War
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A bloody month in the drone wars: 7 separate drone strikes kill dozens of civilians across 4 war zones
November 2019 saw seven civilian casualties incidents from drone strikes in four different war-zones illustrating the growing spread of drone warfare. The seven strikes between them are thought to have killed 41 civilians including 11 children. Continue reading
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‘Precise’ Strikes: Fractured Bodies, Fractured Lives – An update on Israel’s drone wars
Five years ago, Drone Wars published a ground breaking report examining Israel’s production, use and proliferation of military drones. Today we are pleased to publish ‘Precise Strikes: Fractured Bodies, Fractured Lives’ which brings our 2014 report up-to-date. The report looks beyond the veil of secrecy that surrounds Israel’s development and deployment of armed drones to explore… Continue reading
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UK drones more likely to target individuals than infrastructure data analysis reveals
Examination of UK air strike data from the past two years shows that British unmanned drones have been used far more often to attack individuals on the ground in Iraq and Syria than the UK’s other strike aircraft, the Tornado or the Typhoon. Continue reading
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What Does the U.S. Public Think of Its Government Arming and Bombing the World?
Data for Progress for quite a while appeared to be yet another U.S. PEP group (Progressive Except for Peace). They were producing useful polling reports on all sorts of topics as if 96% of humanity didn’t exist. Foreign policy just couldn’t be found. They told me they were just getting around to it. You still… Continue reading
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Trump admits US killed millions in war based on lies
Amid the storm of denunciations—extending from right-wing Republicans to the Democratic Party, the New York Times and the pseudo-left Jacobin magazine—of his decision to pull US troops out of Syria, President Donald Trump issued an extraordinary tweet on Wednesday in defense of his policy: Continue reading
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OPCW: A Site of Struggle for Impartiality, Independence and International Legitimacy in War Crimes Investigations
The use of chemical weapons is a war crime. The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) – signed by almost every nation[1] – aims to expunge their use from the face of our planet. Charged with implementing the Convention is the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Part of its task is to investigate such… Continue reading
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Relaying Views of US’s Top General, Newsweek Sees No Need for Countervailing Facts
Newsweek (9/18/19) reports NATO is losing “superiority” over Russia, without mentioning that the alliance’s combined military budget is 17 times that of Russia. Continue reading
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Book Review: The (Real) Revolution In Military Affairs
Considerable amounts of ink have been been spent in writings about the Revolution in Military Affairs. It is a concept that claims that new military doctrines, strategies, tactics and technologies would lead to an abrupt and significant change in the conduct of warfare. Continue reading
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US Reaper drones test Agile Condor: Another step closer to ‘Killer Robots’
This type of capability represents a tangible step further towards the development of autonomous weaponised drones able to operate without human input – flying killer robots, in other words. From identifying targets without the need for a human decision to destroying those targets is a very small step which could be achieved with existing technology. Continue reading
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The Black Swan Is a Drone By Charles Hugh Smith
What was “possible” yesterday is now a low-cost proven capability, and the consequences are far from predictable. Predictably, the mainstream media is serving up heaping portions of reassurances that the drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities are no big deal and full production will resume shortly. The obvious goal is to placate global markets fearful… Continue reading
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Did Trump Tacitly Threaten to Use Biological Weapons to Exterminate 10 Million? By Terje Maloy
“We could win that war so fast if I wanted to kill 10 million people … which I don’t. I’m not looking to kill a big portion of that country [Afghanistan],” — Donald Trump Continue reading
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United States Withdraws from INF Treaty, Torpedoing Global Arms-Control Structure
On Thursday, August 22, 2019, Russia and China called a UN Security Council meeting to address the perils resulting from the US withdrawal from the INF treaty. Continue reading
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Why is the US preparing for nuclear war with Russia and China? By Andre Damon
After withdrawing from the landmark Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, the United States has been barreling ahead with its preparations to fight a nuclear war with China, Russia, or both, by testing and stockpiling dangerous new weapons in a nuclear arms race. Continue reading
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Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Spies Who Kept a Criminal US with a Nuclear Monopoly from Making More of Them By Dave Lindorff
Cambridge, UK, Aug. 6 — Seventy-four years ago today, the US dropped the first ever atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, a non-military target of several hundred thousand, instantly vaporizing some 70,000 people, mostly civilians, and causing the painful, slower death of another 70,000 who died of burns and radioactive damage to their bodies… Continue reading
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The Stubborn Truth About Employment and the Defense Industry by Nia Harris
A Marilyn has once again seduced a president. This time, though, it’s not a movie star; it’s Marillyn Hewson, the head of Lockheed Martin, the nation’s top defense contractor and the largest weapons producer in the world. In the last month, Donald Trump and Hewson have seemed inseparable. They “saved” jobs at a helicopter plant. They… Continue reading
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War, empire and racism in the Anthropocene By Dr. Nafeez Ahmed
The Anthropocene. A proposed new geological epoch which designates a shift to a planetary age dominated by human impacts across the geological processes of the Earth. Continue reading
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PEPE ESCOBAR: US and Iran Stuck on Negotiation Ground Zero
All bets are off in the geopolitical insanity stakes when we have the President of the United States (POTUS) glibly announcing he could launch a nuclear first strike to end the war in Afghanistan and wipe it “off the face of the earth” in one week. But he’d rather not, so he doesn’t have to… Continue reading
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War Profiteers and the Demise of the US Military-Industrial Complex
ithin the vast bureaucratic sprawl of the Pentagon there is a group in charge of monitoring the general state of the military-industrial complex and its continued ability to fulfill the requirements of the national defense strategy. Office for acquisition and sustainment and office for industrial policy spends some $100,000 a year producing an Annual Report… Continue reading
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US “Boots” Turkey from F-35 Program By Ulson Gunnar
Turkey has been officially “booted” from the F-35 multirole combat aircraft program. The F-35 multirole combat aircraft, produced by US-based arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, is part of a massive weapons program exceeding $1 trillion. A single aircraft can cost over $100 million, or over twice the cost of Russia’s new Su-57 and many times more… Continue reading
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War by Other Means: Understanding and Challenging U.S. Sanctions Policies
Sanctions are often presented as a diplomatic and peaceful alternative to direct military engagement, sanctions ironically can have just as devastating outcomes. Addressing the situations of Cuba, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, this 2019 Left Forum panel addresses the origins, implementation, and impact of US-imposed sanctions. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 