Portside

Critics of the Biden administration’s Build Back Better plan to increase funding for U.S. education, healthcare, and action against climate catastrophe say the U.S. can’t afford it, there are no such qualms about ramping up funding for the military.

They weren’t kidding when they called Afghanistan the “graveyard of empires.” That cemetery has just taken another imperial body. And it wasn’t pretty, was it? Not that anyone should be surprised. Even after 20 years of preparation, a burial never is

America’s longest war has been by any measure a costly failure, and the errors in managing the conflict deserve scrutiny in the years to come. But Joe Biden doesn’t “own” the mayhem on the ground right now.

America’s liberal imperialist doctrine has been responsible for appalling carnage in Vietnam, Iraq, and Central America. America has also produced a liberal anti-imperialist doctrine, ensconced in a TV series that has captivated audiences since 1966

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.

Reader Comments: Covid Upsurge; Hiroshima and Nagasaki Remembered; Trump Planning for Next Coup; Remembering Rich Trumka; Andrew Cuomo; Cuba; Ben & Jerry’s for Boycott in Occupied Palestinian Territory; Resources, Announcements; and more ...

On August 6 and 9, people will commemorate the hundreds of thousands of Japanese people who died — crushed, vaporized, burned beyond recognition, poisoned by radiation — from the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945

Those who desecrated the Capitol in January called themselves patriots. Millions supported them, including members of both Houses. This again reminded one of Robeson, because seventy-two years earlier, another angry mob might well have lynched him.

For China, the global war for influence is about trading partners. For the U.S., it could mean something more volatile. China recently softened its language toward the U.S., stressing peaceful co-existence.

Why is Trump unraveling treaties on nuclear arms? It's not just greed -- some people want to use them. The test ban did - and does - slow the development of nuclear weapons and limits their proliferation to other countries.