Author: William Astore

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.

World War I made Adolf Hitler.

Before the war, Hitler was aimless, a failed artist, essentially a nobody with little chance of rising in society.  The war gave him purpose as well as a respectable identity as a war hero. As much as one thing can create another, the war created Hitler. It was the cause of his euphoria in 1914 when he enlisted and led to his mental collapse in 1918 when Germany surrendered. Hitler vowed vengeance against the “November criminals” who he believed had stabbed Germany in the back, including most infamously Jewish elements as well as communists, socialists, and indeed anyone against war.

Continue reading “World War One Made Adolf Hitler”

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.

America has two war parties, Republican and Democratic, ensuring the death of democracy since war is the most insidious enemy of freedom and liberty.

When I wrote recently about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a longtime reader sent me this insight:

People just don’t realize how ugly war really is and how ugly everyone at war gets to be, and that goes for us as well as the Japanese. 

How true! Ugliness is everywhere in war because war actuates the very worst impulses of the (in)human condition.

Continue reading “War Is the Enemy”

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have something in common.  They both embrace colossal Pentagon budgets and both celebrate the “lethality” of the U.S. military, which, they agree, must be the strongest, bestest, in the world.  They also agree on giving a blank check to Israel and its leaders to do whatever they want in Gaza to the Palestinians and will continue to provide whatever weapons Israel desires to kill massive numbers of Palestinians while flattening and destroying the Gaza Strip.

With respect to Iran, Harris appears to be even more hawkish than Trump, and indeed criticized him for not being aggressive enough with Iran’s leaders.  Harris is also a strong supporter of Ukraine, seeing war as its best option to defeat Russia, whereas Trump is more skeptical of war and more open to diplomacy with Putin and Russia.

Continue reading “Cheerleaders of the Military-Industrial Complex”

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.

I remember watching The Phil Donahue Show with my dad. Informative and willing to tackle controversial issues, the show proved remarkably popular, a tribute to its host, Phil Donahue, who recently died at the age of 88. The show was briefly revived in 2002 on MSNBC, where it was the network’s highest-rated offering until it was cancelled.

Here’s what the Boston Globe had to say yesterday about Phil Donahue’s show in 2002 and why MSNBC cancelled it:

Donahue returned briefly to television in 2002, hosting another “Donahue” show on MSNBC. The station canceled it after six months, citing low ratings.

Continue reading “A Lesson From the Death of Phil Donahue”

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.

Originally written in 2015 for the 70th anniversary; updated in 2020 for the 75th anniversary; reposted below along with a podcast for the 79th anniversary.

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”