Norman Solomon
Norman Solomon is the author of several books including the best selling War Made Easy. He's also the author of "Media Beat," a weekly nationally syndicated column on media and politics. He's the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a national consortium of policy researchers and analysts. He's appeared as a guest on many media outlets including the PBS NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, C-SPAN, public radio’s Marketplace, and NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Talk of the Nation.
Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life
Whether one compares the U.S. government's latest Afghanistan offensive with its recent aid to Haiti, its Afghanistan war efforts with its neglect of Afghanistan refugee camps, or its war spending with its domestic spending cuts, there's one message: this warfare state gives killing priority over sustaining life.
Don’t Call It a “Defense” Budget
The Federal Government's budget numbers make one thing clear: the Obama administration is marching up a steep military escalator under the banner of “defense.” But is it really a "defense" budget when we destroy our country in the name of defending it?
Democrats Boosting Right-Wing Populism
As Democratic leadership continues to demoralize their populist base, progressives are tempted to accept a false choice between capitulating inside the Democratic Party or staying away from it. But there’s another option.
Flares in the Political Dark
In 2009, reflexive support for the latest line from the administration has made it easier for Obama to move rightward. In 2010, progressives should concentrate on generating the kind of public information, vigorous debate and grassroots organizing that could shift the center of political gravity in a progressive direction.
Mr. President, War is Not Peace
The President's Noble speech repeated the message that warfare is striving for the noble goal of peace. Only as a goal fixed on a strategic horizon that keeps moving as the military keeps marching, the message sugarcoats the realities of war in Afghanistan.
War Is Not Organic
In this thought-provoking excerpt from his book Made Love, Got War, Norman Solomon reflects on the day Prince Charles and the duchess Camilla visited a Point Reyes Station farmers market. What might that day's events teach us about political action and the "Organic Movement"?
The War Stampede
Disputes are raging within the Obama administration over how to continue the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. A new leak tells us that Washington’s ambassador in Kabul, former four-star general Karl Eikenberry, has cautioned against adding more troops while President Hamid Karzai keeps disappointing American policymakers. This is the extent of the current debate within the warfare state.
The Next Phase of Healthcare Apartheid
Not long ago, we were told that the Obama administration was aiming for a public option that could provide coverage to one out of every four Americans. Now the figure is around one out of every fifty. This, coupled with an emphasis on individual-mandate requirements, is turning health care reform into a massive funnel to the insurance conglomerates. What will be the result? In order to avoid the next phase of our nation's healthcare apartheid, the best way to get healthcare reform will be to enact single-payer healthcare in one state after another.
Uncle Sam in Afghanistan: Good Help Is Hard to Find
Afghanistan's newly scheduled runoff likely to bring heightened fear, more violence, more killing. And for what?
Starting Another Year of War in Afghanistan
As the U.S. unceremoniously reaches the Afghanistan War's eighth anniversary, little more is known about the war's goals than can be summed up in a brief slogan: "When in doubt, keep killing." It's a striking contrast from what he told foreign leaders in his inaugural speech eight months ago.
Men with Guns in Kabul and Washington
As the devastating effects of war cripple Afghanistan's capital and its government loses the credibility and effectiveness to make a difference, the U.S. Government and news media continue to ask the wrong question. The result is a familiar madness.
A Little Girl in Kabul
Meet Guljiumma. She's an innocent little girl I met in one of Afghanistan's refugee camps. Unfortunately her life tells a story about the Afghanistan War that's contrary to the U.S Government's humanitarian rhetoric.
The Afghanistan Gap: Press vs. Public
It is common to encounter comparisons between the Vietnam War and the current war in Afghanistan. However one similarity is rarely acknowledged: a fairy tale portraying the media as tough critics masks the media's participating in perpetuating the war effort despite public disapproval.
When the Dead Have No Say
As Pentagon leaks suggest the Pentagon wants to escalate the war effort in Afghanistan even more, the Obama Administration searches for a means of demonstrating measurable successes. Unfortunately it not only suggests a continued willingness to reduce the dead to another number in its calculus, but shows no sign of questioning its fundamental assumptions.
The Incredible Shrinking Healthcare Reform
As the debate over healthcare reform transforms into a debate over health insurance reform, profiteering industries are openly responding with glee.
Spinning Healthcare: A Bad Case of Vertigo
The nation’s “healthcare debate” is suffering from so much spin that it's neglecting to address the quality of the care we'll be providing the presently uninsured; and it's doing this because it fails to recognize that health care is a right.
Abstract Quality Journalism for War
The political rhetoric in Washington is overwhelmingly humanitarian, while the new infusion of U.S. spending for Afghanistan is 90 percent military. What is mainstream news doing about it?
Full-Spectrum Idiocy: GOP and Chavez on Iran
Both Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's clichéd denials of undemocratic repression and the GOP's condescending calls to take the lead against Iran's repression regime miss an important point. The proud people of Iran, with their storied history, are in charge of this uprising.
Obama and the Anti-War Democrats
As progressive Democrats vote against President Obama's war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is crucial for anti-war activists and other progressive advocates to get more serious about congressional politics.
Words And War
It takes at least tacit faith in massive violence to believe that after three decades of horrendous violence in Afghanistan, increasing it will improve the situation.
