US Military

2009

• Pentagon Investigating Iraq Electrocution Death

  Jeremy Scahill

  Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Carol Shea-Porter argue that since Adam Hermanson died while working on a Defense Department contract, the DoD is obliged to investigate.

• Welcome to 2025: American Pre-eminence Ends Fifteen Years Early

  Michael T. Klare

  The American intelligence community has missed the boat on how quickly the US has fallen from "sole superpower" status.

• Ehren Watada: Free at Last

  Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith : Iraq War

  After three years of trying to convict Lt. Ehren Watada for refusing to deploy to Iraq, the Army has allowed him to resign.

• Lessons From the Long War and a Blowback World

  Tom Engelhardt : Afghanistan War

  Will today's US-armed ally be tomorrow's enemy?

• Is America Hooked on War?

  Tom Engelhardt

  The United States is coming ever closer to a state that matches the Orwellian slogan from 1984: war is peace.

• GI Joe, Post-American Hero

  Tom Engelhardt : Film

  Why is it that GI Joe--like all action figures in all action movies of this moment--has left the all-American battlefield for outer, or future or alternate space?

• Biking Out of Iraq

  Tom Engelhardt : Iraq War

  Reflections on troops that don't depart, experts who never leave the scene, an Air Force that suddenly wasn't there and a war that no longer needs justification.

• Warehousing Soldiers in the Homeland

  Dahr Jamail & Sarah Lazare

  A single platoon lost in a military limbo is a measurement of the stress under which the US Army now operates.

• Three Good Reasons to Liquidate Our Empire

  Chalmers Johnson

  The United States no longer has the capability to remain a global hegemon, and to pretend otherwise is to invite disaster.

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  Deep-Sixing the F-22

  Robert Scheer

  The news that Congress might terminate production of topline fighter jets comes as a considerable victory for President Obama and Defense Secretary Gates.

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  Remembering Robert McNamara

  Jonathan Schell : Vietnam War

  The former secretary of defense presided over the deaths of millions--and was one of the only officials to publicly express regret.

• How to Deal with America's Empire of Bases

  Chalmers Johnson : US Foreign Policy

  As Congress and Obama wrangle over the cost of much-needed domestic expenditures, no one suggests that closing some of these unpopular, expensive imperial enclaves might be a good way to save some money.

• Refusing to Comply

  Dahr Jamail

  The ongoing dissent that does exist in the US military, however fragmented and overlooked at the moment, should not be discounted.

• Should the US Military be the Global Cop?

  VideoNation

  In part two of a three-part series, Chris Hayes of The Nation debates Reihan Salam of the National Review over the proper role of the US military in the world.

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  McChrystal's Pat Tillman Connection

  Dave Zirin : Afghanistan War

  The family of the late Pat Tillman knows the ugly truth about Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal even if President Obama doesn't.

• The Plight of Women Soldiers

  Helen Benedict : Feminism & Women

  More women have fought and died in Iraq than in all the wars since World War II put together. Yet the US military continues to treat them like second class citizens.

• US Troops Told to 'Hunt People for Jesus'

  Al Jazeera : Religion

  Evangelicals serving in Afghanistan add spreading Christianity to list of duties in defiance of US military law.