Antiwar.com Blog

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.

I wrote my first article for TomDispatch in 2007, two years after I’d retired from the military. That article was highly critical of the U.S. military and its disastrous war in Iraq. I wrote that we, the citizens of America, had to save the military from itself and its worst excesses. Sadly, we the people have been demobilized; we have no say about “our” military and its wars.

In fact, while the Iraq and Afghan Wars are now officially over, both lost at enormous cost, we the people are still issuing blank checks to a Pentagon that is wildly if not fatally deluded and delusional.

Continue reading “Wars That Never Should Have Been Fought Cannot Be Won”

In the face of moves in Congress to ramp up U.S. readiness to activate a draft, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) have reintroduced an alternative proposal to step back from the brink of mass military mobilization by repealing the Military Selective Service Act.

In 2016, 2021, and again in 2022, Congress came close to approving legislation to expand the requirement to register with the Selective Service System for a possible military draft to include young women as well as young men. In 2024, that proposal is moving forward again in Congress as part of the annaul National Defense [sic] Authorization Act (NDAA), along with a proposal to try to register all young people “automatically” for a possible draft.

Continue reading “Selective Service Repeal Act Reintroduced in the Senate”

Soon after the Gaza war began 10 months ago, a prominent newspaper columnist denounced Congresswoman Cori Bush under a headline declaring that “anti-Israel comments make her unfit for reelection.” The piece appeared in the newspaper with the second-largest readership in Missouri, the Kansas City Star. Multimillion-dollar attacks on Bush followed.

Bush’s opponent, county prosecutor Wesley Bell, “is now the number-one recipient of AIPAC cash this election cycle,” according to Justice Democrats. “Almost two-thirds of all his donations came from the anti-Palestinian, far-right megadonor-funded lobby group.” The Intercept reports that “AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, has gone on to spend a total of $7 million so far to oust Bush” in the Aug. 6 Democratic primary in her St. Louis area district.

Continue reading “The Smearing of Cori Bush for Being Truthful About the Gaza War”

On COI #648, Kyle Anzalone breaks down the latest news from the Middle East.

Subscribe on YouTube and audio-only.

The Israeli government assassinated the leader of Hamas’ political wing while he was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of the newly-elected Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian:

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political wing, was killed in Iran, Hamas announced Wednesday, describing the death as an assassination. Hamas and Iran both blamed Israel and vowed to retaliate; the Israel Defense Forces declined to comment. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said it was Iran’s “duty” to avenge the killing, and Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned of “major repercussions” for the whole region.

Continue reading “A Reckless and Dangerous Israeli Assassination in Iran”

The death toll in Gaza is way too low by every imaginable metric. We need to be stressing this – all the more so when Israel’s apologists are vigorously engaged in a disinformation campaign to suggest that the figures are inflated.

On 6 May, 7 months into Israel’s slaughter, there were reported to be 34,735 dead. That was an average of 4,960 Palestinians killed each month.

Today, nearly three months on, the reported death toll stands at 39,400 – or an increase of 4,665.

Continue reading “The Official Death Toll in Gaza Is a Lie. The Casualty Numbers Are Far, Far Higher”