DR. TOM H. HASTINGS – I hope the vast majority of us are paying enough attention to get serious about upholding what is good and helpful for us. The devils are hyperactive in the details but, as we heard and saw, they reveal to all of us what they are willing to do if we are at all apathetic about it. As Edmund Burke reminded us, all that is necessary for evil to triumph is good people do nothing.
Tag: John McCain
We Need Proud Men to Stand Up to Loud Boys
By Rob Okun The mid-term elections are just weeks away, so now is the time for men to use our voices to help defeat extremist, antidemocratic candidates. And, inseparable from electoral politics, men must also speak out against the alt-right,…
War Begets War . . . and Nothing Else
ROBERT C. KOEHLER – “War-making must be renounced. It is past time for the paradigm shift. We have one planet and we must see ourselves as one and we must take a stand.†Dud Hendrick of Veterans for Peace
Could This Be Our Best Hope of Removing Trump From Office?
PAUL STREET – The case for Trump’s ouster grows stronger by the week. Beyond his possible obstruction of justice, criminal acceptance of foreign emoluments while in office and felonious campaign finance violations—any one of which could provide grounds for legal proceedings against him—the president has routinely embraced authoritarian rulers around the world and engaged in obvious appeals to violence. He has, at every turn, revealed himself to be entirely unfit for office.
The Forever War’s Cheerleaders
LYLE JEREMY RUBIN – Coming home from the Forever War can be difficult. Not long after returning from Afghanistan as a Marine officer in early 2011, I found myself feeling betrayed by compatriots who worshiped the idea of my service while refusing to confront what that service entailed. There is a chasm of awareness that often exists between veterans and civilians, especially during an age in which an all-volunteer military prosecutes never-ending wars, and in which those Americans who end up experiencing combat prove statistically negligible. It isn’t so much a chasm of awareness as a chasm of memory.
Massive Overkill Brought to You By the Nuclear-Industrial Complex
WILLIAM D. HARTUNG – Unless the nuclear spending spree long in the making and now being pushed by President Trump as the best thing since the invention of golf is stopped thanks to public opposition, the rise of an anti-nuclear movement, or Congressional action, we’re in trouble. And of course, the nuclear weapons lobby will once again have won the day, just as it did almost 60 years ago, despite the opposition of a popular president and decorated war hero. And needless to say, Donald Trump, “bone spurs†and all, is no Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Congressional “Realists” Call for US to Curtail Its Use of the Military
FINLAY LEWIS – They could caucus in a phone booth. They are known as “realists,†and their default position on questions of foreign policy and national security is one of skepticism about the value of interventions abroad and of respect for privacy at home. In a debate largely being litigated within the ranks of the Republican Party on Capitol Hill, the realists don’t have a prayer of prevailing in an up-or-down vote against the neoconservative wing of the party, proponents of an interventionist ethos to embed American values in lands far removed from domestic shores and traditions.
NATO’s Dangerous Game: Bear-Baiting Russia
CONN HALLINAN – “Aggressive,†“revanchist,†“swaggeringâ€: These are just some of the adjectives the mainstream press and leading U.S. and European political figures are routinely inserting before the words “Russia,†or “Vladimir Putin.†It is a vocabulary most Americans have not seen or heard since the height of the Cold War. The question is, why?
Will Public Inaction Allow a War With Syria?
TOM H. HASTINGS – How culpable is the person who watches a mugger rob someone and does nothing? What is our social psychology as we bystand silently while our government gears up toward yet another war crime? Lies or misleading information that leads to war should be an enforceable war crime and crime against humanity.
Unanimous Conformity in the Senate Prolongs the Wars
NORMAN SOLOMON —
For the warfare state, it doesn’t get any better than 99 to 0. Every living senator voted to approve Gen. David Petraeus as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Call it the unanimity of lemmings — except the senators and their families aren’t the ones who’ll keep plunging into the sea.
Howard Zinn and the State of the Union
TOM H. HASTINGS: Howard Zinn has crossed over. He was a mensch, a historian and a peace and justice activist. He was not convinced that nonviolence was always the answer, but he often provided expert testimony for nonviolent resisters seeking help in conducting a robust defense of their actions in opposition to militarism and injustice.