James Rhodes: I am blessed to be around victims as these and feel a moral obligation to do what we can for them; after all, this has been the only place I have ever received medical and traditional treatments for my Agent Orange conditions.
Effects of Agent Orange
By
James Rhodes: As President John Kennedy said in the 1960s, regarding the inhumane treatment of the people of Berlin, “We are all Berliners.” Today, the world should say, “We are all Vietnamese.”
Time for a 2012 Democratic Primary Challenge?
By
Karen Bernal: As elated as we were when President Obama was elected in 2008, after a disastrous eight years under the repressive and war-mongering Bush Administration, the Obama Administration has been a major disappointment to the working class and Progressives of this country.
Nixon’s “Decent Interval” Vietnam Strategy Should Give Obama Pause
By
Ken Hughes: Forty years ago this month, President Richard Nixon quietly sold South Vietnam down the river for political gain.
Sudan’s Lessons for Iraq
By
Ivan Eland: The U.S. occupation has grown so unpopular in Iraq that those same receptive Iraqi politicians, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, are scared to publicly advocate a long-term U.S. military presence.
“Hostilities” and War Powers: Let’s Choose the Constitution
By
John C. Pinheiro: Despite dozens of wars, invasions, occupations, air raids, and various other international “hostilities” over more than a century and a half, the U.S. Congress has rarely “declared war.” With the current Libyan intervention in mind, let’s explore this long history of Congress’s abdication of its Constitutional war powers.
Is Obama Violating the War Powers Act?
By
Marian Wang: Even supporters of the Libya intervention have complained that the administration is flouting the law.
Bigger than bin Laden
By
Dick Price: The issue is much bigger than the killing — in your name and my name — of Osama bin Laden. The bigger issue is our endless warmaking, the callous assumption that the United States has the right to bomb or strafe or attack anyplace it pleases.
The News, It Is a-changin’
By
Walter Brasch: It is still be the responsibility of the mass media–of radio, television, newspapers, and magazines–to give in-depth coverage and analysis of the events. But, for millions worldwide, it is no longer the mass media that establishes the first alerts.
Marcy Winograd: Why I Stand with Veterans For Peace-LA
By
Marcy Winograd: I proudly stand with Veterans For Peace-LA in signing the organization’s Declaration to defund the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, except to bring our troops home safely.
What Is a Republican? — Part 2
By
Ted Vaill: The ultimate Republican strategy for the 2012 election is this: they know that they will lose if the economy continues to improve and unemployment figures drop substantially.
Heroism, Cowardice, and the National Tragedy of Hidden Guilt
By
Charles Hayes: It’s crystal clear that real warriors—men and women who have been in the thick of prolonged battle—seldom afterwards view war as a viable way to settle differences, any kind of differences.
Marcy Winograd Launches Campaign for 36th CD
By
Marcy Winograd: I am running for Congress, again, because now is the time for bold leadership, for someone to stand up and say NO to those would privatize and loot America, to those who would seize our Social Security checks and deny us Medicare.
The Pentagon and the King Legacy
By
William Lorenz Katz: Was not Martin Luther King, Jr. reaching beyond Vietnam when he warned of “approaching spiritual death” and called for “a significant and profound change in American life and policy” and insisted “we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.” Was he only speaking of Vietnam when he said, “War is not the answer?”
Reliving the Soviet Experience in Afghanistan
By
Tom Engelhardt: If, as 2011 begins, you want to peer into the future, enter my time machine, strap yourself in, and head for the past, that laboratory for all developments of our moment and beyond.
WikiLeaks as This Century’s Upton Sinclair
By
David Love: Some people are calling for the arrest and prosecution of Assange for espionage, and the branding of WikiLeaks as a terrorist organization. Rather than condemn Assange, we should commend him for doing all of us a great service.
Stop the Persecution of Julian Assange
By
Ivan Eland: Assange is either a modern-day Job or there is an orchestrated campaign (presumably) by the U.S. government to compel his Web site to desist in its publication of classified U.S. government documents and diplomatic cables.
A Hollow Bomber Jacket
By
Norman Solomon: Evidence of the Obama administration’s “moral collapse” is profuse; the pattern is clear, the consequences already terrible. During the weeks and months ahead, progressives will need to engage in fresh strategic discussions. Public candor may be insufficient, but it is necessary.
WikiLeaks Exposes More Than Documents
By
Joseph Palermo: The State Department documents that WikiLeaks is making public expose the desire of many mainstream journalists and commentators to stand up and be counted as the dutiful water-carriers for the prerogatives of United States foreign policy.
Expand the Role of the Citizen-Soldier Without a Draft
By
Ivan Eland: Yet although the presence of conscription does not seem to prevent U.S. entry into questionable wars—for example, the Korean and Vietnam Wars—it does seem to create a peace lobby to end such debacles.
Tea Party Surge Just a Bump in the Road?
By
Tom Hall: Sure, the Tea Party will win this fall’s election cycle. Yes, they will do every thing they can to disrupt any progressive efforts of the President. But even now, before their election victories have been counted, they are already beginning to war amongst themselves. They are eagerly acting to disprove any belief in the “values” they proclaim. Their hypocrisy will be their undoing.
Oliver Stone Interview: There’s a Specter Haunting Latin America, the Specter of 21st Century Socialism
By
Ed Rampell: “Frankly, we’ve opposed the poor. We’ve opposed the poor not only in those countries but in our own country. The Vietnam War was a war against the poor people of Vietnam, it was also a war against our own selves, by sending our poor people to fight that war.”
Scapegoating War Crimes in Af-Pak on Drugs
By
Jeremy Kuzmarov: It might not be Reefer Madness redux, but the blame being put on drugs for civilian deaths in Afghanistan today has that same air of hysteria about it.
A Big Fool Says to Push On
By
Ann Wright: On the eve of the beginning of the tenth year (October 7) of the U.S war in Afghanistan, Bob Woodward’s new book “Obama’s War” about presidential decision making on the war in Afghanistan is pretty scary reading. It sounds to me like folk singer Peter Seeger’s song about the Vietnam war “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” describes the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
The Taliban: Forced Into Negotiation While Winning?
By
Ivan Eland: Although David Petraeus, the top American commander in Afghanistan, recently peddled the notion that senior Taliban chieftains had made contact with senior Afghan government officials about the possibility of starting reconciliation talks, such talk of peace in our time is likely to be hype.
Church of Misfits Harbors American War Resister
By
Tom Hayden: Next week the Canadian parliament is expected to hear a bill proposing humanitarian grounds for granting asylum in the country. Watson’s application for permanent resident status is on hold. About 40 other American war resisters are seeking asylum in Canada, where nearly 80,000 were given protection during the Vietnam War.
Fixing the World Not Our Responsibility
By
Steve Hochstadt: The main problem has been the the policy of intervention. We can’t create a safe world by sending more arms overseas.
Michael Kinsley’s Dumb Idea: The “Greatest Generation” & What Boomers Should Do!
By
Gary Corseri: The real challenge has always been to be informed, to be aware, to be decent guardians and protectors of the commonweal. The real challenge is to know ourselves… and to become our best selves.
PCL offers monthly Open House Events on the 2nd Saturday at 2pm and 3rd Thursday at 6pm. Click here to learn more.
America: The World’s Greatest Purveyor of Violence Today
February is Black History Month, and a perfect time to reflect on the nonviolence and antiwar stance of Dr. Martin Luther King. Recently, my colleague, Mark Thompson, reminded me of an important Dr. King quote when I appeared on his radio show to discuss the Tucson shooting. It was a speech the slain civil rights [...]