Author name: davidswanson

Democrats in the House of Representatives are threatening to derail the current military spending bill if it includes restrictions on abortion rights. Good for them. Glad to hear it.

But by doing this, they are demonstrating what we might have figured out ourselves all along. If they wanted to reduce military spending instead of jacking it up by additional mountains of cash each and every year, a group of them could threaten to vote No unless it was reduced. They never do that. They never even read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, July 12, 2023

There may be more U.S. tourists in Rome than Romans. It’s hard to get away from them — impossible if you are yourself one. But it’s a bit of a shame how they’ve taken over. Every square and street is wall-to-wall people. They’re not all American people. Some of them are Italian. Some of them are even Roman. But they all speak English. They all dress like Americans. Every bar and osteria caters to English-speaking tourists and their tastes. Via Veneto is a cartoon of itself, featuring read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, July 10, 2023

On Monday the New York Times argued in favor of continuing the war and supplying weapons for the war in Ukraine but not cluster bombs:

“However compelling it may be to use any available weapon to protect one’s homeland, nations in the rules-based international order have increasingly sought to draw a red line against use of weapons of mass destruction or weapons that pose a severe and lingering risk to noncombatants. Cluster munitions clearly read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, July 7, 2023

What most excites me about Julian Aguon’s book No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies is that (1) there is very little indication in the cover, the blurbs, the preface, the table of contents, etc., that it opposes war, militarism, or empire, (2) but it does, and (3) people are reading it. I’m aware that only small numbers of people read any books, but this is a short little book, and it’s clearly aimed at people who care about art, read more

Some books shouldn’t have to exist, but you’re glad they do. This one describes a whole field of work — using art-creation to help kids in Arizona and Southern California deal with trauma created by anti-immigrant policies and attitudes — which shouldn’t have to exist, but you’re glad it does. The book is called Drawing Deportation: Art and Resistance Among Immigrant Children by Sylvia Rodriguez Vega. The author has worked with kids in school classes, read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, June 14, 2023

A new report from the University of Maryland, somewhat misleadingly reported on here, draws on a database read more

The buzzing noise of a drone never ceases. A missile screaming into your house is hard to miss. Gun fire. The door kicked in. These are not subtle gestures. Yet Norman Solomon’s new book is called War Made Invisible. What?

Of course, the people whose government is the leading war maker and weapons dealer mostly have nothing to do with war. Most of them are not in the military. Most of them do not work for the weapons business. Most of them cannot name most of the wars currently happening. read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, June 11, 2023

Yuval Noah Harari’s book, Homo Deus, has plenty of insights, plenty of worries that may prove justified, and a fair bit of silliness. But it’s hard to argue with his summary of the Our Boys Didn’t Die in Vain Syndrome:

“The narrating self is the star of Jorge Luis Borges’s story A Problem. The story deals with Don Quixote, the eponymous hero of Cervantes’s famous novel. Don Quixote creates for himself an imaginary world in which read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, June 11, 2023

For any given war, one can examine the months or years or decades during which one or both sides worked diligently to make it happen, and both sides conspicuously failed to develop peaceful alternatives. Even in the moment of greatest violence, one can consider the unarmed-resistance alternatives that are carefully kept out of consideration.

But even if you can explain away all justification read more

By David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEYOND War; Kathy Kelly, President of World BEYOND War; John Reuwer, Board Member of World BEYOND War; Brad Wolf, Director of Peace Action, Lancaster, PA

Forty-eight hours before a global peace conference in Vienna, Austria, was to begin, the venue host abruptly cancelled. Peace, it seems, cannot be discussed, especially peace in Ukraine.

This news is a disturbing step in a growing trend.

Owners of the venue which was to host the Summit for Peace read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, May 25, 2023

Yesterday I published Dear Russia-Had-No-Choice Friends, an attempt to correct what I see as the mistaken idea that the Russian government simply had no possible choice other than to invade Ukraine.

Of course, it is equally mistaken that Ukraine had no choice but to wage this war. I say “of course” only because I and many others have been repeating ourselves ad read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, May 24, 2023

Here’s a terrible “syllogism” from a wonderful person, Ray McGovern, longtime CIA employee, then longtime peace activist, and now year-long contender that Russia had no choice but to attack Ukraine.

“The Russians had other options to invading Ukraine.
They attacked Ukraine in a ‘war of choice’; also threaten NATO.
Ergo, the West must arm Ukraine to the teeth, risking wider war.”

This is supposedly an explanation of the thinking of we read more

Hey, Montenegro has a new flag, and few people in the U.S. could find Montenegro on a map. What’s wrong with this picture?

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, May 23, 2023

According to the following tweets by the Montenegran military, the Maine National Guard and Brigadier General Dean A. Preston are not “guarding” Maine or the nation Maine is in. The Maine National Guard is not even anywhere near the United States.

Instead, the Maine National Guard is helping to turn a beautiful read more