Norman Solomon

In just a few words – "those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future" – George Orwell summed up why narratives about history can be crucial. And so, ever since the final helicopter liftoff from the U.S. Embassy’s roof in Saigon on April 30, 1975, the … Continue reading “Daniel Ellsberg Has Foiled Those Who Want Him Confined to the Past”

The announcement by Vladimir Putin over the weekend that Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus marked a further escalation of potentially cataclysmic tensions over the war in neighboring Ukraine. As the Associated Press reported, "Putin said the move was triggered by Britain’s decision this past week to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing rounds containing … Continue reading “We Don’t Have To Choose Between Nuclear Madmen”

Vast quantities of lies from top US government officials led up to the Iraq invasion. Now, marking its 20th anniversary, the same media outlets that eagerly boosted those lies are offering retrospectives. Don’t expect them to shed light on the most difficult truths, including their own complicity in pushing for war. What propelled the United … Continue reading “The Urbanity of Evil: 20 Years After the Invasion of Iraq”

This week, when the New York Times featured an opinion piece by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, it harmonized with a crescendo of other recent pleas from prominent American supporters of Israel. Bloomberg warned that Israel’s new governing coalition is trying to give parliament the power to "overrule the nation’s Supreme Court and run roughshod over individual … Continue reading “Israel’s Liberal Supporters Are Taking Their Denial to a New Level”

Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, media coverage of the war hasn’t included even the slightest mention of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Yet the war has boosted the chances that ICBMs will set off a global holocaust. Four hundred of them – always on hair-trigger alert – are fully armed with nuclear warheads … Continue reading “War in Ukraine and ICBMs: The Untold Story of How They Could Blow Up the World”

This is an emergency. Right now, we’re closer to a cataclysmic nuclear war than at any other time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. One assessment after another has said the current situation is even more dangerous. Yet few members of Congress are advocating for any steps that the U.S. government could take to … Continue reading “Don’t Just Worry About Nuclear War — Do Something To Help Prevent It”

The arrogance of power is especially ominous and despicable when a government leader risks huge numbers of lives in order to make a provocative move on the world’s geopolitical chessboard. Nancy Pelosi’s plan to visit Taiwan is in that category. Thanks to her, the chances of a military confrontation between China and the United States … Continue reading “Nancy Pelosi Could Get Us All Killed”

I’ve just finished going through the more than 60 presidential statements, documents and communiqués about the war in Ukraine that the White House has released and posted on its website since Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in early March. They all share with that speech one stunning characteristic – the complete absence of … Continue reading “Biden Refuses to Mention the Worsening Dangers of Nuclear War. Media and Congress Enable His Silence.”

Ever since Joe Biden ended his speech in Poland on Saturday night by making one of the most dangerous statements ever uttered by a U.S. president in the nuclear age, efforts to clean up after him have been profuse. Administration officials scurried to assert that Biden didn’t mean what he said. Yet no amount of … Continue reading “Biden’s Unhinged Call for Regime Change in Russia”

Russia’s war in Ukraine – like the USA’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – should be understood as barbaric mass slaughter. For all their mutual hostility, the Kremlin and the White House are willing to rely on similar precepts: Might makes right. International law is what you extol when you aren’t violating it. And at … Continue reading “From Moscow to Washington, the Barbarism and Hypocrisy Don’t Justify Each Other”