U.S. Military

The U.S. Military and Massacres

by Tim Kelly March 29, 2012

The murderous rampage of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales in Afghanistan has received much deserved media attention. Sgt. Bales’s shooting spree, killing 17 Afghan civilians, was quickly condemned by the Obama administration as a horrible incident and an aberration that was in no way representative of the “exceptional character” of the U.S. military. It is a matter of state ...

Blue Angels Budget Blues

by Laurence M. Vance December 13, 2011

The Navy's Blue Angels flight-demonstration team is in trouble. And not because their commander resigned earlier this year after flying his F/A-18 Hornet below minimum altitude at an air show in Virginia and causing a month-long safety stand-down. Headquartered at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, the Blue Angels have been flying and thrilling audiences for more than 60 years. The ...

Veterans Day: Thanks but No Thanks

by Tim Kelly November 11, 2011

Veterans Day honors those citizens who fought in the U.S. governments wars wars supposedly waged to preserve Americans liberty. Most Americans uncritically accept this last part, and believe they owe the U.S. military a debt of gratitude for their freedom and independence. This belief is so widely held that it has become a tenet of the country's civic faith. However, ...

The Military-Industrial Complex: The Enemy from Within

by John W. Whitehead October 11, 2011

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes ... known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst ...

An Open Letter to the Troops: You’re Not Defending Our Freedoms

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 31, 2011

Dear Troops: Yesterday — Memorial Day — some people asserted, once again, that you are “defending our freedoms” overseas. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those people are just repeating tired old mantras. The reality is that you are not defending our freedoms with your actions overseas. In fact, it is the exact opposite. Your actions overseas are placing our ...

Military Whitewashes and Cover Ups

by Future of Freedom Foundation August 27, 2004

  Holding the Pentagon Accountable: For Abu Ghraib Editorial New York Times Closer to the Truth Editorial Washington Post Pentagon Doesn't Get It: Buck Stops Higher Up

Should the U.S. Military in Iraq Adopt Israeli Methods?

by James Bovard November 1, 2003

The Associated Press reported on September 18 that an Israeli military official declared that the U.S. military “is showing interest in Israeli software instructing soldiers on how to behave in the West Bank and Gaza.” The United States is looking at the Israeli policies as examples of how American soldiers can better handle a hostile population in Iraq. That may ...

Black Hawk Down and American GIs

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2002

The recently released movie Black Hawk Down raises interesting challenges to those who think theyre supporting American GIs when they support U.S. government decisions to send them into battle. In 1993, the Clinton administration sent U.S. soldiers into the capital city of Mogadishu, which was in the midst of a civil war, to capture a Somali warlord named Mohammad Farrah ...