Author: Norman Solomon

By Norman Solomon The words in President Obama’s “State of the Union” speech were often lofty, spinning through the air with the greatest of ease and emitting dog whistles as they flew. Let’s decode the president’s smooth oratory in the realms of climate change, war and civil liberties. “For the sake of our children and…

By Norman Solomon With the tenth anniversary of the Iraq invasion coming up next month, we can expect a surge of explanations for what made that catastrophe possible. An axiom from Orwell — “who controls the past controls the future” — underscores the importance of such narratives. I encountered a disturbing version last week while…

By Norman Solomon When Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke to the U.N. Security Council on February 5, 2003, countless journalists in the United States extolled him for a masterful performance — making the case that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The fact that the speech later became notorious should not obscure…

By Norman Solomon A lot of what we say and do becomes habit-forming. Groundhog Day 2013 could serve as a reminder that some political habits should be kicked. Here are a few: ** “Defense budget” No, it’s not a defense budget. It’s a military budget. But countless people and organizations keep saying they want to…

By Norman Solomon Dear Progressives, With President Obama’s second term underway and huge decisions looming on Capitol Hill, consider this statement from Howard Zinn: “When a social movement adopts the compromises of legislators, it has forgotten its role, which is to push and challenge the politicians, not to fall in meekly behind them.” With so…