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Commentary Solomon: Words and War

Commentary, June, 09 2009 Norman Solomon
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It takes at least tacit faith in massive violence to believe that after three decades of horrendous violence in Afghanistan, upping the violence there will improve the situation.

Commentary Solomon: We Need a Green New Deal

Commentary, May, 26 2009 Norman Solomon
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In the Arctic, sea ice is melting. In the United States, houses are foreclosing.

Commentary Solomon: Obama: Beyond Savior or Trickster

Commentary, April, 23 2009 Norman Solomon
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As President Obama enters his fourth month in office, two tendencies among progressive-minded Americans seem most hazardous to the political health of the country. The gist of one approach is that Obama can't do anything seriously wrong; the other...

Commentary Solomon: Democrats and War Escalation

Commentary, April, 08 2009 Norman Solomon
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Top Democrats and many prominent supporters -- with vocal agreement, tactical quibbles or total silence -- are assisting the escalation of the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The predictable results will include much more killing and ...

Commentary Solomon: These Colors Won't Run... Afghanistan

Commentary, March, 26 2009 Norman Solomon
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Last week, some members of Congress sent President Obama a letter that urged him to "reconsider" his order deploying 17,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

Commentary Solomon: Why Are We Still at War?

Commentary, February, 07 2009 Norman Solomon
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The United States began its war in Afghanistan 88 months ago. "The war on terror" has no sunset clause. As a perpetual emotion machine, it offers to avenge what can never heal and to fix grief that is irreparable.

Commentary Solomon: The Return of Triangulation

Commentary, January, 26 2009 Norman Solomon
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The mosaic of Barack Obama's cabinet picks and top White House staff gives us an overview of what the new president sees as political symmetry for his administration. While it's too early to gauge specific policies of the Obama presidency, it's no...

Commentary Solomon: A Hundred Eyes for an Eye

Commentary, January, 01 2009 Norman Solomon
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Israelis and Arabs "feel that only force can assure justice," I. F. Stone noted soon after the Six Day War in 1967. And he wrote: "A certain moral imbecility marks all ethnocentric movements. The Others are always either less than human, and thus ...

Commentary Solomon: The Silent Winter of Escalation

Commentary, December, 11 2008 Norman Solomon
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Sunday morning, before dawn, I read in the New York Times that "the Pentagon is planning to add more than 20,000 troops to Afghanistan" within the next 18 months -- "raising American force levels to about 58,000" in that country. Then I scraped ic...

Commentary Solomon: The Ideology of No Ideology

Commentary, November, 29 2008 Norman Solomon
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On Friday, columnist David Brooks informed readers that Barack Obama's picks "are not ideological." The incoming president's key economic advisers "are moderate and thoughtful Democrats," while Hillary Clinton's foreign-policy views "are hardheade...

Commentary Solomon: A Media Parable for "the Center"

Commentary, November, 21 2008 Norman Solomon
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It's been 16 years since a Democrat moved into the White House. Now, the fog of memory and the spin of media are teaming up to explain that Barack Obama must hew to "the center" if he knows what's good for his presidency.

Commentary Solomon: Needed for This Election: A Great Rejection

Commentary, October, 30 2008 Norman Solomon
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It could be a start -- a clear national rejection of the extreme right-wing brew that has saturated the executive branch for nearly eight years.

Commentary Solomon: Requiem for the Bailout Storyline

Commentary, October, 15 2008 Norman Solomon
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Only weeks ago, the media hype behind the $700 billion bailout was so intense that it sometimes verged on hysteria. More recent events should not be allowed to obscure the reality that the news media played a pivotal role in stampeding the country...

Commentary Solomon: Projecting an Obama Victory

Commentary, October, 12 2008 Norman Solomon
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Projection is a psychological hazard of politics. What's "obvious" to some doesn't occur to others. So, these days, it's hardly reassuring when some progressives roll their eyes at the latest McCain-Palin maneuver and express confidence that few v...

Commentary Solomon: Finally, the Story of the Whistleblower Who Tried to Prevent the Iraq War

Commentary, September, 30 2008 Norman Solomon
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Of course Katharine Gun was free to have a conscience, as long as it didn't interfere with her work at a British intelligence agency. To the authorities, practically speaking, a conscience was apt to be less tangible than a pixel on a computer scr...

Commentary Solomon: Beyond the Conventions

Commentary, September, 06 2008 Norman Solomon
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With varying degrees of confidence or even complacency, many people have assumed that the jig is almost up for the horrendous political era that began when George W. Bush became president. Always dubious, the assumption is now on very shaky ground.

Commentary Solomon: Progressives and Obama: The Clash of Narratives

Commentary, August, 23 2008 Norman Solomon
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By now, across the progressive spectrum, some familiar storylines tell us the meaning of the Obama campaign. In a groove, each narrative digs its truths. But whether those particular truths are the most important at this historical moment is anoth...

Commentary Solomon: Democratic Platform Option: "Guaranteed Health Care for All"

Commentary, August, 02 2008 Norman Solomon
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In the presidential race, with "health care" a frequent topic, John McCain offers more capitulation to the insurance industry. Speaking in the usual GOP terms, he calls for "ridding the market of both needless and costly regulations." Under his pl...

Commentary Solomon: Obama and the Progressive Base

Commentary, July, 12 2008 Norman Solomon
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A reasonably evenhanded biography of Barack Obama, published last year, describes him as "an exceptionally gifted politician who, throughout his life, has been able to make people of wildly divergent vantage points see in him exactly what they wan...

Commentary Solomon: Health Care and Ghosts of War

Commentary, June, 21 2008 Norman Solomon
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Speaking in a time of war, Martin Luther King Jr. said: "Somehow this madness must cease."

Commentary Solomon: When a Little Dissent Is Too Much

Commentary, June, 09 2008 Norman Solomon
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Over the years, once in a great while, I've been surprised to cross paths with a journalist at a major TV outlet who actually seems willing and able to go outside the conventional boundaries of media discourse.

Commentary Solomon: In Honor of My Mother and the Power of Love

Commentary, February, 01 2008 Norman Solomon
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My mother, Miriam A. Solomon, died on January 20, which happened to be the seventh anniversary of the inauguration of a man and a presidential regime that she loathed. Once, several years ago, when I referred to George W. Bush as "an idiot," she m...

Commentary Solomon: Sputnik, 50 Years Later: The Launch of Techno-Power

Commentary, October, 31 2007 Norman Solomon
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[This is an excerpt from Norman Solomon's new book "Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State."]

Commentary Solomon: Political "Science" and Truth of Consequences

Commentary, October, 26 2007 Norman Solomon
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[This article is excerpted from Norman Solomon's new book "Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State."]

Commentary Solomon: Let's Face It: The Warfare State Is Part of Us

Commentary, October, 04 2007 Norman Solomon
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The USA's military spending is now close to $2 billion a day. This fall, the country will begin its seventh year of continuous war, with no end in sight. On the horizon is the very real threat of a massive air assault on Iran. And few in Congress ...

Commentary Solomon: Media Blitz for War: The Big Guns of August

Commentary, September, 12 2007 Norman Solomon
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The U.S. media establishment is mainlining another fix for the Iraq war: It isn't so bad after all, American military power could turn wrong into right, chronic misleaders now serve as truth-tellers. The hit is that the war must go on.

Commentary Solomon: Media Spin on Iraq: We're Leaving (Sort of)

Commentary, September, 01 2007 Norman Solomon
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In mid-July, a media advisory from "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" announced a new series of interviews on the PBS show that will address "what Iraq might look like when the U.S. military leaves."

Commentary Solomon: War at the Remote

Commentary, July, 08 2007 Norman Solomon
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It's a popular notion: TV sets and other media devices let us in on the violence of war. "Look, nobody likes to see dead people on their television screens," President Bush told a news conference more than three years ago. "I don't. It's a tough t...

Commentary Solomon: The Silence of the Bombs

Commentary, June, 28 2007 Norman Solomon
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Three years have passed since most Americans came to the conclusion that the Iraq war was a "mistake." Reporting the results of a Gallup poll in June 2004, USA Today declared: "It is the first time since Vietnam that a majority of Americans has ca...

Commentary Solomon: Deadly Illusions, Rest in Peace

Commentary, June, 14 2007 Norman Solomon
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The cave-in on Capitol Hill -- supplying a huge new jolt of funds for the horrific war effort in Iraq -- is surprising only to those who havenÕt grasped our current circumstances.

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