Obama’s “Smart Power” Foreign Policy Not Smart at All
By John Feffer
via Tom Dispatch
Barack Obama is a smart guy. So why has he spent the last four years executing such a dumb foreign policy? True, his reliance on “smart power” — a euphemism for giving the Pentagon a stake in all [...]
Total Tops Iraq at That War’s Height
via Lobe Log
By Nick Turse
via Tom Dispatch
Afghanistan may turn out to be one of the great misbegotten “stimulus packages” of the modern era, a construction boom in the middle of nowhere with materials largely shipped in at enormous expense to no [...]
How Quickly Will the U.S. Leave Afghanistan?
In the wake of several deaths among its contingent of troops in a previously peaceful province in Afghanistan, New Zealand (like France and South Korea) is now expediting the departure of its 140 soldiers. That’s not exactly headline-making news here in [...]
How a World-Ending Weapon Disappeared From Our Lives, But Not Our World
via Tom Dispatch
There was a time when nuclear weapons were a significant part of our national conversation. Addressing the issue of potential atomic annihilation was oncedescribed by nuclear theorist Herman Kahn as “thinking [...]
Living in an American Age of Techno-Wonder and Unreason
[A longer version of this essay appears in "Magic Shows," the Summer 2012 issue of Lapham's Quarterly, and is posted at TomDispatch.com with the kind permission of that magazine.]
As between the natural and the supernatural, I’ve never been much [...]
[Note for TomDispatch Readers: Don’t miss Pepe Escobar’s super review at Asia Times of Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050, the book Nick Turse and I have just published. A few excerpts: “Learn everything there is to learn about All Things Drone... [The book is] even more crucial now that [...]
Special Ops, Drones, Spy Games, Civilian Soldiers, Proxy Fighters, and Cyber Warfare
By Nick Turse
via Tom Dispatch
It looked like a scene out of a Hollywood movie. In the inky darkness, men in full combat gear, armed with automatic weapons and wearing night-vision goggles, grabbed hold of a thick, woven cable [...]
How Obama’s Targeted Killings, Leaks, and the Everything-Is-Classified State Have Fused
via Tom Dispatch
White is black and down is up. Leaks that favor the president are shoveled out regardless of national security, while national security is twisted to pummel leaks that do not favor him. Watching their [...]
Posted by Tom Dispatch
[Note for TomDispatch Readers: Today, you are witnessing the birth of a TomDispatch experiment. Nick Turse and I are launching Dispatch Books, our own little publishing venture (and adventure), with our initial e-book, Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050. We’ve carefully reworked the original [...]
Globalizing the Global War on Terror
Posted by Tom Dispatch
As he campaigns for reelection, President Obama periodically reminds audiences of his success in terminating the deeply unpopular Iraq War. With fingers crossed for luck, he vows to do the same with the equally unpopular [...]
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