The Business of America Is War

By William J. Astore, TomDispatch Oct 21, 2013 There is a new normal in America: our government may shut down, but our wars continue. Congress may not be able to pass a budget, but the U.S. military can still launch commando raids in Libya and Somalia, and the military-industrial complex can still dominate the world’s arms trade. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Beating Swords Into Solar Panels

By Mattea Kramer and Miriam Pemberton, TomDispatch Sep 20, 2013 War, the military-industrial complex, and the national security state that go with it cost in every sense an arm and a leg. And that, in the twenty-first century, is where so many American tax dollars have gone. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

‘Chain Reaction’ Is a Threat, but Not to the Public Interest

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Sep 20, 2013 The first structural engineer hired by Santa Monica officials to assess the safety of former L.A. Times cartoonist Paul Conrad's anti-nuclear war sculpture declared that the work "is not an imminent hazard nor should it be considered dangerous." But officials still want to tear it down. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Military Stimulus

Adam Zyglis, Cagle Cartoons, The Buffalo News Sep 8, 2013 Dig deeper

Hope in a Time of Permanent War

By Henry A Giroux, Truthout Sep 6, 2013 How might it be possible to imagine hope for a better world for humanity in a country that has sanctioned state torture, is about to bomb Syria and kill untold numbers of civilians, spies on its own citizens, extends the reach of the punishing state into all aspects of society, and inflicts violence on black and brown youths through racial profiling and the machinery of the mass incarceration state? Dig deeper ( 17 Min. Read )

Toward Perpetual War

Monte Wolverton, Cagle Cartoons Sep 2, 2013 Dig deeper

Raytheon Says Let’s Go to War!

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Aug 30, 2013 The weapon manufacturer's stock surged roughly 10 percent while American war drums for Syria crescendoed over the past two months. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., recognizes the jump as an unambiguous reminder that profit is a cause for the war President Obama seems prepared to make. "Nobody wants this except the military-industrial complex," he said on a radio show Thursday. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Eisenhower

Signe Wilkinson / Truthdig Jun 21, 2013 Dig deeper

‘Homeland Security’: The Trillion Dollar Concept That No One Can Define

By Mattea Kramer and Chris Hellman, TomDispatch Feb 28, 2013 Since 2003, the Department of Homeland Security has grown into a miniature Pentagon. But unlike the Pentagon, it draws no attention whatsoever -- even though this country has spent an amount of money equivalent to more than one and a half New Deals on “homeland security” since 9/11. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

Eight Things I Miss About the Cold War

By Jon Wiener, TomDispatch Jan 16, 2013 It couldn’t be a sadder thing to admit, given what happened during the Cold War, but -- given what’s happened in recent years -- who can doubt that the America of the 1950s and 1960s was, in some ways, simply a better place than the one we live in now? Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

Pressure Is On to Tighten the Pentagon’s Waist

Staff / Truthdig Jul 23, 2010 Does the Defense Department's budget make the Pentagon look fat? Some officials believe so, as political and economic pressure to cut the U.S. military's bloated spending habit has stirred the first serious debate on the Pentagon's budget since 2001's terrorist attacks. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

More Money for War, Through the Back Door

Staff / Truthdig Nov 5, 2009 The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Mike Mullen, expects the Pentagon to request emergency financing for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a Bush-era tactic that uses "supplemental funding" to flesh out the already massive Pentagon budget to pay for the conflicts. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )