Washington’s foreign policy elite loves to mock the overuse of the cliché “graveyard of empires,” but it seems as though the last decade of our increasingly failed bid in Afghanistan is littered with lackluster epitaphs for American generals, envoys and diplomats. In...
War Inc. Shifts Homeward
It’s been said many times that the war is a self-sustaining industry that requires a constant threat overseas to keep the machine thriving at home. Looking at the millions if not billions of dollars spent on securing “national special security events” against its own...
The Rape of Our Military Women
When Washington needed women to carry out its two-front war of choice, they were there, lending more than 255,000 female volunteers to the mission. Today, women make up approximately 15 percent of the active duty force and 20 percent of the reserve components. Simply...
The Hive and the Heterodoxy
Last month in this space we discussed the role of top foreign policy/national security think tanks as standard-bearers for the military establishment and political status quo in Washington. It’s a dizzy game that is no doubt taken seriously by many scholars who are...
Waking Up to the Drones
Look at these photographs. See the eager faces among the children at the school — they could be anyone’s kids at any moment in America. And the baby, so precious and new, reflecting the light of his proud parents, the hope of everyone around him. Now imagine that the...
How Think Tanks Think
When liberal Americans find themselves at a loss as to why Democrats appear to walk, talk and gurgle like Republicans on national security issues — especially during election season — they honestly need to look no further than the powerful think tank apparatus in...
Forget Katniss, We Need Montag
The Freedom 7 and You
Bradley Manning Support Network member David House was returning to the country from a vacation last year when he was detained by agents from the Department of Homeland Security. They confiscated his laptop, camera and USB drive (all of which they kept for seven...
The Passion of Bradley Manning
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning — the man accused of blowing a whistle so loud it’s still reverberating through the world two years after the fact — will return before a judge for his court-martial proceedings this month. Manning, 24, faces 22 charges, including “aiding the...
Get Ready for the Crackdowns
The show of paramilitary force at the national party conventions held since the 9/11 attacks has been nothing less than shocking, though the vast majority of America doesn’t know it because they weren’t there, or they simply don’t care. Still, since the Occupy...


