Antiwar.com Blog

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.

Like too many people, I sometimes make the mistake of talking about nuclear war, when it’s really annihilation and genocide we’re talking about.

Wars have winners and losers. In nuclear “war,” everyone loses. The planet loses. Life loses and death triumphs on a scale we simply can’t imagine.

Language is so important here. I grew up learning about nuclear exchanges. EXCHANGES! The U.S. military talks of nuclear modernization and “investing” in nukes when the only dividend of this “investment” is mass death.

Continue reading “How About a Winnable Nuclear Exchange, America?”

On COI #719, Connor Freeman and Kyle Anzalone discuss the impact of Israel’s onslaught on children.

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Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.

In 2018, the Pentagon failed its first audit. In 2024, it failed its seventh audit in a row. The Pentagon has been “punished” for failing seven audits – and losing track of roughly $2 trillion in gear, weapons, and similar “assets” – with more money. Whether under Presidents Trump or Biden, the Pentagon budget has continued to soar toward a trillion dollars. That is the reward for total fiscal incompetence.

Congress says the Pentagon must achieve “a clean audit” by 2028. Imagine telling the IRS that you can’t account for your financials for seven straight years – and probably at least three more – but you hope to have a “clean” tax return after a decade of effort. And the IRS responds by giving you ever higher tax refunds that you haven’t earned. Nonsensical, isn’t it?

Continue reading “The Trillion-Dollar Blob”

Ukraine is now firing US ATACMS long range missiles into Russia. They’re also firing long range UK Storm Shadow missiles into Russia. Ukrainians push the bottoms but US and UK military do the programming and technical support, without which no buttons can be pushed.

That puts Russia at de facto war with the US and UK, NATO as well for that matter.Russia made that point by unleashing a new hypersonic nuclear capable long range missile, Oreshnik, which obliterated a strategic Ukrainian military target. The point was that the Oreshnik, which can destroy any target with unstoppable speed, can pulverize high value NATO targets throughout Europe. Compared to Oreshnik, US ATACMAS and UK Storm Shadows are like bottle rockets. Their sole military use appears to be provoking all out war.

In spite of the Russian warning, France’s Foreign Minister Jean –Noel Barrot just announced France will allow its SCALPS version to the UK Storm Shadows bottle rocket to be fired by Ukraine into Russia.

Continue reading “As America Barrels Toward War With Russia… Where’s Biden?”

Jonah Blank tries to make the case that Biden can somehow salvage something from the wreckage of his policies in the Middle East:

Biden has so far failed to achieve his highest goals for the Middle East – but in his final days he can single-handedly reset the Israeli-Palestinian equation, preserve the potential for a two-state solution, and rescue much of his tarnished legacy. His status as a lame duck paradoxically gives him the power to do things possible only for a leader whose next step is retirement.

Biden is not going to do any of this. He has already shown that he will spend what little time he has left in office running interference for Netanyahu and letting the Israeli government off the hook for its many crimes. The president’s lame duck status might theoretically free him to do things he wouldn’t normally do, but Biden doesn’t want to do any of those things. To the extent that Biden feels less constrained now that the election is over, he no longer feels any need to pretend that his administration cares about what happens in Gaza. The cynical deadline that Blinken and Austin set before the election came and went, conditions in Gaza keep getting worse because the Israeli government is starving the people to death, and the Biden administration will make no changes to their policy.

Continue reading “There Is No Salvaging Biden’s Legacy”