Read the keystone essay – The American Empire

The American Empire – the posts

President Authorizes Coup in Iran August 19, 2018 Intervention in Iran – 65th Anniversary Iranian Premier Mohammed Mossadegh ca. 1951 On August 19, 1953 President Eisenhower authorized the CIA to support British efforts to launch a coup against… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →	Cost of War – $5.6 trillion for US wars 2001-2017 December 12, 2017 Cost of War – $5.6 trillion for US wars 2001-2017 The Watson Institute at Brown University has just released an updated report: United States Budgetary Costs of Post 9/11 Wars Through… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →
Thanksgiving – a bit of a corrective history telling and turkey adaptation November 22, 2017 Corrective History The NYTimes posted a bit of Turkey Day corrective history: “Most Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving Is Wrong” By MAYA SALAM “The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth,” from 1914, by Jennie… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →	Russian “Interference” and the American Empire – the lost ironies November 5, 2017 Americans are unable to see the ironies in complaints about outsiders like the Russians attempting to influence our elections. We have a long history of conducting regime change. Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →
Trump and the Big Muddy – Afghanistan August 22, 2017 Pete Seeger wrote a song “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” in 1967 that became closely associated with President Johnson and the Vietnam War. Does Trump remember it? Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →	Recently Noted – about the American Empire July 28, 2017 A report about an amendment to the defense budget that would end the 2001 AUMF (Authorization for the Use of Military Force) that has provided legal cover for more than… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →
Delusions of Empire – Iran in Iraq 15 Years After Bush’s War July 18, 2017 In the context of ceaseless angst and drum beating by politicians and experts over the threat of Iran to us and the rest of the world there is new evidence… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →	Movie – War Machine – a misplaced parable May 28, 2017 Netflix has just released War Machine onto the streaming media waters. This movie fits into the long tradition of American media mostly puffing up our military exploits or turning them into… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →
Defending the Homeland April 8, 2014 Recently I stopped at the US Marine Corp War Memorial in Washington DC. Walking around the base with its lengthy list of Marine engagements since 1775, now a double row… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →	John le Carré on Bush’s Iraq War – The United States of America Has Gone Mad April 21, 2013 John le Carré, author of many beloved spy novels, e.g., Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy, wrote this piece critiquing the then upcoming War on Iraq in January 2003. Besides pointing out… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →
US Imperialism Redux – Tom Lehrer March 30, 2013 The other day I stumbled on this Tom Lehrer song, “Send in the Marines”. This is as good a summary of American foreign policy as there is, though to update… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →	Ten Years After Shock and Awe – A Crime Against Peace March 20, 2013 On March 19, 2003 George Bush, Dick Cheney and the cabal surrounding them launched their war of Shock and Awe on Iraq. The stated purpose was “to disarm Iraq of… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →
Parallels and Prescience – on the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 and the “War on Terror” September 12, 2011 Having successfully avoided much of the national moment for our politicians to blather on about the true meaning of 9/11, I was struck this morning by parallel between our “War… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →	More Thinking about the Defence Budget and US “Security” – a letter to the editor May 6, 2011 Submitted Today to Hudson’s Register Star Letter to the Editor May 6, 2011 As our politicians and the media continue the “debate” about our public budgets, Federal and state, we… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →
Bush, Anger and Dispair Over Our Situation January 17, 2011 The return of George Bush to the national scene with the release of his memoir, Decision Points, once again roused feelings of anger and despair. Anger that we have such… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →	Remarks on President Obama’s Speech on Accepting The Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo 12/10/2009 December 21, 2009 There is much to applaud in Obama’s speech: control of nuclear weapons, assertion of human and civil rights, multilateralism in conflict resolution and enforcement, denial of religion as a justification … Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →
Whither the American Empire? October 1, 2009 Americans do not like to use the word “empire” in reference to the country’s role in the world. Our Presidents uniformly role out rhetoric that sounds just like Obama’s. Here… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →	A New Thought on Terrorism December 6, 2008 An article in today’s NYTimes about cyber crime, malware, etc. suggests to me that another line of attack may be through the Internet against our utilities, telecoms, or financial institutions.… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →
Pondering at the Food Coop November 1, 2008 November 1, 2008 So, here I am having coffee and my favorite lunch, a toasted bagel with peanut butter thinking about the approaching election. Finally this will conclude what has… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →	A Fog of War or a Fog of Ethics? December 18, 2003 Through our friend Esther Hanig we attended a showing of Errol Morris’s new documentary, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara. at the Kennedy Library… Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... Read more →