Danny Sjursen is a retired US Army officer, director of the new Eisenhower Media Network (EMN), senior fellow at the Center for International Policy (CIP), and contributing editor at Antiwar.com.
Danny Sjursen is a retired US Army officer, director of the new Eisenhower Media Network (EMN), senior fellow at the Center for International Policy (CIP), and contributing editor at Antiwar.com.
Maj. Danny Sjursen endorses Truthdig
This publication believes in its writers, pushes against barriers in the quest for truth and performs a vital service for readers in ways that surpass even the aspirations of most other media outlets.
Recently, I was home with my sick toddler. Due to his lethargy, he alternated all day between sleeping across my lap and watching “Fireman Sam” YouTube videos on my phone. Writing my next column or reading for my upcoming think-tank piece was thus out of the question. So, for my sins, I was relegated to watching CNN for 12 hours straight. It served mainly as background noise, admittedly, but to do what I do week after week one must stay on top of the “news”—to the extent the big three cable news channels still report it. In all that day’s time, CNN, the self-styled "world’s news leader," spent a whopping two and a half minutes covering America’s longest-ever, ongoing, war in Afghanistan.
See, whether it’s reflexive hatred of Donald Trump (MSNBC), adulation of the president (Fox News) or pathological obsession with him (CNN), the mainstream press has decided—cha-ching!—to report on little else. And why not? Trump is nothing if not entertaining and a profits-boosting machine. (CBS Chairman Les Moonves quipped in 2016 that “[Trump’s candidacy] may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS.”) That the top networks don’t even bother to deny the motivation demonstrates that establishment media has gone into full-tilt entertainment mode over information mode.
Most Americans, struggling as they increasingly are to make ends meet in a decades-long era of working-class wage stagnation, have sunken so far into despair that they hardly notice that our wars are being ignored. Not me. Maybe because I now make a living covering the nation’s endless wars, and certainly because I buried eight beloved soldiers, along with my emotional health, in those very conflicts, I’m personally insulted! How dare CNN (and the others) hardly mention the Afghanistan War—in which U.S. troops are still dying—across 12 hours of nonstop “news” coverage?
In such times, truly involved citizens—and they are still out there—have no choice but to turn to alternative media, which, though ignored in the mainstream press, is actually flourishing … creatively, if not financially. Among such publications, Truthdig has always stood out for me—long before I ever dreamed of writing professionally for Truthdig or any other site.
Once upon a time, then-1st Lt. Danny Sjursen—yes, I weathered plenty of “Lt. Dan” jokes—had just returned from Iraq and was intellectually and morally lost. If I had had any real courage, I would have resigned from the Army right then. Only I didn’t. Still, I had an unquenchable desire to absorb any and all writing that was vaguely antiwar, and that took an (empirically) skeptical view of America’s post-9/11 military deployments. Around that time, I discovered Chris Hedges’ work, which led me to Truthdig and opened my eyes to a plethora of other courageous, honest writers. I was immediately hooked.
So, when Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer began publishing my work, I—an inexperienced, burgeoning writer still on active duty in the Army—was on cloud nine. Eventually, I would become a weekly columnist. As a veritable Chris Hedges “fan boy,” it was an honor to be his colleague, of a sort. More than that, Bob, Publisher Zuade Kaufman and the whole team at Truthdig proved even more creative, fearless and willing to take artistic risks than I’d imagined. When I pitched a U.S. history series—of nearly 40 parts, with some individual installments reaching nearly 15,000 words—I expected to be laughed out of the room. On the contrary, Bob and Zuade not only accepted my proposal but encouraged me to frame the series as a future book bearing the Truthdig stamp.
This publication believes in its writers, pushes against barriers in the quest for truth and performs a vital service for readers in ways that surpass even the aspirations of most other media outlets. Here I’ve found not just a space for creative control and unflappable journalistic support—an increasingly rare situation these days—but a genuine home.
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TruthdigJan 9, 2020
There's no justification for Qassem Soleimani's assassination, and if we avoid another war in the Middle East, we'll have Tehran to thank. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TruthdigJan 6, 2020
As the two nations move inexorably closer to a full-scale conflict, it's essential that we recognize who started this cycle of violence. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TruthdigJan 3, 2020
By assassinating the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the president has committed perhaps his most consequential crime to date. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TruthdigDec 31, 2019
Behind everyone’s favorite Christmas movie is a story of almost unimaginable pain and suffering. It’s one I've come to know all too well. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TruthdigDec 25, 2019
During World War I, men on both sides defied their leaders and respective nations, if only for a moment. Let it be a lesson in 2019. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TruthdigDec 17, 2019
For a decade and a half, the U.S. Army waged war on fierce tribal Muslims in a remote land. Sound familiar? Dig deeper ( 17 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TruthdigDec 13, 2019
I doubt I’ll ever again trust the assertions and promises of the military's top brass. And I’m not in bad company. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TruthdigDec 9, 2019
A new bombshell report from The Washington Post merely confirms what those of us who served in Kandahar could see with our own eyes. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TruthdigDec 3, 2019
For this retired U.S. Army officer, the president's Thanksgiving visit with the troops has been "triggering" in all the worst ways. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TruthdigNov 21, 2019
Not only do they encourage military indiscipline and stain the country’s reputation, but they are guaranteed to make us all less safe. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen and Colleen RowleyNov 11, 2019
Vets have become a prop for our political establishment. If we want to honor their fight, we should celebrate a declaration of peace. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / AntiwarNov 28, 2018
Millions of American troops have spent countless festivities deployed in the Middle East—it’s worth asking what it’s all for. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TomDispatchNov 21, 2018
American militarism has gone off the rails—and this middling career officer should have seen it coming. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TomDispatchOct 3, 2018
Let’s consider the last decades of American war-making in the context of insider attacks. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / AntiWar.comMay 20, 2018
If President Trump strikes some sort of deal with nuclear North Korea, and then unleashes the U.S. and Israeli militaries on non-nuclear Iran, the results would be catastrophic. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TomDispatchMay 3, 2018
The president of the United States is a veritable autocrat in the realm of foreign policy. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / AntiWar.comApr 26, 2018
Why does Donald Trump feel inclined to attack Bashar Assad's forces only in the case of chemical attacks rather than the more frequent conventional bombings? Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / Antiwar.comApr 23, 2018
As Americans focus on everything Trumpian, Palestinians die (or are killed) as a matter of course in Gaza. And, once again, the U.S. is complicit. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / AntiWar.comApr 11, 2018
The U.S., which remains mired in wars in the Greater Middle East, would do well to remember that today’s convenient friend is too often tomorrow’s sworn enemy. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TomDispatchApr 8, 2018
Donald Trump’s continual Cabinet reshuffling—otherwise the stuff of reality-TV drama—has become genuinely frightening. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / AntiWar.comApr 5, 2018
Americans are led to believe they have been fighting for democracy and freedom these past 17 years, but the truth is far murkier. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / Antiwar.comMar 24, 2018
Why does the citizenry act shocked when a disgruntled veteran commits a heinous act? Americans have sent millions of troopers to wage pointless wars. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / Antiwar.comMar 22, 2018
After waging an ill-advised war of choice, the U.S. military remains ensnared in Greater Mesopotamia. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / Antiwar.comMar 17, 2018
Rex Tillerson was far from an ideal choice for secretary of state, but his anointed successor may ditch diplomacy altogether and start a war. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / AntiWar.comMar 14, 2018
The new National Defense Strategy all but declares a new Cold War on Russia and China, but neither country has the power or malign intentions ascribed to it. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / Antiwar.comMar 8, 2018
The U.S. military continues go big, go long, and go forever. To where, you ask? Nowhere fast. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / The HillMar 6, 2018
After 16 years of intervention, America has done all it can. More troops won’t "win" us anything Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TomDispatchFeb 20, 2018
The newly released National Defense Strategy offers a glimpse at how the Pentagon’s vision of future global policy manages to provide something for each of its services and their corporate backers. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TomDispatchJan 30, 2018
The vast majority of senior American military officers are refighting the Vietnam War through the books they read, the scholarship they publish and the policies they continue to pursue in the Greater Middle East. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )
Maj. Danny Sjursen / TomDispatchDec 19, 2017
Like Barack Obama and George W. Bush, President Trump has opted for continuing, even escalating, America’s war for the Middle East. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )
By Danny Sjursen / TomDispatchNov 27, 2017
The author imagines an alternative strategy for then-President George W. Bush on Sept. 12, 2001, and beyond. Dig deeper ( 13 Min. Read )
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