Australia Sorry for Abuse of Castoff Kids

Staff / Truthdig Nov 16, 2009 In the decades after World War II, some 10,000 British children were separated from their families and exiled to Australia, where many were physically and sexually abused and some were put to work in what were effectively child labor camps Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (continued). Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Celebrating Slaughter: War and Collective Amnesia

Chris Hedges / Truthdig Oct 5, 2009 War memorials and museums are temples to the god of war. They sanitize the savage instruments of death that turn young soldiers and Marines into killers, and small villages in Vietnam or Afghanistan or Iraq into hellish bonfires.War memorials and museums sanitize the savage instruments of death that turn young soldiers into killers, and small villages in Vietnam or Afghanistan or Iraq into hellish bonfires. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

War Kills Off Great Reform Movements

E.J. Dionne Jr. / Truthdig Oct 5, 2009 The hawks urging President Obama to escalate the war in Afghanistan have no interest in his domestic policy The 20th century is a graveyard of good ideas that lost out to war. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

World War II: 70 Years and We’re Still Fighting

Staff / Truthdig Sep 1, 2009 The Germans invaded Poland on this day 70 years ago, and so began what many consider the greatest conflict in human history An estimated 60 million people would die, including 27 million Soviets and 12 million Jews, Gypsies, gays and other victims of the Nazi holocaust Most of the dead were civiliansSeventy years ago today the Germans invaded Poland, and the rest is history. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

‘Life and Fate’ at the Lincoln Center Festival

Eunice Wong / Truthdig Aug 19, 2009 “Life and Fate” by Vasily Grossman is one of the greatest works of 20th century literature. A new theatrical adaptation is innovative, but ultimately loses the epic's profound meditations on good and evil.A theatrical adaptation of one of the great works of the 20th century falls short of the original epic. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

Hiroshima Day: America Has Been Asleep at the Wheel for 64 Years

BLANK Aug 6, 2009 Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame writes that “official secrecy and deceptions about our nuclear weapons posture and policies and their possible consequences have threatened the survival of the human species.”Daniel Ellsberg writes that deceptions about our nuclear weapons have "threatened the survival of the human species.” Dig deeper ( 26 Min. Read )

Pacifica Radio at 60: A Sanctuary of Dissent

Amy Goodman / Truthdig Apr 15, 2009 The oldest independent media network in the United States turns 60 years old this week as a deepening crisis engulfs mainstream media. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

‘How Did This Country Get Stuck With an Empire?’

Staff / Truthdig Mar 30, 2009 With military personnel deployed in 150 countries, Bill Maher says bringing the troops home from Iraq is only the tip of the iceberg. "Can you imagine if there were 20,000 armed Guatemalans on a base in San Bernardino right now? Lou Dobbs would become a suicide bomber." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Jay Feldman on ‘Concentration Camps on the Home Front’

BLANK Jan 9, 2009 A revelatory account of a hidden chapter of the treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II deepens our understanding of American prejudice and the abuse of power. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Blundering U.S. Should Spare the World Any More Nation Building

William Pfaff / Truthdig Dec 17, 2008 According to a new report, the U.S. has accomplished little more in Iraq than restoration of the basic services destroyed by the American invasion and the looting that followed. This is after killing or wounding -- how many, a half million? -- Iraqi civilians in order to liberate them. No wonder the Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at George W. Bush. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

America Has No Obligation to Save the World

Staff / Truthdig Jul 15, 2008 When it comes to American foreign policy, could it be that less is more? Raja Mohan of Singapore's Nanyang Tech University thinks so, arguing for a "policy of restraint" on the part of a United States that has reached the limits of its ambitious post-WWII superpower strategy on the world stage. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

John Lukacs on Nicholson Baker’s ‘Human Smoke’

BLANK Apr 18, 2008 Was World War II necessary? In an exercise in literary hygiene, a distinguished historian casts a skeptical eye at an acclaimed novelist's revisionist take on the "Good War." Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )