Tom Engelhardt – Bombs Away! Their Precision Weaponry and Ours

On the morning of September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda launched its four-plane air force against the United States. On board were its precision weapons: 19 suicidal hijackers. One of those planes, thanks to the resistance of its passengers, crashed in a Pennsylvania field.  The other three hit their targets — the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and …

Chuck Spinney – Why Are Defense Policy Wonks So Ineffectual?

Today, America’s foreign policy is a shambles.  Its primary features are (1) a perpetual war on terror, and (2) the seemingly inevitable march into a new and unnecessary cold war against Russia and China.  At the same time, President Obama is leaving his successor with a budget plan containing a front loaded and political engineered* procurement bow wave that guarantees steeply rising …