Peaceful protest, violent response – that says it all. Human politics – from global to local – remain mixed with hatred, dominance and... well, dehumanization. We've organized ourselves across the planet around one primary principle: the existence of an enemy. The...
Floating for Peace on the Golden Rule
It’s 10 p.m. at Montrose Harbor in Chicago. Kiko and Tamar help me step from the dock into the wobbly rowboat. Kiko rows us out to the Golden Rule and I climb aboard in wonder. Oh my God! This is it – the 30-foot, anti-nuke sailboat with a history going back almost...
‘The Enemy Is Not a Human Being’
There’s a crucial, overlooked aspect of Daniel Ellsberg’s legacy that’s very much worth saluting, you might say: his transformation from a believer in the Vietnam war to a horrified opponent of it, ready to risk prison time to bring classified truth about its...
Before the Bombs Come the Platitudes
What is democracy but platitudes and dog whistles? The national direction is quietly predetermined – it’s not up for debate. The president’s role is to sell it to the public; you might say he’s the public-relations director in chief:". . . my...
Ukraine and the Nuclear Paradox
Somewhere out there in the geopolitical wilderness of Eastern Europe, two powerful beasts stalk each other. One of them is good. One of them is evil. The future of all life on this planet is at stake.We’ll be back after these messages . . . (or maybe not).This seems...
The Myth of the Good War
Love thy enemy? I get a chance to do so on a regular basis, thanks to the email (or nasty-mail) I sometimes get in response to my column, e.g.:"Must be a dearth of anyone with anything intelligent to say for the News to put your drivel out for us to chew on. Not...
Separating the Cross and the Sword
What is a gaffe but an inadvertent uttering of an awkward truth? For instance:"This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while."The "gaffe" part of George W. Bush’s post-9/11 announcement that the War on Terror had begun was, of...
We Need a National Rite of Passage That Doesn’t Include War
A recent New York Timesop-ed was perhaps the strangest, most awkward and tentative defense of the military-industrial complex – excuse me, the experiment in democracy called America – I've ever encountered, and begs to be addressed.The writer, Andrew Exum,...
Let’s Open the Books: We Need a Truth Commission for the Afghan War
"Ten members of one family – including seven children – are dead after a US drone strike targeting a vehicle in a residential neighborhood of Kabul . . ."The youngest victims of Sunday's airstrike were two 2-year-old girls, according to family...
Nukes, Lies, and Invisible Murder
Let's listen in for a moment to the gentle, awkward language of mass killing:"The employment or threat of employment of nuclear weapons could have a significant influence on ground operations. . . . Integration of nuclear weapons into a theater of operations...