Michael Murry. Introduction by William Astore. Iraq is in the news again. As ISIS continues to expand its power, U.S. politicians engage in rehashing dishonest debates about “bad” intelligence in regards to Iraq (vintage 2002-03) or in recriminations about who did or is “losing” Iraq, e.g. this article from today’s New York Times about how…
Greg Laxer Veterans For Peace, an organization of which I’ve been a member since 2013, has called for veterans (as well as civilians) affected by the Vietnam War to write a letter to the American war dead for this Memorial Day. This letter-writing effort is part of a campaign to counter the Pentagon’s effort to…
Michael Murry. Introduction by William Astore. It’s fascinating to witness Republican candidates for president continuing to swing and miss as they’re tossed softball questions about George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003. Jeb Bush was first at bat. He initially said he’d invade Iraq all over again; then he got testy about answering “hypothetical”…
Daniel N. White A strange turn of fate now makes Admiral (retired) William McRaven, formerly head of US Special Operations Command (SOCOM), a neighbor of mine. He’s the new Chancellor of the University of Texas (UT) system, and consequently he gives the occasional public speech. I went to his latest, one for the UT Liberal…
Andy Kroll (Editor’s Note: Andy wrote this as an introduction to Nomi Prins’ article at TomDispatch.com on Hillary’s banking and Wall Street connections. Used with the kind permission of TomDispatch.com.) She eats at Chipotle. (Order: chicken burrito bowl.) She travels by van. (Model: A Chevy Express Explorer Limited SE nicknamed the “Scooby” van.) She barely…
Peter Van Buren As the handful of multi-millionaires running for president threaten to pretend to make “economic disparity” a campaign meme, and then forget they ever heard of it once in power, four out of five adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives. Here’s the new…
Daniel N. White Aggie jokes are the Texas version of Polack jokes, jokes about the students at Texas A&M University as rural yokels lost at sea in modern life. The foil in Aggie jokes are graduates of UT Austin, referred to by Aggies as T-sips. Everyone everywhere in the world tells similar jokes about their…
Stuart Lyle Former CIA Director and Army four-star general David Petraeus is not very good at keeping secrets. He shared multiple binders full of top-secret materials with a journalist – and was found out. And he bedded that journalist, the attractive Paula Broadwell, but was unable to keep his infidelity secret either from his wife…
Daniel N. White I’m glad to see the U.S. starting to reestablish normal diplomatic relations with Cuba. If there has been anything productive or beneficial from our 1960-present diplomatic and economic freeze out of Cuba for us, them, or anyone else I fail to see it. A failed policy, it shows how easily the U.S.…
Peter Van Buren (Let’s start our day with a little satire, courtesy of Peter Van Buren, whose site, WeMeantWell.com, is essential reading for anyone trying to understand the convoluted designs of U.S. foreign policy. Used by permission of the author.) April 27, 2015 It is widely reported that the U.S. would like to keep additional…
The Contrary Perspective 