Departments

;

Pentagon

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    5/4/2023

    Not Your Grandfather's Military-Industrial Complex

    by Ben Freeman and William D. Hartung

    Eisenhower warned of the power of the military and industry to shape America's priorities and warp society in their own interests. He had no idea of how bad it could get. 

  • SOURCE: War on the Rocks
    12/13/2022

    Politicization of the US Military over the Last 4 Decades

    by Kori Schake

    "If America wants to retain a military that recruits from all parts of the citizenry and brings them together into an effective fighting force, it should both correct that public perception and better insulate the military from being a pawn in partisan political disputes."

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    12/12/2021

    Going Nuclear on Military Spending

    by William Astore

    "Why, despite decades of disastrous wars, do Pentagon budgets continue to grow, year after year, like ever-expanding nuclear mushroom clouds?"

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    11/16/2021

    The Pentagon as Penta-God

    by William Astore

    "Paraphrasing Joe Biden, show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you worship. In that context, there can’t be the slightest doubt: America worships its Pentagod and the weapons and wars that feed it."

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    11/9/2021

    Is Reining In the Pentagon Even Possible?

    by Mandy Smithberger and William Hartung

    The CBO's recent study proposes three paths to cutting $1 trillion from the defense budget. Even these proposals still leave in place massive Pentagon budgets and affirm the nation's use of military force as the first option for resolving international security issues. 

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    10/7/2021

    Never Having to Say You're Sorry

    by Karen J. Greenberg

    Numerous players with large and small roles in creating the expansive War on Terror have issued mea culpas; the major architects and the interests who profit from war have not. 

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    4/13/2021

    Slaughter Central: The United States as a Mass-Killing Machine

    by Tom Engelhardt

    The American armanents industry is profiting from the sales of weapons of potential planetary destruction, mass shootings, and all manner of violence in between. We should understand the gun industry as a global public-private partnership of death.

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    4/8/2021

    Back to the Future at the Pentagon

    by William Astore

    The Pentagon's shift away from planning for asymmetrical warfare toward "near-peer" conventional conflict is reviving the defense contracting gravy train for big-ticket weapons systems, with a revival of Cold War nuclear danger as a side effect. 

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    3/4/2021

    Rewarding Failure

    by William Astore

    One place a little cancel culture could come in handy is in the halls of the Pentagon, where costly and pointless weapons programs prove impossible to kill off. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    12/17/2020

    History Exposes the Problem with Biden’s Defense Secretary Nominee

    by Grant Golub

    World War II demonstrated the need for strong civilian control over a military divided between multiple armed service branches, both to guide strategy and to ensure the ultimate authority of the President over the military. The nomination of a recently-retired Army general for Secretary of Defense departs from that tradition. 

  • 12/6/2020

    Stop the Music

    by Richard H. Kohn

    President-Elect Biden has allowed too much speculation about his choices for Secretary of Defense and unwisely floated the name of a retired Army general for the job. He needs to make a quick commitment to a nominee whose national defense experience comes from the civil, not the military, arena.

  • 6/14/2020

    Let Them Eat Weapons: Trump’s Bizarre Arms Race

    by Lawrence Wittner

    The Trump administration's stated intention to "spend the adversary into oblivion" through arms buildup is likely to bring ruin to the American public before it harms Russia or China. 

  • SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
    1/29/19

    Our Man From Boeing

    by Mandy Smithberger and William D. Hartung

    Has the Arms Industry Captured Trump’s Pentagon?