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“A ministry of risk goes unerringly to the side of the victims, to those threatened or destroyed by greed, prejudice, and war. From the side of those victims, it teaches two simple, indispensable lessons: (1) that we all belong in the ditch, or in the breach, with the victims; and (2) that until we go … Continue reading “A Ministry of Risk in A Time of War”

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave When first we practice to deceive.” ~ Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) The case of the Gitmo plea agreement keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. A few weeks ago, we learned that a plea agreement had been entered into by way of a signed contract between the retired general in … Continue reading “Guantanamo: Deal or No Deal?”

The freshly elected President Barack Obama probably never imagined that he would be delivering his Nobel Peace Prize lecture by defending war. But there he was, in December 2009, doing just that. “I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated,” he said. “[P]erhaps the most … Continue reading “Orwell’s War: When War is the Path to Peace”

The divestment campaigns launched last spring by students protesting Israel’s mass slaughter in Gaza brought the issue of the militarization of American higher education back into the spotlight. Of course, financial ties between the Pentagon and American universities are nothing new. As Stuart Leslie has pointed out in his seminal book on the topic, The … Continue reading “The Pentagon Goes to School”

On October 1, Iran fired about 180 missiles at Israel in response to Israel’s recent assassinations of leaders of its Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), Hezbollah and Hamas. There are conflicting reports about how many of the missiles struck their targets and if there were any deaths. But Israel is now considering a counterattack that could propel it into an all-out … Continue reading “Biden’s Israel Policy Has Led Us to the Brink of War on Iran”

Everything is at stake. Everything is at stake with nuclear weapons. While working as a nuclear war planner for the Kennedy administration, Daniel Ellsberg was shown a document calculating that a U.S. nuclear attack on communist countries would result in 600 million dead. As he put it later: “A hundred Holocausts.” That was in 1961. … Continue reading “‘Escalation Dominance’ and the Prospect of More Than 1,000 Holocausts”

Originally appeared at TomDispatch. And while you’re at it, keep in mind that, according to the remarkable Costs of War Project, this country ended up spending at least $8 trillion on those wars. (Imagine how that money might have been used to help rather than hurt people globally!) According to that project, an estimated 940,000 … Continue reading “Will the Forever Wars Ever End?”

Julian Assange’s address Tuesday morning to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Ladies and gentlemen, the transition from years of confinement in a maximum security prison to being here before the representatives of 46 nations and 700 million people is a profound and … Continue reading “‘I’m Free Because I Pled Guilty to Journalism’”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “Ukrainian Victory Plan” has received, not unexpectedly, a very tepid reception in Washington. Biden administration officials seem to have received it as less of a “comprehensive strategy” and more of a “repackaged request” for Zelensky’s wish list of weapons and lifting of restrictions on their use. The plan has, reportedly, “dispirited … Continue reading “Ukraine Should Rush Back to Istanbul”

Forty others were wounded. Also, a new mass grave was discovered.