American imperialism

Washington Wants a New Cold War—But That’s a Bad Idea

As China unleashed live-fire military exercises off the coast of Taiwan, simulating a real “reunification by force” operation in the wake of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s ceremonial visit to the island last week, the bipartisan fervor for a new Cold War with China and Russia took greater hold in Washington. “Leaders in both parties,” Post columnist Josh Rogin reports, “understand that the United[Read More...]

After the American Century

“The American Century Is Over.” So claims the July 2022 cover of Harper’s Magazine, adding an all-too-pertinent question: “What’s Next?” What, indeed? Eighty years after the United States embarked upon the Great Crusade of World War II, a generation after it laid claim to the status of sole superpower following the fall of the Berlin Wall, and two decades after the Global[Read More...]

U.S.-Led Holy War to Conquer Russia and China Declared by Pompeo

On June 24th, at the think tank, the Hudson Institute, U.S. President Trump’s CIA chief and Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, delivered a 5,000+-word speech, suggesting that America has an essentially God-assigned mission to control the world, so as to preserve freedom and democracy for everybody, and that victory against Russia and China is therefore obligatory for the United States[Read More...]

Why Does the United States Have a Military Base in Ghana?

An interview with Kwesi Pratt Jr., a journalist and leader of the Socialist Movement of Ghana. In April 2018, the president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, said that Ghana has “not offered a military base, and will not offer a military base to the United States of America.” His comments came after Ghana’s parliament had ratified a new defense cooperation agreement with the[Read More...]

War as Terrorism

Anyone who grew up in my generation of 1980s kids remembers G.I. Joe action figures — those green-uniformed plastic soldiers you could use to stage battles in the sandbox in your backyard or, for that matter, your bedroom. In those days, when imagery of bombed-out homes, bloodied civilians, and police violence wasn’t accessible on TV screens or in video games like Call of[Read More...]

Five Reasons Why Washington Can’t Break Its War Addiction

Why has the United States already become so heavily invested in the Russia-Ukraine war? And why has it so regularly gotten involved, in some fashion, in so many other wars on this planet since it invaded Afghanistan in 2001?  Those with long memories might echo the conclusion reached more than a century ago by radical social critic Randolph Bourne that “war is the[Read More...]

There’s Gambling Going On Here!!!

Remember Captain Renault ( Claude Rains) in Casablanca when he had them close Rick’s Cafe Americain. Rick (Humphrey Bogart) runs to him and says ” Why are ya shutting me down?” Renault shouts back ” There’s gambling going on here.” At that moment the croupier runs over to him with a pile of chips saying ” Here’s your winnings sir.”[Read More...]

The Sacralization of War, American-Style – Reaping What We Sow

Lately, random verses from the Bible have been popping into my mind unbidden, like St. Paul’s famous line from Galatians, “A person reaps what they sow.” The words sprang into my consciousness when I learned of the death of the 95-year-old Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh, who helped encourage Martin Luther King to declare his opposition to the Vietnam[Read More...]