Department of Defense Scraps Plan to Ban Cluster Bombs

“This is a profoundly retrograde step that puts the U.S. way out of line with the international consensus.”

Andrea Germanos
By Andrea Germanos
A man holds a cluster comb fragment after a Saudi-led airstrike in Yemen's capital, Monday, April 20, 2015. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

The Pentagon made a decision that "beggars belief," human rights groups said Friday, when it tossed out its plan to ban certain cluster bombs that leave a large percentage of lethal, unexploded munitions, which pose a significant risk to civilians. "This is a profoundly retrograde step that puts the U.S. way out of line with the international

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Bezos Cashes in on Lobbying Washington With Amazon’s $53 Billion Deal to Supply Pentagon

As Amazon continues to entrench itself as the nation’s commissary, huge government supply deals like the $53 billion Pentagon-Amazon procurement deal Congress is set to authorize leave little room for competitors and raise the specter of government-coddled monopoly.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb
Defense Secretary James Mattis chats with Amazon founder and Washington Post owner, Jeff Bezos , during a visit to west coast tech and defense companies. Jeff Bezos | Twitter

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2018, in addition to including passages involving regime change in Venezuela and exorbitant expenditures on the maintenance and expansion of American empire, continues to surprise: its latest draft includes a measure that will cement a multi-billion dollar deal between the Department of

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Report: Average American Taxpayer Spent $23,386 for the War on Terror

“The American public should know what the true costs of these choices are and what lost opportunities they represent.”

teleSUR
By teleSUR
Photo of Hellfire missiles being loaded onto a US military Reaper drone in Afghanistan by Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson/U.S. Air Force

A new "Costs of War" report published by Brown University's Watson Institute shows the actual costs incurred by the U.S. as part of its global "war on terror" that widely contradicts the cost of war figures put together by the Pentagon in its report. The report points out some of the Pentagon report's most staggering shortcomings and

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How The Military-Industrial Complex Preys On Troops

Here’s a question for you: How do you spell boondoggle?

The answer (in case you didn’t already know): P-e-n-t-a-g-o-n.

William D. Hartung
By William D. Hartung

Hawks on Capitol Hill and in the U.S. military routinely justify increases in the Defense Department’s already munificent budget by arguing that yet more money is needed to “support the troops.” If you’re already nodding in agreement, let me explain just where a huge chunk of the Pentagon budget — hundreds of billions of dollars — really goes. Keep

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DOD, HUD Defrauded Taxpayers Of $21 Trillion From 1998 To 2015

The amount unaccounted for over this period adds up to $65,000 for each man, woman and child resident in America. By comparison, the cost per taxpayer of all U.S. wars waged since 9/11 has been $7,500 per taxpayer. The sum is also larger than the current national debt.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb
U.S. Army M2A2 and M2A3 Bradley fighting vehicles are unloaded at a pier in Busan, South Korea, June 29, 2011. (AP/Yonhap, Kim Sun-ho)

Last year, a Reuters article brought renewed scrutiny to the budgeting practices of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), specifically the U.S. Army, after it was revealed that the department  had “lost” $6.5 trillion in 2015 due to “wrongful budget adjustments.” Nearly half of that massive sum, $2.8 trillion, was lost in just one quarter. Reuters

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Pentagon Report Points To Unsustainable Status Quo For US Global Empire

The Pentagon is now admitting that the U.S.’ global dominance is waning, as it is facing economic challenges from rival countries who resist Western corporate influence. It’s also threatened by “inconvenient” information like that of watchdog journalism critical of American imperialism. But perhaps its solution is more worrisome, as the Pentagon suggests doubling down on militarism and propaganda instead of addressing the root causes of the country’s downturn.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb
Servicemen of the "Fighting Eagles" 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, walk by tanks that arrived via train to the US base in Mihail Kogalniceanu, eastern Romania, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017. (AP/Andreea Alexandru)

A new study released by the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute and sponsored by various branches of the Department of Defense (DoD) has revealed what many in other nations have known for years, but has been slow to dawn on the United States itself – that the corporatist U.S. empire is quickly approaching collapse. This empire -

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