War Is Peace, Peace Is War

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Here’s the strange thing in an ever-stranger world: I was born in July 1944 in the midst of a devastating world war. That war ended in August 1945 with the atomic obliteration of two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by...

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Ukraine, US, and Russia: Red Lines and Red Lines

Words can describe actions, they can indicate future actions or they can just be words. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba recently responded to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s suggestion to his Ukrainian opposite number, Volodymyr Zelensky, that he...

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How We End the Forever War

The U.S. does not know how to end its wars. Even when US troops are withdrawn from another country, US involvement in the war there does not necessarily end. The Trump administration pulled troops out of Somalia last year, but US military operations in Somalia...

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The Philippines: America’s Perpetually Useless Ally

China has parked its fishing fleet in waters claimed by the Philippines. Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte has fulminated ineffectively. So far, at least, the Biden administration has declined to go to war on Manila’s behalf. But the possibility remains so long as...

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