Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission. It’s Friday the 13th, and though I’m not superstitious about the date, I’m not liking this headline in today’s New York Times: Top News The topic will be on the agenda Friday with the first official visit to...
Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission. In July 1943, the Nazis launched a colossal assault at the Kursk salient on the eastern front. The Soviet Red Army was ready. After roughly two weeks of massive battles, the Red Army prevailed as the Nazi...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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. It Should Never Be Done Again: Hiroshima, 75 Years...
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...
Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission. With apologies to Elton John and Bernie Taupin, “peace” seems to be the hardest word, for both Democrats and Republicans. This is hardly surprising. The National Security State is the unofficial fourth branch...
Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission. Whether the president’s name is Obama or Trump or Biden, whether it’s the red team in charge or the blue team, there was and remains strong bipartisan support for “modernization” and “investment” in new...
