Author: Maj. Danny Sjursen (ret.)

The “Fortress On A Hill” podcast, hosted by veterans Danny Sjursen, Chris ‘Henri’ Henrikson, and Keagan Miller interview Dr. Ben Freeman. Freeman is Director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy (CIP).

My latest appearance on “Facts on the Ground,” “On the twin plagues of U.S. militarism and empire: A conversation with Danny Sjursen:”

Check out a really solid discussion with Misty and Jesse that runs from cultural militarism, to armed forces insularity, to pageantry patriotism, to the incoming Biden bunch national security squad. We even throw in a dash of the “nostalgic” — talking “Be All You Can Be” 1980s Army commercials, George Carlin, Kurt Vonnegut, and what we can learn from the American volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War.

Originally appeared at ScheerPost

Maj. Danny Sjursen (ret.) guest stars on the Nicky Rew Podcast to talk about President-elect Joe Biden squad of urbane imperialists and “diverse” death-dealers.

Danny Sjursen is a retired US Army officer, contributing editor at Antiwar.com, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy (CIP), and director of the soon-to-launch Eisenhower Media Network (EMN). His work has appeared in the NY Times, LA Times, The Nation, Huff Post, The Hill, Salon, The American Conservative, Mother Jones, ScheerPost and Tom Dispatch, among other publications. He served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and later taught history at West Point. He is the author of a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, Ghostriders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge and Patriotic Dissent: America in the Age of Endless War. Along with fellow vet Chris "Henri" Henriksen, he co-hosts the podcast “Fortress on a Hill.” Follow him on Twitter @SkepticalVet and on his website for media requests and past publications.

Copyright 2020 Danny Sjursen

“Fortress on a Hill” hosts Danny Sjursen, Chris “Henri” Henriksen, and John Kerry speak with Chris Lombardi, editor at Democratic Left Online. She stops by the podcast to discuss her new book “I Ain’t Marching Anymore: Dissenters, Deserters, and Objectors to America’s Wars”. It’s an amazing history of military dissenters, conscientious objectors, and their hard, but determined path of dissent.

Antiwar.com contributing editor Maj. Danny Sjursen (ret.) joins Chris “Henri” Henriksen to talk about the foreign policy history of Joe Biden at The Fortress on the Hill Podcast:

From Scheerpost:

Once again, this Fourth of July, Americans will celebrate – to the unwitting militarist racist tune that is the “Star Spangled Banner” – more than just the nation’s Independence Day. Though most folks will, if at a reasonable social distance, focus more on the backyard beer and brats, U.S. jingoism and exceptionalism will invariably be on the menu.

That last sentiment, particularly amidst the COVID-19 and mass protest-exposing era of forever war at home and abroad, deserves a closer and critical look. For exceptionalism is truly a national disease that ravages American bodies and democratic institutions alike. This malignancy must be named and shamed in pursuit of precisely the “participatory patriotism” the holiday purports to celebrate. As the (late) man said, “Always look to the language;” so let us begin there:

A shining “City upon a Hill;” possessed with the power to “begin the world over again;” imbued with a “Manifest Destiny;” destined to “make the world safe for democracy;” representing, ultimately, a singularly “indispensable nation.” These are the self-styled musings from a country with a near-clinical collective Messiah complex. So diagnosed, the United States, predictably, would never countenance competition from any another power claiming even a fraction of similar self-righteousness. Indeed, in the past, the US has gone to war – hot or cold – with others who dared.

Continue reading “Fourth of July Musings: The Curse of Exceptionalism and the Perils of Patriotism”