Tom Engelhardt

Tom Engelhardt created and runs the Tomdispatch.com website, a project of The Nation Institute where he is a Fellow. He is the author of a highly praised history of American triumphalism in the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture, and of a novel, The Last Days of Publishing, as well as a collection of his Tomdispatch interviews, Mission Unaccomplished. Each spring he is a Teaching Fellow at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.

American Wars Are off the Charts Under Donald Trump

He’s failed to deliver his promised withdrawals from Afghanistan and Syria, vetoed an order to get out of Yemen, and expanded the U.S. bombing of Somalia, all while eyeing Iran.

Tom Engelhardt
By Tom Engelhardt
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence greet military personnel during a visit to the Pentagon, July 20, 2017. (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Here’s a statement it might be hard to disagree with: American war is off the charts. Still, I’d like to explain — but I’m nervous about doing so. I know perfectly well that the next word I plan to write will send most of you tumbling elsewhere in a universe in which “news” is the latest grotesque mass shooting; the craziest tweet from

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Blowback: The Costs of War Continue to Soar in the Trump Era

The costs of America’s wars, still spreading in the Trump era, are incalculable and go far beyond the trillions spent on perpetuating America’s wars.

Tom Engelhardt
By Tom Engelhardt
An M109 Paladin gun crew with 1st Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Bliss, Texas, fires into the mountains of Oro Grande Range Complex, N.M., Feb. 14, 2018. (U.S. Army photo)

As I was putting the finishing touches on my new book, the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute published an estimate of the taxpayer dollars that will have gone into America’s war on terror from September 12, 2001, through fiscal year 2018. That figure: a cool $5.6 trillion (including the future costs of caring for our war

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The Caliphate of Trump and a Planet in Ruins

Donald Trump might be considered the superpower version of an Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and this particular cult did not come from nowhere, but from a land of growing extremity, a country that now, it seems, may be willing to preside over not just cities in ruin but a planet in ruin, too. Doesn’t that seem just a little extreme to you?

Tom Engelhardt
By Tom Engelhardt
President Donald Trump Close Up

They are the extremists. If you need proof, look no further than the Afghan capital, Kabul, where the latest wave of suicide bombings has proven devastating. Recently, for instance, a fanatic set off his explosives among a group of citizens lining up outside a government office to register to vote in upcoming elections. At least 57 people died,

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The UnFounding Father: Why We Need to Stare at You Know Who

Yes, he’s the Dumbfounding Father of twenty-first-century America and that’s distracting, but he’s also the ultimate symptom of the unfounding of this nation, of the moment when — to slightly adapt a Cole Porter line — Plymouth Rock finally landed on us.

Tom Engelhardt
By Tom Engelhardt
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One at Morristown Municipal airport, in Morristown, N.J. (AP/Evan Vucci)

Opinion -- Don’t look away. I mean it! Keep on staring just like you’ve been doing, just like we’ve all been doing since he rode down that escalator into the presidential race in June 2015 and, while you have your eyes on him, I’ll tell you exactly why you shouldn’t stop. To begin with, it’s time to think of Donald J. Trump in a different

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The New American Order

1% Elections, The Privatization of the State, a Fourth Branch of Government, and the Demobilization of “We the People”

Tom Engelhardt
By Tom Engelhardt
Ferguson Nationwide Protests

James Cartmill holds an American flag while protesting in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, after the announcement that a grand jury decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old. Have you ever undertaken some task you felt less than qualified for, but knew

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The Ten Commandments For A Better American World

A letter to an unknown American patriot.

Tom Engelhardt
By Tom Engelhardt
Retired U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Jackie Powell, left, of Canton, Ga., gives some instruction on saluting to Boy Scout Logan Schell, 12, of Cumming, Ga., as they place flags at the graves of military service members ahead of the Memorial Day holiday at Georgia National Cemetery, Saturday, May 25, 2013, in Canton, Ga.

Retired U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Jackie Powell of Canton, Ga., gives some instruction on saluting to Boy Scout Logan Schell, 12, of Cumming, Ga., as they place flags at the graves of military service members ahead of the Memorial Day holiday at Georgia National Cemetery, Saturday, May 25, 2013, in Canton, Ga. Dear American

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Failure Is Success: How American Intelligence Works in the Twenty-First Century

“While taxpayer dollars flowed into your coffers, no one considered it a problem that the country lacked 17 overlapping outfits bent on preventing approximately 400,000 deaths by firearms in the same years; nor 17 interlocked agencies dedicated to safety on our roads, where more than 450,000 Americans have died since 9/11”

Tom Engelhardt
By Tom Engelhardt
John Brennan, James Clapper

What are the odds? You put about $68 billion annually into a maze of 17 major intelligence outfits. You build them glorious headquarters.  You create a global surveillance state for the ages. You listen in on your citizenry and gather their communications in staggering quantities.  Your employees even morph into avatars and enter video-game

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