Stories by Tom Engelhardt

Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s as well as The End of Victory Culture, runs the Nation Institute's TomDispatch.com. His latest book, The United States of Fear (Haymarket Books), has just been published in November. Sign up to receive the latest updates fromTomDispatch.com here.

The Obama Speech America Is Dying to Hear: "This Administration Ended, Rather Than Extended, Two Wars"

Posted on: Nov 23, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

Any day now, Obama will make an announcement about the number of soldiers he wants in Afghanistan. Here's the speech he should give.

Nothing But Bad Policy Options for Obama in Afghanistan

Posted on: Nov 4, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

Can we avoid an approach to Afghanistan where impending disaster is seen as an invitation to make things even worse?

Will the Soldiers We Train in Afghanistan End Up Trying to Kill Us in the Future? It's Happened Before

Posted on: Oct 19, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

For 30 years we've been deeply involved in creating, financing, and sometimes arming a part of the world that has shown willingness to create violence on our own soil.

How Top Generals May Trap Obama in a Losing War

Posted on: Sep 25, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

As Obama is facing a lose-lose proposition in Afghanistan, we have to look hard at the role of Gen. McChrystal and the political motivation of Gen. Petraeus.

While You Are Minding Your Own Business, the U.S. Is Constantly Making War Around the Globe

Posted on: Sep 22, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

As much as it might seem that most of us are going along, living peaceful lives, there's another kind of America that operates on the same soil -- a warfare state.

Afghanistan by the Numbers: Measuring a War Gone to Hell

Posted on: Sep 9, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

Maintenance cost for the force of 450,000 Afghan soldiers and police U.S. generals dream of creating: approximately 500% of the Afghan budget.

G.I. Joe, Post-American Hero

Posted on: Aug 28, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

Joe is back yet again with his new movie and assorted products -- but the world he inhabits this time is completely sponged of our current predicaments abroad.

Bush Era Horrors Will Haunt Us Until We Truly Face Them

Posted on: Jul 26, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

We can't just "move forward." We need to face who we've been and just how badly we've acted, if we care to become something better.

Commencement Speech to Graduates of the Bush Years: Empire Continues in the Obama Era

Posted on: Jun 12, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

Empire. It's the word no one in Washington can say. Its absence from the conversation is at the heart of what makes our empire so hard to define.

Gen. McChrystal, Grim Reaper: Obama's New Afghan Commander Will Send Death Toll Soaring

Posted on: May 21, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

Stanley McChrystal comes from a world where killing by any means is the norm and a blanket of govt. secrecy provides the necessary protection.

Washington's Imperial Attitude: We Talk About Countries Like We Own Them

Posted on: May 8, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

It's the norm for U.S. civilian and military leaders to talk about what other countries "must do" -- but it's a radical and dangerous mindset.

How Many Innocent People Will Die for the Illusion of American Safety?

Posted on: Apr 23, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

Every year we kill thousands of innocent people. Does that seem reasonable? Does that seem right? Is your supposed safety worth that?

Filling the Skies with Robot Assassins: The Drone Wars Have Begun

Posted on: Apr 7, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

Hunter-killer drones armed with Hellfire missiles are patrolling the Pentagon's expanding global battlefields: It's a scene right out of Terminator.

Is Economic Recovery Even Possible on a Planet Headed for Environmental Collapse?

Posted on: Feb 18, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

As the global economy melts down, so is the planet, with droughts threatening food production and industry across the world.

Why Our War in Afghanistan May Mean the End of American Empire

Posted on: Feb 5, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

Failing to heed history and reality in Afghanistan, we may very well disappear into the superpower dustbin like Russia.

Body Count Nation

Posted on: Jan 7, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

Judging by our wars, we're not much more advanced than ancient civilizations.

Too Much Stuff: How Our Profligate Consumerism Might Keep Us in Iraq

Posted on: Nov 20, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

Wherever we go, our "stuff" goes with us -- in such large quantities that removing it could prove more daunting than invading in the first place.

Sparing Obama Criticism Isn't Doing Him (or Us) Any Favors

Posted on: Nov 12, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

Obama is about to enter a hornet's nest of entrenched interests and ideology. Electing him was the easy part. Now the real work begins.

My Depression -- or Ours?

Posted on: Oct 13, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

The Bush administration managed to turn that misplaced fear we had after 9/11 into something like prophecy and bring down the house.

The US Has 761 Military Bases Across the Planet, and We Simply Never Talk About It

Posted on: Sep 7, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

America garrisons the globe in ways that are truly unprecedented, but if you live in the United States, you rarely hear a word about it.

Six Questions About the Anthrax Attacks That the Public Should Demand

Posted on: Aug 18, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

The media's already losing interest on the anthrax story, but there are plenty of simple questions that really deserve answers.

Bush's Fierce Global War of Denial

Posted on: Aug 1, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

The motto of the Bush administration might have been: Pay any price. Or, rather, make everyone else pay the price for us to remain in denial.

The Wedding Crashers: U.S. Jets Have Bombed Five Ceremonies in Afghanistan

Posted on: Jul 14, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

We have become a nation of wedding crashers, the uninvited guests who arrived under false pretenses, tore up the place, offering nary an apology.

Are Cheney's Iran Dreams Shattered?

Posted on: Jul 10, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

Just because there's a will doesn't mean there's a way.

U.S. Continues to Brutalize Iraqis in the Cause of the 'Surge'

Posted on: Jun 29, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

Five years after the invasion, to speak of this urge to surge and its results as "success" or as "good news" is essentially obscene.

Media Tell Us About Iraq War-Oil Connection Five Years After the Fact

Posted on: Jun 24, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

If Iraq's main product had been video games, the media might have been quicker to ask tough questions about the war's effects on our kids' lives.

Finally, the U.S. Mega-Bases in Iraq Are Under Debate

Posted on: Jun 15, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

In the last five-plus years, untold billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on the construction and upgrading of permanent bases.

Shocking Bush 'Pep Talk' to His War Cabinet on Iraq: 'We Are Going to Wipe Them out!'

Posted on: Jun 1, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

"Kill them." Gen. Ricardo Sanchez's memoirs contain a transcript from a bloodthirsty and over the top private speech by Bush.

Endless War: Is the U.S. Trying to Set Whole World on Fire?

Posted on: May 5, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

The Iraq war won't end, but in the Pentagon they're already arguing about the next one.

12 Reasons Why Leaving Iraq Is the Only Sane Thing to Do

Posted on: Apr 23, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

Since the press doesn't bother to ask key questions, here's an attempt to unravel the situation in Iraq.

Don't Betray Us, General: Admit That Iraq Keeps Getting Worse and That the Surge Failed

Posted on: Apr 7, 2008, Source: TheNation.com

Gen. David Petraeus ought to level with the American public about the dire state of affairs in Iraq in his testimony to Congress this week.

Bush Diplomacy: Predator Planes Are Conducting Assassinations by Air

Posted on: Mar 16, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

Attacks all over the planet by U.S. Predator planes suggest Bush thinks he has the "right" to kill civilians.

Hey Homeowners, Bush Blames You -- Not Iraq -- for Our Tanking Economy

Posted on: Feb 28, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

Five years into Iraq, Bush denies any link between Americans' economic pain and war spending.

How to Stay in Iraq for the Next Million Years

Posted on: Feb 21, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

When did immediate military withdrawal from Iraq stop being an option?

The Kristol Whose Crystal Ball Never Works

Posted on: Feb 21, 2008, Source: The Nation

The New York Times' right-wing columnist isn't just wrong in his ideology -- he is simply wrong.

Imagine 50 Million American Refugees

Posted on: Feb 11, 2008, Source: The Nation

The refugee crisis is working!

Bombs Away Over Iraq

Posted on: Feb 3, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

The U.S. recently dropped 100,000 pounds of bombs on a small village in Iraq to combat 'al-Qaeda' -- part of the growing air war in Iraq.

How Bush Took Us to the Dark Side

Posted on: Jan 4, 2008, Source: TomDispatch.com

There are dire consequences that Americans will have to face now that torture and imprisonment of innocent people is everyday government practice.

'Enduring' Bases in Iraq: More Toys for the Pentagon's Sandbox

Posted on: Dec 3, 2007, Source: TomDispatch.com

Vast stretches of Iraq have turned into construction sites run by the Pentagon, while Bush makes up claims that Iraqis support an "long-term relationship."

We Face Worldwide Drought with No Contingency Plan

Posted on: Nov 24, 2007, Source: TomDispatch.com

As droughts reach record levels worldwide, no one is asking the tough question: What happens when there is not enough water to go around?

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