Robert Koehler

The annual defense budget, passed recently by both the House (377-48) and Senate (82-8), came in at $738 billion for 2020, up from last year a sweet $22 billion. War hits the motherlode every year. “The money just isn’t there” for virtually anything that matters – you know, healthcare for all, free college tuition, clean … Continue reading “Given $738 Billion, US War Budget Hits the Motherlode (Again)”

“Everyone wants to play with the big boys, and the only way to become one of the big boys is to have nuclear toys.” Attention Planet Earth! Attention Planet Earth! It is time to grow up. The words are those of Mohamed ElBaradei, then director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, from a 2005 … Continue reading “A Tight Grip On Our Nuclear Toys”

The U.S. government protects itself, not democracy. That’s what is most apparent about its 18-count indictment of Julian Assange, not to mention the ongoing imprisonment of Chelsea Manning, for the leaking and release of State Department and military documents and videos a decade ago. The current reporting on the indictment is mostly about Assange himself: … Continue reading “Assange Indictments Hide the Context of War”

Mix a little socialism in with the oil and war may be unavoidable. Thus, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, talking about Venezuela: "The president has been crystal clear and incredibly consistent. Military action is possible. If that’s what’s required, that’s what the United States will do." He goes on, demonstrating how we lie about war … Continue reading “What’s Next: War With Venezuela?”

"They must kill and continue to kill, strange as it may seem, in order not to know that they are killing." ~ Rene Girard, Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World Socially sanctioned killing is called war. The word "war" may be the most powerful word in human history, because it creates a mask of respectability … Continue reading “Yemen: Our Future?”

Peace, love and Donald Trump? I get the skepticism regarding the tentative nuclear disarmament agreement the president and Kim Jong-un reached last week, but not the cynicism – not the outright dismissal. It’s too easy to hate Trump, but he isn’t the point. In his reckless unpredictability – in his lust for applause and desperation … Continue reading “Trump, Kim, and the Nuclear Status Quo”

Whenever the topic is nuclear weapons, I remain in a state of disbelief that we can talk about them "strategically" – that language allows us to maintain such a distance from the reality of what they do, we can casually debate their use. Consider, in the context of the sudden rush of alarming news that … Continue reading “Peace and the Nuclear Paradox”

What’s a little cholera – excuse me, the worst outbreak of this preventable disease in modern history – compared to the needs of a smoothly functioning economy? A week before he was kicked out of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet for allegedly having watched pornography on his government computer, former First Secretary of State … Continue reading “Yemen’s Crisis Belong to All of Us”

Incoming! Incoming! Uh . . . pardon me while I interrupt this false alarm to quote Martin Luther King: “Science investigates,” he says in The Strength To Love, “religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The … Continue reading “Nuclear Annihilation and the Wisdom of Mass Salvation”

“. . . real security can only be shared . . .” I call it news in a cage: the fact that the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. In other words, how nice, but it has nothing to do with the real stuff going on across … Continue reading “Peace on the Far Side of Nuclear Weapons”