war on terror

• 
• 12/11/2022
  

  How an Abstract "War on Terror" Became All Too Real in Iraq and Afghanistan

  by Roger Peace

  Politics drove the Bush administration to expand the scope of a military response to 9/11 to cover costly entanglements in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Intercept
  11/6/2022
  

  Post-9/11 Wars Created the Foot Solders of Far-Right Violence

  Historian Kathleen Belew says that war affects not only veterans, but makes an entire society more receptive to the possibility of violence. 

• 
• 8/14/2022
  

  Killing of al-Zawahiri in Kabul Vindicates Strategic Separation of Counterterrorism and Military Occupation

  by Brian Glyn Williams

  On withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden administration touted its "over the horizon" capability to track and target terrorists from afar. If the strategy proves out, it should mean the ability to fully decouple antiterror operations from foreign military presence. 

• 
• SOURCE: Quincy Institute
  8/1/2022
  

  Post-Cold War Interventions show Military Restraint is the Key to Protecting Human Rights

  by Aslı Bâli

  America's foreign policy establishment must "right-size" its expectations about the ability of US military power to secure desired outcomes, and prepare to embrace non-coercive approaches to human rights crises that will be precipitated by climate change and food crises. 

• 
• 4/3/2022
  

  Can the US Credibly Condemn Russian Attacks on Civilians?

  by Paul Lovinger

  Are American military actions different from Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure only in degree? 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  2/13/2022
  

  It's Wrong for Biden to Punish Afghans for 9/11

  by H.A. Hellyer and Farid Senzai

  It's unconscionable to punish ordinary Afghans, who were themselves victimized by the Taliban, by seizing frozen bank funds as restitution to the families of 9/11 victims. 

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  1/20/2022
  

  The Elusive Guantanamo Endgame

  by Karen J. Greenberg

  "In the legal quagmire the U.S. has created, there is, in fact, no easy solution to closing Guantanamo."

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  12/21/2021
  

  How Awesome Is “Awesome”? Rating the US Military on Cost-Benefit Terms

  by Andrew Bacevich

  Is it impolite, then, to ask if the nation is getting an adequate return on its investment in military power?

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  12/13/2021
  

  Americans Have been Forgetting Afghanistan for 20 Years. I Didn't Have That Luxury

  by Ali A. Olomi

  "Every Afghan American I know has lost a family member or friend. The war became part of who we were and even shaped our career trajectories. Afghan friends became immigration attorneys and activists. I became a historian."

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  12/9/2021
  

  Are We Forever Captives of the Forever Wars?

  by Karen J. Greenberg

  The Authorization for the Use of Military Force passed by Congress after 9/11 has been expanded from fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan to justify action in at least 19 countries. Repealing it is the first step to freeing Americans from the Pentagon's Forever Wars. 

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  11/4/2021
  

  Was Afghanistan Just a Schell Game?

  by Nick Turse

  Somehow being right about American wars never translates into celebrity or widespread media appearances.

• 
• 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
  9/28/2021
  

  Droning On: America's Assassins-in-Chief

  by Tom Engelhardt

  Since the Bush administration, every President has used drone technology to be the nation's assassin-in-chief. In a nation increasingly tolerant of mass COVID death at home, does this even have the power to shock?

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  9/30/2021
  

  "A Horrible Mistake": Time to Ditch CENTCOM

  by Andrew Bacevich

  Created by military reorganization undertaken by the Reagan administration, CENTCOM assumes control of potential military operations in 20 nations, where a half-billion people live. In the decades of its existence, it has overseen the decline and imminent collapse of American empire. 

• 
• SOURCE: Woodrow Wilson Center and National History Center
  9/28/2021
  

  Making the Forever War: Marilyn B. Young on the Culture and Politics of American Militarism: October 11

  In the Washington History Seminar, Mary Dudziak and Mark Philip Bradley discuss their edited volume of the work of Marilyn Young, the preeminent historian of war in the modern United States. Monday, October 11, 

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  9/19/2021
  

  Why Didn't We Leave Afghanistan Before Now?

  by Carter Malkasian

  Above all other considerations, America's interminable military presence in Afghanistan was driven by politicians' fears of blame for a future terrorist attack. 

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  9/21/2021
  

  The Profits of War

  by William Hartung

  Between weapons systems and a shadow army of contractors and logistics consultants, the War on Terror has been a bonanza for large corporations that shows no signs of abating. 

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  9/12/2021
  

  The Winner in Afghanistan? China

  by Alfred McCoy

  While the similarities between the American exits from Vietnam and Afghanistan are superficially obvious, the differences are more significant, and signal a steep decline in America's ability to influence world affairs. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  9/8/2021
  

  After 9/11, the U.S. Got Almost Everything Wrong

  by Garrett M. Graff

  "The events of September 11, 2001, became the hinge on which all of recent American history would turn, rewriting global alliances, reorganizing the U.S. government, and even changing the feel of daily life."

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  9/7/2021
  

  The Decline and Fall of the Roman… Whoops!… American Empire

  by Tom Engelhardt

  A hubristic choice to refuse a negotiated surrender from the Afghan Taliban in favor of establishing American military supremacy now haunts both nations as the costs of war undo domestic "nation building" in the US.