Two extremes of Latin American politics are represented by Guatemala and Cuba, the former a country where, in 1954, the CIA succeeded in overthrowing a government that offended Washington and the latter a nation that has resisted CIA covert operations…
Sexual Puritanism and Empire
As the ice caps melt and wars continue to kill, the U.S. news media remains obsessed with sex scandals, such as Rep. Anthony Weiner tweeting lewd photos of himself. But this persistent moral outrage is its own strange voyeurism, not just a distraction…
Petraeus Pads Success Against Taliban
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan who is seen as a shoo-in to become the next CIA director, appears to have wildly exaggerated the number of Taliban fighters captured last year by padding the totals with Afghans…
A Minister Out of Place
Prophets and priests have served rival and often contradictory roles throughout history, with priests officiating at society’s rituals and prophets addressing society’s injustices. Recently, the Rev. Howard Bess found himself in a position to serve both functions.
GOP Rejects Global Warming Threat
As a current article of political faith, Republican leaders decry the science on global warming as “junk” or a left-wing conspiracy. Even as temperatures rise around the planet and new weather patterns threaten food supplies, the GOP and its right-wing alllies refuse to face the…
Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘Bloodlust’
Americans know little about their nation’s real history or the flaws of their most famous leaders, even pivotal ones like Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. But this ignorance isn’t bliss; instead it contributes to a dangerous…
Manufacturing Fear on Iran Nukes
By embracing false or unproven allegations about foreign adversaries, U.S. policymakers may believe they are looking tough or pleasing some important constituent group. But they are also creating a situation that can get out of hand and get lots of…
Skating to the Financial Abyss
Even as another potential Great Depression looms, the U.S. political/media system seems incapable of addressing the crisis and devising coherent answers. Instead, the old partisan and lobbying games dominate the political world and obsession with trivia commands the news media’s…
Three Deadly War Myths
Exclusive: The U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have involved myths pleasing to Official Washington — about its own wisdom and the evil of the enemy — but these false narratives have caused President Barack Obama and other U.S. policymakers to base decisions on illusion rather…
Ellsberg on Pentagon Papers Release
On the 40th anniversary of Daniel Ellsberg leaking the Pentagon Papers, the Nixon presidential library is touting its release of the entire set, including a section on Vietnam peace talks that Ellsberg withheld to avoid disrupting the negotiations. The misimpression…
Can Obama Escape from Afghan War?
Holdovers from the Bush administration, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Gen. David Petraeus, boxed President Obama into a counterinsurgency “surge” during the 2009 policy review for Afghanistan. Now, Obama has a chance to go in a different direction, but…
Neocons Spin Two ‘Lost’ Wars
Exclusive: The looming U.S. defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan represent a threat to the political fortunes of America’s neocons — if they get blamed for the disasters. However, if they can hang the failures around President Obama’s neck, the two lost wars…
Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 Strategy Explained
Before his murder last month, Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad detailed how al-Qaeda leaders used the 9/11 attacks to induce “cowboy” President George W. Bush to blunder foolishly into the invasions of two Muslim countries, thus advancing an al-Qaeda strategy to discredit the region’s…
Asian Alliance Supplants US Empire
While Official Washington grapples with how slowly to draw down troops in Afghanistan and debates whether to complete the pullout from Iraq by year’s end a new alliance of Asian states is expanding into the vacuum left by America’s decaying…
Gen. Keane Keen on Iran Attack
Exclusive: In Washington, retired Gen. Jack Keane is widely praised for his role in promoting the Iraq War “surge” in 2007 and he is now seeking an escalation of tensions with Iran. However, at a Fordham event in New York,…
American Exceptionalism’s Hypocrisy
U.S. politicians often speak of “American exceptionalism” as some God-given grant of special status that puts the United States above the rules that apply to other nations. In geo-politics, this concept has meant that international law is enforced against countries…
Hailing Gates for Pentagon ‘Savings’
Since becoming Defense Secretary in December 2006, Robert Gates has wallowed in flattering press clippings, most recently hailed as the heroic Pentagon budget cutter eliminating wasteful weapons systems. However, the reality is quite different as Gates ends his tenure at…
The Scandal of Secret Campaign Cash
Secret political donations threaten to inundate Campaign 2012 to flood levels that would make the Watergate slush funds look like kiddy pools. In this guest essay, Michael Winship explains how political scandals big and small trace back to money in politics.
Targeting Cuba’s Health-Care System
The U.S. government’s half-century campaign to discredit and destroy Cuba’s experiment with socialism has had many ruthless aspects, but perhaps none more so than efforts to disparage and damage the Caribbean island’s widely admired health-care system, as William Blum describes in this…
Making the US Economy ‘Scream’
Exclusive: Over the past several decades, Republican methods for winning national power have come to resemble CIA techniques for destabilizing an enemy country — through the use of black propaganda, political skullduggery and economic disruptions. Now, heading toward Election 2012, the Republicans appear poised to make the U.S. economy “scream,” observes…