Author Stan Goff, a retired 26-year veteran of the U.S. Army Special Forces, describes how two main tenets of the so-called Rumsfeld Doctrine—the reduction of all things military into “metrics” and an obsession with perception management—have left America inured to the human cost of the Iraq war.
A top medical journal’s report that the killing of innocents in Iraq is 10 times higher than a year ago completely contradicts Bush & Co. contentions that U.S. troops are stabilizing the country.
This week Truthdig celebrates the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad and the Center for International Studies at MIT as well as The Lancet for their commitment to documenting the real number of Iraqi deaths that have resulted from the 2003 U.S. military invasion of Iraq.
America’s invasion of Iraq has made predictable impressions on Iran and North Korea: Only military power, underscored by the actual possession of nuclear weapons, can guarantee survival against a superpower bent on regime change.
Shortly after the November midterm elections, former Secretary of State James Baker, the Bush family fixer anointed to patch up U.S. policy in Iraq, is going to announce what everyone else already knows: It’s time to pull out.
As I close up my house in Maine and begin to direct my attention back to the world, I wonder: How do we pay the full coin of attention to danger and death without being overwhelmed?
The author of “Born on the Fourth of July” recounts his personal journey from a gung-ho U.S. Marine in Vietnam to an outspoken critic of that war, and how that transformation paved the way for his current activism against America’s campaign in Iraq.
Right-wingers want to blame Bill Clinton for North Korea’s nuclear provocation, but it was the wannabe cowboy in the Oval Office who goaded the Hermit Kingdom’s leader into a Cold War-style bout of nuclear brinkmanship.
Why did Henry Luce, titan of 20th-century journalism, bury the legacy of his boyhood friend and rival, Time magazine co-founder Briton Hadden? That’s the provocative and never-before-told story at the heart of the new book “The Man Time Forgot.” Truthdig interviews its author, Isaiah Wilner. (Above: Hadden, left, and Luce, center, in 1925.)
Kinky Friedman came off as an unrepentant racist on Friday night, so the contest has come down to Rick Perry, who has really good hair, and Chris Bell, who has everything else.
The former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times and author of the bestseller “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” reports on Bush’s plan for Iran, and how a callous war, conceived by zealots, will lead to a disaster of biblical proportions.
Asim examines a hot internet video for the potency of its racist content, and wonders why a black entertainer would make a music video that is more racist than “Birth of a Nation.”
Truthdig tips its hat this week to Bob Woodward, whose book “State of Denial” plowed over much-trod territory and still managed to surface plenty of fresh headlines. (Video and more after the jump…)
I would have preferred the Democrats to end up ascendant in November based on the strength of their ideas, but if it takes Mark Foley to bring down the GOP house, so be it.
Time for Our Second Bill of Rights
