Tomgram: Engelhardt, Predator Nation Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 5:51pm, May 13, 2012. [For TomDispatch Readers: Point of pride -- the TD post a Sunday ago of the last words ofEcotopia author Ernest Callenbach, “Epistle to the Ecotopians,” was chosen as a point of departure for a moving online column by the New York Times’ Mark Bittman. [...]
at 7:42am, May 10, 2012. There has been much discussion recently about the Obama administration’s “pivot” from the Greater Middle East to Asia: the 250 Marines sent to Darwin, Australia, the littoral combat ships for Singapore, the support for Burmese “democracy,” war games in the Philippines (and a drone strikethere as well), and so on. The U.S. is definitely [...]
Rebecca Solnit, American Dystopia, Fiction or Reality? Posted by Rebecca Solnit at 8:49am, May 1, 2012. In my childhood years of the 1950s, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic landscapes were a dime a dozen. In the Arctic, the first radioactivated monster, Ray Bradbury’s famed Rhedosaurus, awakened in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and began its [...]
Tomgram: Bill McKibben, How You Subsidize the Energy Giants to Wreck the Planet Posted by Bill McKibben at 9:20am, April 5, 2012. Just in case you’re running for national office, here are a few basic stats to orient you when you hit Washington (thanks to the invaluable Open Secrets website of the Center for Responsive [...]
Tomgram: Chip Ward, Apologies to the Next Generation for the Turmoil to Come Posted by Chip Ward at 9:25am, March 27, 2012. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Don’t be fooled by Tom’s introduction this morning (pre-prepared). He remains on the road and off the grid until Thursday, but a signed, personalized copy of his book The United [...]
Tomgram: Karen Greenberg, A New Age of Enemies Posted by Karen J. Greenberg at 5:37pm, March 18, 2012. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Many thanks to those who have donated to this site in return for a signed, personalized copy of Michael Klare’s superb new book, The Race for What’s Left, which is the thinking [...]
Michael Klare, Why High Gas Prices Are Here to Stay Posted by Michael Klare at 8:43am, March 13, 2012. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: TD has an offer today that shouldn’t be missed. The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources, the new book of one of this site’s [...]
Ann Jones, Playing the Game in Afghanistan Posted by Ann Jones at 9:34am, March 8, 2012. How primitive the Afghans are! A New York Times account of faltering negotiations over a possible “strategic partnership” agreement to leave U.S. troops on bases in that country for years to come highlights just how far the Afghans have to go [...]
Andy Kroll, The Unlikely Oracle of Occupy Wall Street Posted by Andy Kroll at 8:41am, March 1, 2012. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Many thanks to those of you who made a contribution to this site in return for a signed paperback copy of Adam Hochschild’s remarkable new history of World War I, To End All [...]
Engelhardt, The Arrival of the Warrior Corporation Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 9:27am, February 23, 2012. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Many thanks to all of you who answered my modest plea for donations last week with such generosity! The response from around the country (and the world), which truly does help keep this site going, [...]
Rebecca Solnit, Why the Media Loves the Violence of Protesters and Not of Banks Posted by Rebecca Solnit at 9:40am, February 21, 2012. In December 2001, 110 of 112 revelers at a wedding died, thanks to a B-52 and two B-1B bombers using precision-guided weapons to essentially wipe out a village in Eastern Afghanistan (and then, [...]
Nick Turse, Drone Disasters Posted by Nick Turse at 9:00pm, January 15, 2012. After almost two months in abeyance and the (possibly temporary) loss of Shamsi Air Base for its air war, the CIA is again cranking up its drone operations in the Pakistani tribal borderlands. The first two attacks of 2012 were launched within 48 hours [...]
Engelhardt, Superpower Adrift in an Alien World Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 9:33am, January 12, 2012. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Our deepest thanks to those of you whose early contributions are already giving TomDispatch a good financial start in 2012. Keep in mind that anyone wanting to contribute $75 or more to this site [...]
Michael Klare, Energy Wars 2012 Posted by Michael Klare at 9:37am, January 10, 2012. Last week, the president made a rare appearance at the Pentagon to unveil a new strategic plan for U.S. military policy (and so spending) over the next decade. Let’s leave the specifics to a future TomDispatch post and focus instead on a historical footnote: [...]
Rebecca Solnit, Occupy Your Heart Posted by Rebecca Solnit at 9:01am, December 22, 2011. [Holiday Note for TomDispatch Readers: Call it a tradition by now. Rebecca Solnit has had the last word at this website for years, looking forward, looking back, and in 2010, before our year of protest even began, considering “alternatives” to what is. This [...]
Making Repression Our Business The Pentagon’s Secret Training Missions in the Middle East By Nick Turse As the Arab Spring blossomed and President Obama hesitated about whether to speak out in favor of protesters seeking democratic change in the Greater Middle East, the Pentagon acted decisively. It forged ever deeper ties with some [...]
Rebecca Solnit, Occupy Your Heart Posted by Rebecca Solnit at 9:01am, December 22, 2011. [Holiday Note for TomDispatch Readers: Call it a tradition by now. Rebecca Solnit has had the last word at this website for years, looking forward, looking back, and in 2010, before our year of protest even began, considering “alternatives” to what is. This year, [...]
Making Repression Our Business The Pentagon’s Secret Training Missions in the Middle East By Nick Turse As the Arab Spring blossomed and President Obama hesitated about whether to speak out in favor of protesters seeking democratic change in the Greater Middle East, the Pentagon acted decisively. It forged ever deeper ties with some [...]
Engelhardt, Restless Planet Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 6:02pm, December 18, 2011. [Note to TomDispatch Readers: As the holiday season approaches, remember that TomDispatch has championed a number of wonderful books in the last months. In fact, I think it says something about this site that it’s associated with such a set of books. Among them: Adam [...]
Nick Turse, Did the Pentagon Help Strangle the Arab Spring? Posted by Nick Turse at 9:22am, December 13, 2011. [For TomDispatch Readers: Thanks to all of you who are sending in end-of-the-year contributions. For $75 (or more), you can still get my new book, The United States of Fear, autographed to you -- or to a friend [...]
Engelhardt, Into the Whirlwind Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 9:19am, December 1, 2011. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: My new book, The United States of Fear, is now available at Amazon.com and soon should be in local bookstores. Buy a copy yourself or for a friend you’d like to introduce to this website, and tell all your friends [...]
Cover via Amazon Steve Fraser, “De-Fault Is Ours” Posted by Steve Fraser at 9:36am, November 29, 2011. Change a single letter in what is and, lo and behold, you get what if. Here’s just a taste of what is: Foreclosures on houses with delinquent mortgages have doubled since 2010, with housing prices expected to drop another 10% before stabilizing. Meanwhile, the executives [...]
Rebecca Solnit, Ms. Civil Society v. Mr. Unaccountable Posted by Rebecca Solnit at 8:32am, November 22, 2011. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: TomDispatch now closes for Thanksgiving. We’ll be back next week, of course. In the meantime, those of you who would like to offer support to this site can still contribute $75 and get [...]
Tomgram: Engelhardt, Movie-Made Me Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 9:25am, November 17, 2011. [Note to TomDispatch Readers: Copies of my book, The United States of Fear, have just arrived. They will soon be winging their way toward those of you who have offered such generous support for TomDispatch by sending in $75 donations for personalized, signed [...]
Tomgram: Andrew Bacevich, The Passing of the Postwar Era Posted by Andrew Bacevich at 5:32pm, November 13, 2011. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Many thanks to those of you who sent in $75 contributions for a signed copy of my new book, The United States of Fear, or $140 for a signed two-pack, including my previous book, The [...]
Juan Cole, Protesting a Pasha-the-Tiger World Posted by Juan Cole at 9:15am, November 10, 2011. Here’s the simple truth of it: American priorities couldn’t be clearer at the moment. You would have to be blind not to notice. The numbers, almost any numbers you care to look at, tell the story. In fact, you [...]
Engelhardt, The Interpretation of American Dreams Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 8:23am, November 8, 2011. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: I have a be-the-first-on-your-block offer to make today. The initial copies of my new book, The United States of Fear, should be in my hands as early as next week -- and immediately autographed and [...]
Chip Ward, Occupy Earth Posted by Chip Ward at 9:28am, October 27, 2011. If your child has asthma and it’s getting worse, then news about the White House’s recent retreat on ozone (that is, smog) standards for the air over your city wasn’t exactly cause for cheering. Thank our environmental president for that, but mainly of course the [...]
Engelhardt, Bailing Out the Complex Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 9:06am, October 20, 2011. [Note to TomDispatch Readers: Here’s a rare TD recommendation for a book by an author not writing -- or in this case drawing -- for this site. For all those of you (and I know that you’re legion) who couldn’t put down “the [...]
John Feffer, The End of America‘s Pacific Century Posted by John Feffer at 9:28am, October 4, 2011. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: The offer of a signed, personalized copy of Foreign Service Officer Peter Van Buren's remarkable new book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, is [...]
Michael Klare, Is Washington Out of Gas? Posted by Michael Klare at 9:27am, September 15, 2011. Way back then, the signs out on the streets read: “No Blood for Oil,” “How did USA‘s oil get under Iraq’s sand?” and “Don’t trade lives for oil!” Such homemade placards, carried by deluded antiwar protesters in enormous demonstrations before the Bush [...]
Fraser and Freeman, Taps for the Unemployed Posted by Steve Fraser and Joshua Freeman at 5:35pm, September 11, 2011. On the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, this country is once again focused 24/7 on a single disaster that tore up one field in Pennsylvania, destroyed part of the Pentagon, and took down three giant [...]
Tear Down the Freedom Tower Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 7:57am, September 8, 2011. [Note to TomDispatch Readers: The remarkable Timothy MacBain’s interview with me today marks the 100th he’s done for TomDispatch. He operates with little but his native intelligence, a great radio voice, and the most minimal of equipment. It’s a small miracle. To catch [...]
Bill McKibben, Jailed Over Big Oil‘s Attempt to Wreck the Planet Posted by Bill McKibben at 9:22pm, August 24, 2011. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: At this point every year, TD closes down. We’ll be back Tuesday, September 6th, with a powerful piece for the 10th anniversary of 9/11. In the meantime, I briefly morph into a book [...]
Karen J. Greenberg, Taking the Justice Out of the Justice System Posted by Karen J. Greenberg at 5:01pm, August 21, 2011. Can you even remember the world before 9/11? You know, the one where you weren’t stripped in the airport or body-wanded at the ballpark? It’s as much a lost world as anything Conan Doyleever imagined. And it seems there’s [...]
Chalmers Johnson, Dismantling the Empire Posted by Chalmers Johnson at 4:55pm, August 7, 2011. Chalmers Johnson died on November 20, 2010, but — for me at least — his spirit lives on in the most active of ways. In his last years at TomDispatch.com, he regularly chewed over the profligacy of the Pentagon, our unbridled urge for military spending, [...]
Rebecca Solnit, Hope for the Hell of It Posted by Rebecca Solnit at 5:28pm, July 31, 2011. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Here’s an enthusiastic final thanks to all of you who, in response to recent pleas, urged others to sign up for the email notice that goes out every time this site posts a piece. If you [...]
Christian Parenti, Staff of Life, Bread of Death Posted by Christian Parenti at 9:55am, July 19, 2011. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: I have a special summer offer today. Christian Parenti is new to this site, but not to readers of the Nation and other magazines for his fine reporting, often from war zones. His new book, [...]
Engelhardt, The President’s Military Mantra Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 8:00am, June 30, 2011. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: The next TD piece will appear on Tuesday, July 5th. Have a fine Fourth of July! Tom] The Militarized Surrealism of Barack Obama Signs of the Great American Unraveling By Tom Engelhardt It’s already gone, having barely outlasted its moment [...]
Engelhardt, The President’s Military Mantra Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 8:00am, June 30, 2011. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: The next TD piece will appear on Tuesday, July 5th. Have a fine Fourth of July! Tom] The Militarized Surrealism of Barack Obama Signs of the Great American Unraveling By Tom Engelhardt It’s already gone, having barely outlasted its moment [...]
With the ever growing presence of fascist thought starting to dominate the mainstream of the media it is useful to look around at what people who are not psychopaths think about the directions being taken at present around the planet. Here in australia we are firmly in the grip of an unelected Prime Minister who [...]
Michael Klare, The Energy Landscape of 2041 Posted by Michael Klare at 5:55pm, June 26, 2011. Let’s see: today, it’s a story about rising sea levels. Now, close your eyes, take a few seconds, and try to imagine what word or words could possibly go with such a story. Time’s up, and if “faster,” “far faster,” “fastest,” [...]
Karen Greenberg, How to End the War on Terror Posted by Karen J. Greenberg at 5:21pm, June 19, 2011. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Only two days left to get your personalized, signed copy of the must-read history book of the summer, Adam Hochschild’s bestselling To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, in return [...]
Lewis Lapham, Eating Money Posted by Lewis Lapham at 5:11pm, June 12, 2011. Could there have been a pickier eater in 1950s America than me? I doubt it. Among the many things I wouldn’t eat was spaghetti and meatballs. (Gross!) Or at least I refused until one summer on return from camp, I told my [...]
Engelhardt, The 100% Doctrine in Washington Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 9:06am, June 9, 2011. [Note to TomDispatch Readers: Consider today’s post a stand-alone companion to my previous piece “Welcome to Post-Legal America.” And keep in mind that the offer of a signed, personalized copy of Adam Hochschild’s bestselling new book, To End All Wars: A Story [...]
Tomgram: Michael Klare, How to Wreck a Planet 101 Posted by Michael Klare at 4:04pm, June 5, 2011. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Here’s a first for this site: Adam Hochschild’s new book,To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, now a New York Times bestseller, is also hitting other bestseller lists and getting fabulous [...]
« The War Lovers | Main May 17, 2011 Obama’s Reset: Arab Spring or Same Old Thing? How the President and the Pentagon Prop Up Both Middle Eastern Despots and American Arms Dealers By Nick Turse If you follow the words, one Middle East comes into view; if you follow the weapons, quite another. This week, [...]
Usually when you see or hear the words “embedded with” and it refers to a Journalist particularly you can add to that description the words “State Department tool” or” Military asset ” What follows are very excellent TomDispatch articles on this topic. George Ikners ikners.com a WordPress site Tomgram: Peter Van Buren, Warrior Pundits and [...]
People often talk about a war to end all wars. This type of dialogue has continued for centuries and has never come true. But it is worse than a dream it is simply a delusion of the type so well referred to by Rudolf Rocker. It is part of the inoculation with a delusion that salvation always comes from [...]
The US Dictators and Arms Supply
What follows is an introduction by Tom Englehardt to an article by Nick Turse. The introduction is posted here because it gives you a good insight into Tom and just how he works at the Tom Dispatch site. You will remember that on numerous occasions ikners.com has made it very clear that it is sites like Tom [...]
Tags: Bahrain, middle east, Nick Turse, Pentagon, Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia, TomDispatch.com, Yemen
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