Summary: A guest post by Bernard Finel provides a deeper explanation for our love of foreign wars, wars often with only tenuous connections to our national interest. This piece from David Axe at Wired (Why the U.S. Should Send Troops (and Spooks) to the Congo) has gotten a bit of attention: Problem is, Congo can’t …
Ultimately Primacy Is Its Own Justification (Imperial rule #12) Read More »
Summary: For many Americans, being the world’s superpower means that everybody’s business is our business — in self-defense. Which is why Empires expand and die. Telling other people how to live makes enemies, violating the first and greatest rule of a successful grand strategy. As Secretary of State, Clinton should know this — but obviously …
Subjugation of women anywhere threatens US national security! Read More »
Summary: Today’s feature is a counterpoint to our imperial cheerleaders, such as Niall Ferguson and the neocons. At the end are links to six military and intelligence agencies visions of the future, plus other relevant articles. Introduction by Tom Engelhardt: The Great Superpower Meltdown Think of us as just having passed through the failed era of “must” …
America’s combination of hubris and paranoia produces many strange things — which we baffle our descendents — but the repeating debates in the form of “who lost China” must take the booby-prize. “The Coming Failure On Iran“, Jackson Diehl (a deputy editor), Washington Post, 4 October 2009 — The title says it all. If Iran …
Are we fools? Yes, if we repeat the “who lost China” madness. Read More »
Most commencement speeches are a bore. Few were as good as this one written for the students of the virtual correspondence school known as TomDispatch. “Missing Word, Missing World“, By Tom Engelhardt , 2 June 2009 — Excerpt: Graduates of the Bush years, initiates of the Obama era, if you think of a commencement address as …
Words important for all Americans to hear, from Tom Engelhardt Read More »
