Norman Solomon

The anniversary of his assassination always brings a flood of tributes to Martin Luther King Jr., and this Sunday will surely be no exception. But those tributes – including from countless organizations calling themselves progressive – are routinely evasive about the anti-militarist ideals that King passionately expressed during the final year of his life. You … Continue reading “The Liberal Contempt for Martin Luther King’s Final Year”

Last week’s outbreak of rhetorical hostilities between the White House and the Kremlin has heightened the urgent need for a summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin. The spate of mutual denunciations is catnip for mass media and fuel for hardliners in both countries. But for the world at large, under the doomsday shadow of … Continue reading “The Urgent Need for a Biden-Putin Summit”

No matter who ends up winning Senate confirmation for top positions on President Biden’s “national security” team, an ominous dynamic is already underway. Some foreign-policy specialists with progressive reputations are voicing support and evasive praise for prospective Cabinet members – as though spinning through revolving doors to broker lucrative Pentagon contracts is not a conflict … Continue reading “Some Liberals and Arms-Control Experts Are Cheering for War Profiteers To Be in Biden’s Cabinet”

By all accounts, the frontrunner to be Joe Biden’s pick for Secretary of Defense is Michèle Flournoy. It’s a prospect that should do more than set off alarm bells — it should be understood as a scenario for the president-elect to stick his middle fingers in the eyes of Americans who are fed up with … Continue reading “Hey Joe, Where You Going With That Pentagon in Your Hands?”

All of a sudden, MoveOn wants to help “national security” whistleblowers. Well, some of them, anyway. After many years of carefully refusing to launch a single campaign in support of brave whistleblowers who faced vicious prosecution during the Obama administration – including Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, NSA whistleblowers Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden, and CIA … Continue reading “MoveOn’s Phony New Campaign for ‘Protecting Whistleblowers’”

Joe Biden’s recent efforts to deny his record of support for invading Iraq are marvels of evasion, with falsehoods that have been refuted by one well-documented appraisal after another after another. This month, Biden claimed that his vote for war on the Senate floor was somehow not a vote for war. Ironically, while he was … Continue reading “The Official Secrets Movie vs. Joe Biden’s Lies About the Iraq War”

The current political brawl over next year’s budget is highly significant. With Democrats in a House majority for the first time in eight years, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and most other party leaders continue to support even more largesse for the Pentagon. But many progressive congressmembers are challenging the wisdom of deference to the military-industrial complex … Continue reading “The Toxic Lure of ‘Guns and Butter’”

What Barbara Lee did on the House floor three days after 9/11 – speaking prophetic words and casting the only vote against a green light for endless war – remains the bravest wise action in Congress during this century. The contrast was jolting last week when her vote enabled the House Budget Committee to approve … Continue reading “Rep. Barbara Lee’s Startling Vote To Boost Military Spending”

When Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell teamed up to invite NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to address a joint session of Congress, they had every reason to expect the April 3 speech to be a big hit with U.S. media and political elites. The establishment is eager to affirm the sanctity of support for the … Continue reading “Pelosi and McConnell Are Inching Us Closer to Nuclear War”

Daniel Ellsberg has a message that managers of the warfare state don’t want people to hear. “If you have information that bears on deception or illegality in pursuing wrongful policies or an aggressive war,” he said in a statement released last week, “don't wait to put that out and think about it, consider acting in … Continue reading “Those Who Controlled the Past Should Not Control the Future”