A Young Man’s Death in Iraq

I‘m too old for the typical Web site with lots of posted back-and-forth commentary. So the TomDispatch e-mail box is – and often I regret this – normally my own private adventure. I’m regularly amazed by the letters that come in, many encouraging, some stunningly thoughtful (often with striking turns of phrase), and every now … Continue reading “A Young Man’s Death in Iraq”

Individualism vs. War

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning veteran foreign correspondent, having covered foreign conflicts in Argentina, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Columbia, Guatemala, Bosnia, Iraq, Sudan, Algeria, India, Israel/Palestine, Turkey, and Kosovo for the New York Times, Dallas Morning News, Christian Science Monitor, and National Public Radio. Based on this experience, he authored the books War is a … Continue reading “Individualism vs. War”

Operation Withdrawal Scam

A few days ago, the White House launched a new phase of its propaganda siege for the Iraq war. The opening salvo came on July 27, when the commander of American forces in Iraq said that continuation of recent trends would make possible "some fairly substantial reductions" of U.S. troop levels in the spring and … Continue reading “Operation Withdrawal Scam”

Dating Cheney’s Nuclear Drumbeat

In a recent piece, "The Media’s Roving Eye," trying to establish a timeline that would offer context for the Plame case, I wrote the following: “Vice President Cheney started the administration’s atomic drumbeat to war in Iraq with a series of speeches on Saddam’s supposed nuclear capabilities and desires beginning in August of 2002. (The … Continue reading “Dating Cheney’s Nuclear Drumbeat”

Gitmo’s Kangaroo Court

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) obtained two leaked e-mails from former military prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay over the weekend. The e-mails both claim that the military committees set up to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are "rigged, fraudulent, and thin on evidence against the accused." In the first e-mail obtained by the Australian … Continue reading “Gitmo’s Kangaroo Court”

Armageddon Gets No Press

What has become of the print and TV media watchdogs who hounded President Nixon from office because he lied about when he learned of a minor burglary of no consequence in itself? What became of the watchdog media that bayed after President Reagan because some low-level neoconservative officials sold arms to Iran and diverted the … Continue reading “Armageddon Gets No Press”

Media Sycophant Jailbird?

Neo-crazy media sycophant Judith Miller of the New York Times, an "embedded" reporter in Bush’s war of aggression against Iraq – and in the subsequent futile hunt for the weapons of mass destruction she had frequently reported Saddam Hussein had – is currently embedded in jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury. On … Continue reading “Media Sycophant Jailbird?”

The Conviction of Kevin Benderman

I stood outside the courthouse at Fort Stewart, Ga., with Camilo Mejia, his mother Maritza, Aiden Delgado, other supporters, news reporters, cameramen, and military police as we waited for Sgt. Kevin Benderman to be escorted out of the courthouse and into a van waiting to transport him to jail after he was sentenced by a … Continue reading “The Conviction of Kevin Benderman”