Portside

A Thought Experiment on the Military-Industrial Complex

What should not get lost in all the bold-type words like “failure” and “flawed intelligence” is that virtually none of it was unforeseeable. The killings have resulted from policies that gave very low priority to prevention of civilian deaths.

A reckoning with America’s failed national security policy is long overdue. America’s current vision of security has been ruinous both to the world and to the American people. A different future is possible.

At the dawn of the new millennium, we directed our national resources in the exact wrong direction. But it’s not too late to turn things around.

The United States was involved in Afghanistan long before 9/11, fomenting Islamist revolt and paving the way for its own defeat.

Since World War II, U.S. soldiers have been stationed on U.S. military bases around the globe. Today, there are around 750 such bases in some eighty countries and colonies.

Dealing with the Forever Prison of America's Forever Wars

A military is, of course, innately hierarchical, authoritarian, and adversarial, and war, by definition, is terror. There is an inheritance of violence in our increasingly militarized land that ought to concern us all, too.

In short, ending the Muslim ban should begin a bigger process of healing the harms this long-term dehumanization has caused.

How the National Security State Has Come to Dominate a "Civilian" Government