Originally posted at TomDispatch. As a religious studies professor, I know a parable when I see one. Consider the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the final events in this country’s war in Afghanistan as just such a parable taken directly from the...
Iraq Daily Roundup: 11 Killed
Who Represents Afghanistan: Genuine Activists vs. ‘Native Informants’
Scenes of thousands of Afghans flooding the Kabul International Airport to flee the country as Taliban fighters were quickly consolidating their control over the capital, raised many questions, leading amongst them: who are these people and why are they running away?...
The Space Force Is Transforming the Final Frontier Into a Battlefield
With outer space being, as anyone over the age of 25 or so knows, the Final Frontier, is it any surprise that the Pentagon is rushing full speed ahead to turn it, against the general desire of almost everyone on Earth, into a battlefield? To borrow science fiction...
Iraq Daily Roundup: Four Killed
Don’t Forget About Yemen
The war on Yemen has not ended, and unfortunately neither has U.S. backing for the Saudi coalition. As Bruce Riedel and Annelle Sheline explain in their recent analysis for Brookings, Biden has failed to cut off support for Saudi coalition offensive operations as he...
The Profits of War
Originally posted at TomDispatch. Was the Afghan War a disaster? Well, don’t ask Afghans, including the seven children who died in the final U.S. drone strike of that war, how they’re doing, or those about to go hungry as that land suffers a devastating...
US Can’t Save the World: That Includes Lebanon
America exists. Therefore it must save the world. That appears to be the view of Foreign Policy columnist Anchal Vohra. Mixing disappointment and shock, she observed: "Unfortunately for Lebanon, the United States has no active plan to rescue the country – nor is...
Are the US and China Stumbling Toward an ‘Islands War’?
In a diplomatic coup, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a deal last week with the U.K. and U.S. to have those Anglo-American allies help build a nuclear-powered submarine fleet for Australia. A $66 billion French deal to provide Canberra with diesel...
Mark Milley and the Rogue Military Brass: Dress Rehearsal for a Coup?
Leaks to the news media from a new book, Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa on the last weeks of the Trump administration are generating a firestorm of controversy, especially regarding the conduct of Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff....


