The 20th century muckraking journalist Upton Sinclair once opined that “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” With this in mind, it is easy to understand why a small but powerful class of war profiteers might not...
In the USA of 2019, truth itself has become a radical act, and to be motivated by belief, instead of profit and corporate power, is to say the least, rare. Chelsea Elizabeth Manning is indeed one of those rare examples of a 21st century truth teller who has been...
With the confirmation of Gina Haspel as CIA director, there’s rightfully great interest in her record regarding torture. Contrary to the rhetoric--and with barely a word about the utility of torture in rigging the case for the Iraq invasion--the actual ends of torture are incredibly worse than the gruesome means. Of course, there...
Huge Military Budgets, Covert Operations, Drones and Assassinations—but hey, at least he didn’t start another major war By any objective measure, Donald Trump has been one of the worst presidents in American history. His administration exacerbated inequalities, fomented social divisions, encouraged nativist and white supremacist groups, gutted environmental protections, mishandled the...
On his newborn daughter’s first July 4th holiday, an anti-imperialist writer ponders what he hopes for her to come to understand about her nation of birth. Gabriela, you are part of the four percent of the world’s population that celebrates today, July 4th, as Independence Day. We are in the...
The day in, day-out news cycle of Russian collusion has relegated Ukraine to the background of “Russiagate,” and yet the Washington-Kyiv axis largely remains the pivot on which the “New Cold War” turns. The media appear to have forgotten that the Ukraine crisis, which began nearly five years ago,...
The Sad Story of How a Once Progressive Nation Became an Outpost of the American Empire “We perceive it as natural that once again we are on the way to war, part of our every day,” explained Vibeke Schou Tjalve, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies.“People believe...
When it comes to foreign policy, the 2020s might be about to go retro. And nothing could be so perfectly targeted to hit that pre-Trump nostalgia spot for the administrative class quite like “Responsible American Leadership.” In this post-Cold War era, this term always seems to mean a rhetorical...
On March 17, William H. Blum, the feisty investigative journalist who (literally) wrote the book on CIA crimes and coverups – and who passed away on December 9 at age 85 – was remembered and celebrated at a public memorial in Washington, D.C. The event, which took place at...
Pay no attention to all those nasty left-wing allegations about how military contractors collude and conspire with the Pentagon to warp our economy, impoverish our citizens, pervert our national goals, and foment needless bloody wars that slaughter millions in order to fatten corporate profits. The truth is actually much...