Author name: davidswanson

Latin America Is Working to End the Monroe Doctrine

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, February 20, 2023

David Swanson is the author of the new book The Monroe Doctrine at 200 and What to Replace It With.

History seems to show some partial benefit to Latin America in moments when the United States was otherwise distracted, as by its Civil War and other wars. This is a moment right now in which the U.S. government is at least somewhat distracted by Ukraine and willing to purchase Venezuelan oil if it believes that contributes to hurting Russia. And read more

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Rage Against More Than a War, Rage Against the War Machine

By David Swanson, Remarks on Feb. 19th at Lincoln Memorial as part of https://rageagainstwar.com , Washington D.C., February 20, 2023

I want to say THANK YOU to everyone here today and especially to those of you who have been here to oppose every war or who are now committed to opposing every war. This Lincoln Memorial glorifies a war of long ago, and it really doesn’t matter what our various opinions are on the wisdom of the U.S. having used war, unlike much of the rest of the world, as read more

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The Twentieth Century Reshaped the Monroe Doctrine

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

David Swanson is the author of the new book The Monroe Doctrine at 200 and What to Replace It With.

With the opening of the 20th century, the United States fought fewer battles in North America, but more in South and Central America. The mythical idea that a larger military prevents wars, rather than instigates them, often looks back to Theodore Roosevelt claiming that the United States would speak softly but carry a big stick — something that read more

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Maryland, and Every Other State Should Stop Sending Guard Troops to Distant Wars

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

I drafted the following as testimony to the Maryland General Assembly in support of bill HB0220

A U.S. polling company called Zogby Research Services was able to poll U.S. troops in Iraq in 2006, and found that 72 percent of those polled wanted the war to be ended in 2006. For those in the Army, 70 percent wanted that 2006 ending date, but in the Marines only 58 percent did. In the reserves and National Guard, however, the numbers were 89 and read more

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Through Cold and Snow, and Unarmed, People Try to Keep Their Mountain Out of War

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

When I tell some people that the inhabitants of certain mountains in Montenegro are trying to protect their home from being turned into a giant military training ground by NATO, they inform me that the training ground (which, up until that monent, they’d never heard of) in Montenegro (which they’d never heard of) is absolutely required because of Putin.

Needless to say, I think that Putin (and every living U.S. president, and quite a number read more

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