Portside

The US Supreme Court decided that it's constitutional to exclude women from registering for the draft because they're banned from combat units. That ban ends in 2016.

If you want to understand why it's the case that on the one hand, the U.S. public and the majority of Congress turned against the war in Afghanistan a long time ago, and yet on the other hand, it's been so hard to end the war, this week's warmonger media storm against the diplomatic rescue of U.S. prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been very instructive.

“The media tries to paint this picture of war as all bloody and visceral, like that one picture of that one Marine in Fallujah with the bloody face and the cigarette, but that’s all just propaganda man. Proper, modern warfare is a lot more like playing Command and Conquer.”

So, clearly, in the aftermath of the July coup, it is the military once again firmly in power for the second time in as many years. For Egyptians, this is déjà vu all over again. Only the second reincarnation of military rule is far different and far worse this time around, with repression extending far beyond the now-banned and much-besieged Muslim Brotherhood and their allies.

Clone Wars in Taiwan; Casino Man Hedges Bets - Calls for Nuking Iran; R.I.P. Dark Knight Lou Reed; Busted for Shopping While Black; Teaching Economics Needs to Catch Up

U.S. funding for the Honduran police and military has in fact increased every year since the coup

Reader Comments on Matt Taibbi: Everything Is Rigged; Chiefs Declare Keystone XL Invalid; Rape in the Military; Islamophobia; Real IRS Scandal; Kissinger; Viet Nam War; Cambodia; Marx Banned in Hungary; Announcements: Black Talkies On Parade Film Series - Los Angeles - May 25; The Future of the Left - A Conversation on Socialist Unity - New York - June 5 - event moved to larger location

An estimated 26,000 service members were sexually assaulted in 2012, according to the latest government report. That’s up from 19,000 in 2010, despite recent claims that the military has been focusing more on prevention efforts.

While the acute tensions of the past month appear to be receding - all of the parties involved seem to be taking a step back - the problem is not going to disappear and, unless Washington and its allies re-examine their strategy, another crisis is certain to develop.