At Bagram air base, Afghan scrap merchants are already picking through the graveyard of US military equipment that was until recently the headquarters of America’s 20-year occupation of their country. Afghan officials say the last US forces slipped away from Bagram in the dead of night, without...
After Iran shot down a $220-million US unmanned aerial vehicle over the Strait of Hormuz on June 20, President Donald Trump said the United States was “cocked and loaded” to retaliate. He apparently rescinded his decision only 10 minutes before the attack was to be carried out, after his...
Headlined “U.S. Seeks Other Ways to Stop Iran Shy of War,” the article was tucked away on page A9 of a recent New York Times. Still, it caught my attention. Here's the first paragraph: “American intelligence and military officers are working on additional clandestine plans to...
On June 21, Fair Observer contributor Raman Ghavami expressed his concern with what he sees as Europe’s “desire to appease Iran.” At the same time, he complimented the Trump administration for its zeal that has led it to “call out Tehran on its destructive behavior.” Ghavami should learn...
Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo know how to make other countries feel safe — and will punish them if they don’t agree. When they are not morbidly tuning into the far more indigestible lessons to be learned from the latest spectacular mass murder, the American public and the pundits are busying...
The US brand is facing a serious challenge to its seriousness. The Daily Devil’s Dictionary explains. Former US Ambassador to Bahrain Adam Ereli was interviewed by Yahoo Finance on the question of US sanctions on Iran and the consequences for America’s allies. Unreservedly endorsing...
When you’re told nobody had any idea, you can only conclude that there were plenty of people who knew what you weren’t supposed to know. In an interview with British TV presenter Piers Morgan, US President Donald Trump revealed what he learned about Queen Elizabeth’s take on Brexit. It...
In the 21st century, insurgent movements, now largely religious or terror-based or both, offer a grim new version of containment to the last superpower. Think of it as the all-American version of the human comedy: a great power that eternally knows what the world needs and offers copious advice...
Fifteen years later, it is revealed that the UK aided and assisted — but didn’t usually commit — rendition and torture. George W. Bush’s war in Iraq is still a work in progress, depending on how one defines progress. In March, The Economist claimed that, with the Islamic State (IS)...
Those who complain of witch hunts are often clamoring for impunity, hoping that their status puts them above the law. Although the last witch trial in the Western world took place in 1944 in the United Kingdom when Scottish medium Helen Duncan was tried for “fraudulent witchcraft,” the...
This essay is the introduction to Tom Engelhardt’s new book, A Nation Unmade by War, a Dispatch Book published by Haymarket Books. As I was putting the finishing touches on my new book, the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute published an estimate of the taxpayer...
It is surprising to see no mention in any media today of the parallel that exists between the 2001 anthrax attacks across the US and the poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil. It could have been called 9/11, Act I, Scene II, or, in Hollywood terms, the sequel. The script was short...
One form of blowback from the disastrous wars that were meant to create the basis for a Pax Americana helped to produce the conditions that put Donald Trump in the White House. You want to see “blowback” in action? That's easy enough. All you need is a vague sense of how Google search...
America's war on terror has now spread to 76 countries across the globe. He left Air Force Two behind and, unannounced, “shrouded in secrecy,” flew on an unmarked C-17 transport plane into Bagram Air Base, the largest American garrison in Afghanistan. All news of his visit...
US Special Operations Forces were deployed to 149 nations in 2017, or about 75% of the countries on the planet. At around 11 o’clock that night, four Lockheed MC-130 Combat Talons, turboprop Special Operations aircraft, were flying through a moonless sky from Pakistan into Afghan airspace. On...
