When it comes to our nation’s military affairs, ignorance is not bliss.  What’s remarkable then, given the permanent state of war in which we find ourselves, is how many Americans seem content not to know. There are many reasons for this state of affairs.  Our civilian leaders encourage us to... » read this article

The suggestion by Mr. Rasmussen that civilian organizations such as MSF should in any way collaborate, or provide 'soft power' to the NATO forces, endangers this understanding and makes the hospitals, patients and staff more likely to be targeted by the opposition forces. International medical humanitarian organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières... » read this article

  The Fourth Tour He’s not dead, he’s only sleeping eight year old Adam said at the viewing His mother Sandra just half smiled as Adam walked away She can still hear the boom in the basement only to find her husband dead shooting himself in his heart It was... » read this article

Sunday-Wednesday, February 28-March 3, 2010 Nineteen years ago, one of the most diabolical slaughters in war history occurred in Iraq. Despite the assurances of the Bush I regime that retreating Iraqi soldiers would not be attacked, just the opposite happened. Iraqi soldiers and civilians were massacred after Saddam Hussein called... » read this article

With total US military spending now approaching ¾ of a trillion dollars per year - about as much as the rest of the world's countries combined - cutting military spending is becoming an issue of concern for the peace movement and beyond, especially as the president has proposed a three-year... » read this article

Activists gathered at the east gate entrance of the Army base here January 15 for a daylong protest drawing attention to the over-medicating of the soldiers and the lack of mental health resources and counseling. Demonstrators rotated in and out so that about 30 people were there at any time... » read this article

Environmental NGO's have been uncritically thumping the green tech funding plank and they're generating funding that could be harder to hold onto than a fistful of sand in the Iraqi oilfields. There's a coup underway in the environmental movement. But the golpistas (coup-makers) aren't exactly the usual suspects. They're not... » read this article

6 February 2010 As US and British troops prepare to attack the town of Marjah in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, military commanders and the media are openly comparing the operation to the November 2004 siege of Fallujah, one of the bloodiest war crimes of the Iraq war. The operation in central... » read this article

When Barack Obama took office as president of the United States in January 2009, it was widely expected that he would dramatically change, or even reverse, the militarised and unilateral national security policy toward Africa (as well as toward other parts of the world) that had been pursued by the... » read this article

One moment there was the hum of a motor in the sky above.  The next, on a recent morning in Afghanistan's Helmand province, a missile blasted a home, killing 13 people.  Days later, the same increasingly familiar mechanical whine preceded a two-missile salvo that slammed into a compound in Degan village in the tribal North Waziristan district... » read this article

Watt A Hero?   Does the name of Army Pfc Justin Watt ring a bell?   I doubt it.  But even if your bells start ringing I bet the word “hero” doesn't come to mind. Lets try this drill with a brave woman: Nancy Lindborg.  No bells ringing yet? How about... » read this article

A Haiti disaster relief scenario had been envisaged at the headquarters of US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) in Miami one day prior to the earthquake. The holding of pre-disaster simulations pertained to the impacts of a hurricane in Haiti. They were held on January 11. (Bob Brewin,  Defense launches online system... » read this article

January 6, 2010 American military personnel are continuing to take their own lives in unprecedented numbers, as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wars drag on. By late November, at least 334 members of the armed forces had committed suicide in 2009, more than the 319 who were killed in... » read this article

"As for the Taliban fighters, they not only don't cherish life, they expend it freely in suicide bombings. It's difficult to imagine an American suicide bomber," Washington Post pundit Richard Cohen opined in a recent column. A few columns later Cohen returned to this theme, which clearly matters considerably to... » read this article

18 January 2010 Amid the humanitarian tragedy following the January 12 earthquake in Haiti, Washington has concentrated on establishing indefinite military control of the country. Fearing mass protests and riots by desperate Haitians against inadequate rescue efforts, US logistical efforts are focused on massing tens of thousands of troops for... » read this article

"This is the moral state of the American media: the murder of poverty-stricken children by missiles or bombs might, after all, be no more than an 'honest mistake'.” 14 January 2010 American television news becomes more and more unwatchable, especially in its reports on the expanding wars in the Middle... » read this article

Army Specialist and Iraq war veteran Marc Hall was incarcerated by the US Army on December 11, 2009, in Liberty County Jail, Georgia, for recording a song that expresses his anger over the Army's stop-loss policy. Stop-loss is a policy that allows the Army to keep soldiers active beyond the... » read this article

7 January 2010 Four years ago in Hamburg, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and mercenary firm Blackwater planned and prepared the assassination of the German-Syrian businessman Mamoun Darkazanli. This is reported by the American magazine Vanity Fair in its January issue. The report has unleashed considerable turmoil in German political... » read this article

4 January 2010 A federal judge dropped charges Thursday against five former Blackwater security contractors in connection with the September 2007 shooting deaths of unarmed Iraqis in Baghdad. The ruling makes it almost certain that the security guards, Blackwater management, and the US State Department officials that employed the guards... » read this article

As 2009 comes to a close, today we begin by taking a step back and putting this year of war in perspective. Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald discusses US foreign policy, including the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, drone strikes on Pakistan, cruise missile attacks on Yemen, operations in Somalia,... » read this article