Peace and War

By David Swanson

Our representatives in Congress and our candidates for president are so opposed to the occupation of Iraq that, rather than funding a withdrawal, they are now proposing to fund the continuation of the occupation, as is, for the rest of Bush and Cheney’s terms plus a big chunk of the next administration / Congress. Suddenly $102 billion is $170 billion. Except that, unlike that loaves and fishes routine, somebody will have to pay for this – pay China for this money read more

By David Swanson

The collateral damage in Iraq is most of the damage, and intentionally producing it is most of the mission. This is one of the conclusions I take away from an important new book by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian called “Collateral Damage: America’s War Against Iraqi Civilians.”

The authors published a related cover story in the Nation magazine’s July 30 / Aug. 6, 2007 issue called “The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness.” The book is quite short read more

By David Swanson

Citizens in a number of school districts around the country have dramatically reduced military recruitment through simple procedures that anyone can do. No marching or civil disobedience is required. You might, however, have to chat with a principal at a football game or write a couple of letters. Why aren’t more of us doing more of this?

That’s the question I came away with after interviewing Pat Elder for an hour (here’s the audio: read more

Pat Elder serves on the Coordinating Committee of the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth, NNOMY, http://www.nnomy.org. Well known in the national peace and justice scene, Pat has been organizing resistance to the Bush administration’s wars since 2001. Based in the DC area, Pat works with a wide range of groups, attempting to confront the militarization of the nation’s high schools. Pat will be speaking live read more

By David Swanson

On Friday outside the gates of Stratcom, the strategic command center outside of Omaha, Nebraska, that controls U.S. nuclear weapons and military space technology and from which the next war of aggression will be run, a group of activists gathered from all over the world. A number of people gave speeches in the freezing bone-chilling wind and snow. This was mine:

Have you ever watched a sports team on TV win a game and then shouted “We won!” as if you had anything read more

By David Swanson

During an endless airplane trip from hell yesterday that included an extended stay in Chicago’s scenic O’Hare airport, I had the misfortune to read one book about where our tax dollars go and another book that was, indirectly, about where they do not go.

Nick Turse has done something pretty amazing in producing an entertaining account of the almost limitless variety of ways in which our money is wasted by what he calls the military industrial technological entertainment read more