Tom Engelhardt

An editor in publishing for the last 25 years, Tom Engelhardt is the author of The End of Victory Culture, a history of American triumphalism in the Cold War era, now out in a revised edition with a new preface and afterword, and Mission Unaccomplished, TomDispatch Interviews With American Iconoclasts and Dissenters. He is at present consulting editor for Metropolitan Books, a fellow of the Nation Institute, and a teaching fellow at the journalism school of the University of California, Berkeley. Visit his Web site. This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com.

Bases, Bases Everywhere

The last few weeks have been base-heavy ones in the news. The Pentagon’s provisional Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) list, the first in a decade, was published to domestic screams of pain. It represents, according to the Washington Post, “a sweeping plan to close or reduce forces at 62 major bases and nearly 800 minor … Continue reading “Bases, Bases Everywhere”

Crossing Nuclear Thresholds

Call it Star Wars, parts VII-XXII; but last week, just as Revenge of the Sith was opening galaxy-wide – multiplexes on Tatooine alone were expected to pull in billions – reporter Tim Weiner revealed on the front page of the New York Times that a new presidential directive will soon essentially green-light the future U.S. … Continue reading “Crossing Nuclear Thresholds”

The Return of the Body Count

On March 19, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld discussed the “metrics” of measuring success in Iraq with Steve Inskeep of National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Here is part of that interview: “NPR: I want to start, Mr. Secretary, with something you said recently. You were at a meeting with troops, taking questions from troops. You … Continue reading “The Return of the Body Count”

An Iraq Correspondent Comes Home

Dahr Jamail, an independent reporter from Alaska, covered our occupation of Iraq for much of 2004 and the beginning of 2005 before coming home early this year. As a “unilateral,” he was a distinctly atypical figure in Baghdad. Unlike reporters for major papers, wire services, and the TV news, he lacked the guards, vehicles, elaborate … Continue reading “An Iraq Correspondent Comes Home”

The Smoking Gun Memo

In its June 9 issue (on sale this week), the New York Review of Books will be the first American print publication to publish the full British “smoking gun” document, the secret memorandum of the minutes of a meeting of Tony Blair’s top advisors in July 2002, eight months before the Iraq War commenced. Leaked … Continue reading “The Smoking Gun Memo”

The Iran Crisis in Global Context

At a moment when the North Koreans claim to have just “harvested a nuclear reactor for weapons fuel,” the latest flare-up in the Iranian/European Union negotiations involving the “Iranian bomb,” well described below by Dilip Hiro, only highlights the increasingly precarious state of nuclear proliferation on our poor planet. It’s almost impossible to tell quite … Continue reading “The Iran Crisis in Global Context”

The Nuclear Renaissance

On Aug. 6, 1945, the day that was to prove the blindingly bright dawn of the atomic age, Little Boy, a 9,700-pound baby with the look of “an elongated trash can with fins,” had already been loaded into the specially prepared bomb bay of a B-29. The night before, in large letters, mission commander Col. … Continue reading “The Nuclear Renaissance”

Out of the Superpower Orbit

Of the two superpowers that faced each other down in an almost half-century-long Cold War, one – the United States – emerged victorious, alone in the world, economically powerful, militarily dominant; the other, never the stronger of the two, limped off, its empire shattered and scattered, its people impoverished and desperate, its military a shell … Continue reading “Out of the Superpower Orbit”

Letting in the Draft?

An overstretched military? You bet. Things going terribly in Iraq? No kidding. Why only yesterday, Jill Carroll and Dan Murphy of the Christian Science Monitor reminded us that, with 140,000 troops (and untold numbers of mercenaries) in Iraq, the Americans can’t defend a crucial six-mile stretch of highway between the two lodestars of the American … Continue reading “Letting in the Draft?”

Iraq ‘Uptick,’ Superpower Downtick?

Quote of the Month (November 1967) “In November, as their plans gelled, General Westmoreland embarked on a whirlwind tour of the U.S. to testify before Congress and drum up support for the Johnson Administration. ‘With 1968,’ he said, speaking before the National Press Club in Washington, ‘a new phase is starting .. we have reached … Continue reading “Iraq ‘Uptick,’ Superpower Downtick?”