There is a certain grim but obvious irony in the outrage of pundits and military officials to the recently released video depicting American soldiers urinating on the bodies of several fallen Taliban fighters. As is typical when the shameful actions … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Military Spending
Defense Spending and Empire (gratuitous self-quoting edition)
Mark Thiessen’s op-ed suggesting that Republicans hold healthcare reform hostage to defense spending, which must never under any circumstances be cut for any reason, is sloppily argued and fails to defend its underlying premises, but it does unwittingly get at … Continue reading
Readings on Civil-Military Relations
If anyone has been missing Disunion, the New York Times‘ ongoing series chronicling the breakup of the Union on the eve of the Civil War, they should stop missing it. It’s a fantastic reminder that the road from Dredd Scott … Continue reading
Quick Hit: The Political Economy of the Empire
If any unreformed Star Wars geeks out there haven’t seen this yet, well, they should.
Spending Priorities
Glenn Greenwald has a characteristically blistering critique of this WaPo editorial on defense spending. Greenwald is right to point out the breathtaking hypocrisy of a paper that has claimed such consistent concern with the deficit being unwilling to consider serious … Continue reading
Quick Hit: Prisoners and Patriot Missiles
Noah Shachtman points out a link between prison labor and military production in the United States. In recent years, it’s become fashionable to refer to the “prison industrial complex.” I always thought it was a bit of a misnomer as … Continue reading
Shifting the Taken for Granted
I’ve attempted to use the limited time and energy I devote to blogging lately to pursue more intellectually engaging projects than critiquing the usual neo-con suspects’ predictably asinine columns. It’s been a challenge. Krauthammer in particular has had a couple … Continue reading
Contracting Thugs
You have to wonder who thought this would be a good idea. A company closely linked to Blackwater has just landed a one-year, $84 million contract from the State Department to provide security for American officials in the West Bank. … Continue reading
Defense Spending, NATO and Europe’s Relevance
The big news from across the pond over the past few days is the drastic cuts in public expenditure, including defense expenditure, being implemented in Britain. Via Yglesias, Richard Norton-Taylor in the Guardian outlines the scope of Britain’s defense cuts, … Continue reading
The Military and Renewable Energy
One of the lead Times stories this morning concerns the efforts of the U.S. military – spurred on by extraordinary logistical difficulties posed by the remote and energy-resource-poor battlefields of Afghanistan – to rapidly integrate renewable energy sources into its … Continue reading