Articles by: Andrew J Bacevich

U.S. President Donald Trump departs at the end of a news conference in New York, U.S. September 25, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst     TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RC1297B30D30

The Real Cover-Up: Putting Donald Trump’s Impeachment in Context

From the time of Donald Trump’s election, American elites have hungered for this moment. At long last, they have the 45th president of the United States cornered. In typically ham-handed fashion, Trump has given his adversaries the very means to destroy him politically. They will not waste the opportunity. Impeachment now—finally, some will say—qualifies as a virtual certainty. No doubt[Read More…]

by 09/10/2019 1 comment World
 Reflections on “Peace” in Afghanistan – Leaving a Misguided War and Choosing Not to Look Back

 Reflections on “Peace” in Afghanistan – Leaving a Misguided War and Choosing Not to Look Back

When the conflict that the Vietnamese refer to as the American War ended in April 1975, I was a U.S. Army captain attending a course at Fort Knox, Kentucky. In those days, the student body at any of our Army’s myriad schools typically included officers from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Since ARVN’s founding two decades earlier,[Read More…]

by 10/09/2019 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
The Great Reckoning – A Look Back from Mid-Century

The Great Reckoning – A Look Back from Mid-Century

  [Editorial note: This remnant of a manuscript, discovered in a vault near the coastal town of Walpole, Massachusetts, appears to have been part of a larger project, probably envisioned as an interpretive history of the United States since the year 2000. Only a single chapter, probably written near the midpoint of the twenty-first century, has survived. Whether the remainder of[Read More…]

by 24/07/2019 1 comment World
 The Fake News of D-Day

 The Fake News of D-Day

How best to describe the recently completed allied commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of France? Two words come immediately to mind: heartfelt and poignant. The aged D-Day veterans gathering for what was probably the last time richly deserved every bit of praise bestowed on them. Yet one particular refrain that has become commonplace in this age[Read More…]

by 20/06/2019 1 comment World
 Our Man in Riyadh: Abizaid of Arabia 

 Our Man in Riyadh: Abizaid of Arabia 

What does President Trump’s recent nomination of retired Army General John Abizaid to become the next U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia signify? Next to nothing — and arguably quite a lot. Abizaid’s proposed appointment is both a non-event and an opportunity not to be wasted. It means next to nothing in this sense: while once upon a time, American diplomats abroad wielded[Read More…]

by 28/11/2018 1 comment Uncategorized
Autopilot Wars: Sixteen Years, But Who’s Counting? 

Autopilot Wars: Sixteen Years, But Who’s Counting? 

  Consider, if you will, these two indisputable facts.  First, the United States is today more or less permanently engaged in hostilities in not one faraway place, but at least seven.  Second, the vast majority of the American people could not care less. Nor can it be said that we don’t care because we don’t know.  True, government authorities withhold certain[Read More…]

by 09/10/2017 1 comment Imperialism
The Decay Of American Politics

The Decay Of American Politics

My earliest recollection of national politics dates back exactly 60 years to the moment, in the summer of 1956, when I watched the political conventions in the company of that wondrous new addition to our family, television.  My parents were supporting President Dwight D. Eisenhower for a second term and that was good enough for me.  Even as a youngster,[Read More…]

by 05/08/2016 Comments are Disabled World
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