Pentagon

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/17/2020
  

  History Exposes the Problem with Biden’s Defense Secretary Nominee

  by Grant Golub

  World War II demonstrated the need for strong civilian control over a military divided between multiple armed service branches, both to guide strategy and to ensure the ultimate authority of the President over the military. The nomination of a recently-retired Army general for Secretary of Defense departs from that tradition. 

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• 12/6/2020
  

  Stop the Music

  by Richard H. Kohn

  President-Elect Biden has allowed too much speculation about his choices for Secretary of Defense and unwisely floated the name of a retired Army general for the job. He needs to make a quick commitment to a nominee whose national defense experience comes from the civil, not the military, arena.

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• 6/14/2020
  

  Let Them Eat Weapons: Trump’s Bizarre Arms Race

  by Lawrence Wittner

  The Trump administration's stated intention to "spend the adversary into oblivion" through arms buildup is likely to bring ruin to the American public before it harms Russia or China. 

• 
• SOURCE: LawFare
  1/21/20
  

  Why Haven't the Afghanistan Papers Gotten More Attention?

  by David V. Gioe

  The Afghanistan Papers and the Perils of Historical Analogy

• 
• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  12/15/19
  

  Lessons From Battling the Pentagon for Four Decades

  by William D. Hartung

  The Stubborn Persistence of the Military-Industrial State 

• 
• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  1/29/19
  

  Our Man From Boeing

  by Mandy Smithberger and William D. Hartung

  Has the Arms Industry Captured Trump’s Pentagon?

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  10/25/18
  

  William Astore says the Pentagon may not be able to win foreign wars but it's won one here at home

  by William Astore

  Nowadays everybody lionizes the military.  This is problematic, says Astore. 

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• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  6-3-18
  

  The Air Force’s Strange Love for the New B-21 Bomber

  by William J. Astore

  The Pentagon wants 200 of the bombers at more than half a billion dollars each (not counting cost overruns).

• 
• SOURCE: National Security Archive
  1/24/18
  

  Rumsfeld Snowflakes Come in from the Cold

  A Freedom of Information request is now resulting in the release of the memos produced by the former Secretary of Defense. 

• 
• 10-8-17
  

  The Pentagon Has Its Commemoration of the Vietnam War. So Do Former Anti-Vietnam War Activists.

  by Jeremy Kuzmarov and Roger Peace

  In October they’re holding a conference in DC.

• 
• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  9-10-17
  

  The Pentagon's New Wonder Weapons For World Dominion

  by Alfred W. McCoy

  Or Buck Rogers in the 21st Century

• 
• SOURCE: Commentary
  5-31-17
  

  Max Boot calls on the Pentagon to drop Confederate names of military installations

  by Max Boot

  "Bad history begets bad politics.”

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• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  

  The Urge to Splurge

  by William D. Hartung

  Why Is It So Hard to Reduce the Pentagon Budget?

• 
• 9-25-16
  

  Where Is That Wasteful Government Spending?

  by Lawrence S. Wittner

  It's not where Donald Trump seems to think.

• 
• SOURCE: reader supported news
  4-21-16
  

  Historian Nick Turse says the Pentagon has blacklisted him for making multiple FOIA requests

  True, he admits, he did file a lot of requests. But there was a reason.

• 
• SOURCE: Commentary Magazine
  1-19-16
  

  The Pentagon’s Misplaced Priorities

  by Max Boot

  Defense Secretary Ash Carter is thinking of penalizing David Petraeus once again.  This is wrong.

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• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  1-14-16
  

  Doubling Down on a Failed Strategy

  by David Vine

  The Pentagon’s Dangerous “New” Base Plan

• 
• SOURCE: Foreign Policy
  9-10-15
  

  Journalist and historian Thomas Ricks chastises the Pentagon for dropping its oral history program

  by John T. Kuehn

  The program was set up after 9-11 to to capture the hard-won insights of the folks involved in the various aspects of the Global War on Terror.

• 
• 8-23-15
  

  Did the Pentagon Learn from Vietnam?

  by Christopher A. Lawrence

  Vietnam was the bloodiest guerrilla war in modern history, and when it ended the United States military never really conducted any significant studies of the failed war.

• 
• SOURCE: Atlantic
  1-1-15
  

  The Tragedy of the American Military

  by James Fallows

  " [The] reverent but disengaged attitude toward the military—we love the troops, but we’d rather not think about them—has become so familiar that we assume it is the American norm. But it is not."