War Made Invisible – How America Hides the Human Toll or Its Military Machine
Recent Articles:
- 30 Months After Uproar Over Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar Speech, What Do His Pro-Israel Denouncers Say Now?
- Why Ro Khanna and AOC Should Run for President in 2028
- Real History: After 9/11, the ‘War on Terror’ Was a War of Terror
- 25 Years Ago, 9/11 Triggered a U.S. Crusade of Torture
- How Hakeem Jeffries and J Street Teamed Up for Arming Genocide
-
The Next Phase of Healthcare Apartheid
In Washington, "healthcare reform" has degenerated into a sick joke.
At this point, only spinners who've succumbed to their own vertigo could use the word "robust" to describe the public option in the healthcare bill that the House Democratic leadership has sent to the floor…
Read the full column
-
Uncle Sam in Afghanistan: Good Help Is Hard to Find
Almost eight years after choosing Hamid Karzai to head the Afghan government, Uncle Sam would like to give him a pink slip. But it's not easy. And the grim fiasco of Afghanistan's last election is shadowing the next.
Another display of electioneering and voting has been ordered up from Washington. But after a chemical mix has blown a hole through the roof – with all the elements for massive fraud still in place – what's the point of throwing together the same ingredients?
This time, the spinners in Washington hope to be better prepared…
Read the full column
-
Starting Another Year of War in Afghanistan
October 2009 has begun with The New York Times reporting that "the president, vice president and an array of cabinet secretaries, intelligence chiefs, generals, diplomats and advisers gathered in a windowless basement room of the White House for three hours on Wednesday to chart a new course in Afghanistan."
As this month begins the ninth year of the US war effort in Afghanistan, "windowless" seems to be an apt metaphor. The structure of thought and the range of options being debated in Washington's high places are notably insular. The "new course" will be a permutation of the present course…
Read the full column
-
Norman Solomon on Democracy Now: September 15, 2009
He discusses human realities and politics of the war in Afghanistan.
Watch the video on the Democracy Now website, which has a page with the segment and a transcript.
-
Men Toting Guns, In Kabul and Washington
For those who believe in making war, Kabul is a notable work product. After 30 years, the results are in: a devastated city.
A stale witticism calls Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai “the mayor of Kabul.” Now, not even. On block after block in the Afghan capital, AK-47s are conspicuous in the hands of men on guard against a near future. Widely seen as corrupt, inept and – with massive election fraud — now illegitimate, Karzai’s government is losing its grip along with its credibility…
Read the full column.
-
The view from Afghanistan
I'm about 7,400 miles from home, but that's the least of the distances between the pleasures of Marin and the agonies of war here in Kabul. Across Afghanistan, when the call to prayer greets a new day, the most fervent prayers are for peace.
To the ears of Americans, "peace" may sound a bit wispy or abstract – but here it's a hope-laced word for a lifeline that continues to fray. Thirty years of war have decimated Kabul and much of the rest of Afghanistan.
From the air, looking out on a vast panorama of sandy-colored mountains and valleys near Kabul, I wondered: Where are the trees?
They're gone – destroyed by war and deprivation – victims of countless bombs and the collapse of irrigation.
At home, we push for green sustainability. Here, the streets are blowing with harsh dust, a brutal harvest of war…
Read the full Marin Independent Journal op-ed
Listen to a short interview