue reading “Julian Assange: A Threat to War Itself”

“For Washington, it seems that whatever the problem is, the answer is bombing.” So wrote Stephen Zunes, in the wake of Joe Biden’s first act of murder as president . . . excuse me, his first act of defensive military action: bombing a border post in Syria last week, killing 22 of our enemies. This … Continue reading “The US War Machine Doesn’t Want Us to Take War Personally”

So here’s an odd, mostly overlooked scrap of recent news: Donald Trump wants to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq before he leaves office, and is expected to announce a drawdown of troops in both countries. Currently there are approximately 4,500 troops in Afghanistan and 3,000 in Iraq. The drawdown would leave 2,500 troops … Continue reading “Beyond Simplistic ‘Peace’”