war on terror 
-
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.
-
SOURCE: The New Republic
9/8/2021
Review: The Case Against "Humane War"
by Daniel Bessner
Samuel Moyn's book "Humane" pushes for policymakers and intellectuals to focus less on the strategy of warfare and more on whether war should be fought, a crucial step to reestablishing peace as the goal of international relations and American foreign policy.
-
SOURCE: New York Magazine
8/26/2021
New Documentary Examines the Politics that Have Undermined the 9/11 Museum
by David Klion
A new documentary chronicles the personal conflicts behind the scenes of the 9/11 museum, but asks pointed questions about whether the museum supports deeper public understanding of the attacks and their aftermath.
-
SOURCE: New Statesman
9/8/2021
The New Era of American Power
by Adam Tooze
The dominant position of American financial interests and the still-escalating Pentagon budget, focusing on technological dominance over China, mean that it's too soon to celebrate the end of American interventionism abroad.
-
SOURCE: Boston Review
9/9/2021
9/11 Forever
by Joseph Margulies
"By creating the impression that the stakes were not merely consequential but existential, the attacks of September 11 normalized previously unimaginable cruelty."
News
- The Complicated History of Abortion and Abortion Law in the United States
- Discovery of Earliest Known Record of Mayan Calendar
- Buffalo Shooting Centuries in Making, Say Historians of Slavery and Reconstruction
- Isaac Chotiner Interviews Kathleen Belew on White Power and the Buffalo Mass Shooting
- What if Mental Illness Isn't All In Your Head?