The year began with a story about a 24-year-old ex-soldier who shot and killed a female park ranger at Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington before dying of apparent hypothermia, his body face down in the snow. Months before, the mother of Benjamin Colton Barnes’...
This is the third profile in an occasional series about individuals taking on the Goliaths of war from inside the belly of the beast — Washington, D.C. Tom Drake has the dubious distinction of being part of a long, and growing line of individuals who risked all to...
The year 2011 marked a critical confluence of militarism and revolution, not only in places like Libya and Egypt, but also here at home, where massive demonstrations in cities and towns throughout the country were met with a well-oiled law enforcement machine deployed...
How many times have we heard that the United States cannot abandon Afghanistan to the mercy of armed militias and thugs like we did in 1989? So, why, pray tell, are we doing it? After the U.S. helped to fund the Afghan mujahideen that led to the Soviets’ legendary...
In 18 days, the last of the remaining U.S. forces will have left Iraq. So far, no fanfare has heralded this significant event, which has been quiet and orderly — nothing like the "shock and awe" of the initial invasion in March 2003, or the furor and tumult that...
Next week, as the country's Christmastime frenzy is in full swing, a 24-year-old American Army private will be on trial for his very life. His supporters say “we are all Bradley Manning,” and perhaps they are right. His first hearing since he was arrested in May 2010...
Early Friday morning, shots rang out to herald the first days of the holiday season. Men were shot in Walmart parking lots in California and Missouri, and gunfire was reported outside of a Fayetteville, N.C., mall as shoppers were gathering to enter. Newscasters were...
Everyone knows that when you overcook a Thanksgiving Turkey it makes for a dry, overdone meal. Let’s be honest: no amount of gravy is going to mask that disappointment. Kind of like Newt Gingrich, who’s been cooking so long he’s as appetizing as an old leather shoe....
Mass hysteria in Washington over the possibility of real belt-tightening for the Department of Defense reached a fever pitch this week when the secretary of defense suggested the country could be attacked if Congress cut his budget. If the so-called supercommittee...
If only Marine Scott Olsen had behaved himself. If only he had been a "good" Marine, believing in the "correct" universal truths and keeping his mouth shut. He may not have gotten shot. The right-wing blogomob, not to be outdone by its past displays of repulsive...
