Sam Smith, 2016 - A chance surf landed me on the beach in time for some rare unpredictable C-SPAN moments. There was a supercilious Michael Lind, lately proposing that the Vietnam War was a good thing, and a mild and bemused novelist, Tim O'Brien, who thought nothing of the sort, in part because he had … Continue reading The murder capital
Military
Time warp
Sam Smith, 2011 - I was 34 when the draft ended. In the preceding years my own views had shifted from those of a cold war liberal to those of an ambivalent apathetic and finally to those of a situational pacifist. But whatever my personal beliefs, I was deeply and constantly conscious of the inevitability … Continue reading Time warp
Trump wants to increase funding for the least effective federal department
Sam Smith - Before the debate begins over Trump's plan to increase spending by the Defense Department it is worth noting that the Pentagon is about the least effective agency in the federal government. Since World War II it has fought only one clearly effective war - the invasion of Grenada in 1983,a Caribbean island … Continue reading Trump wants to increase funding for the least effective federal department
The rise of boutique warfare
Sam Smith As a general rule, I like to have a little time to get ready for the next global crisis. Stuff like deciding which side I'm on, how to pronounce the participants' names and so forth. While I know some people get turned on by rapid developments, and it does save Wolf Blitzer from … Continue reading The rise of boutique warfare
War as office politics
Sam SmithWatching Wolf Blitzer shortly before Obama launched his Libyan Whatever It Is, it occurred to me that two of the most profound commentaries on American politics these days are The Office and Parks & Recreation. Someone was trying to explain to Blitzer how there was going to be a bifurcated military operation, with one … Continue reading War as office politics
The little green men
Sam Smith According to the Washington Post, "The Marine Corps' top general suggested Tuesday that allowing gays to serve openly in the military could result in more casualties because their presence on the battlefield would pose "a distraction." ||||| "When your life hangs on the line," said Gen. James F. Amos, the commandant of the … Continue reading The little green men
The metaphor spill
Sam Smith - The establishment is struggling to gain metaphorical control over the BP oil spill. It feels entitled to control metaphors just as much as it does oil drilling policy and doesn't it like when the non-establishment comes up with its own. Thus Chris Matthews goes berserk when anyone refers to the present government … Continue reading The metaphor spill
All war all the time
Sam Smith, 2008 - As it tries to recover from the most expensive failure in American military history, the Pentagon has its eyes on an easier target. The beauty of this adversary is that it is not from an indecipherable culture, it doesn't speak a strange language and it doesn't scatter IEDs in the path … Continue reading All war all the time
A history of the Iraq war told entirely in lies
[Although it would take much of the media and prospective Democratic presidential candidates much longer to discover that they had been deceived, Harper's was on to the case early and asked your editor to write a history of the Iraq war told entirely in official lies. The story ran in the October 2003 issue, about … Continue reading A history of the Iraq war told entirely in lies
Why is the military sacred?
Sam Smith, 2006 ONE OF THE MOST costly and immoral lies of our culture is that the military is a sacred institution. John Kerry recently bumped into this lie while telling a truth, that as a practical matter, one shouldn't mention a week before the election, namely that the military has always been a haven … Continue reading Why is the military sacred?
The media and Iraq
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How you became the enemy
Sam Smith, 1997 - At the end of the Cold War, a top Soviet official promised America one last horrible surprise. We are, he said, going to deprive you of an enemy. The official turned out to be more perceptive about American politics than many in Washington. In at least one Pentagon office there is … Continue reading How you became the enemy
Mission creep
Sam Smith, 1996 - Just one week after your editor's views on the increasing militarization of America were featured in a column by Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy, that paper responded with a major paen to "Generals in Command on the Home Front." The subhead ran: "In need of discipline, order, honor, polish? Civil institutions … Continue reading Mission creep
The militarization of American life
From the March 1996 issue of the Progressive Review MILITARY PERSONNEL BEING USED TO SPY ON PROTESTERS IN THE NATION'S CAPITAL [IMC] Sam Smith - The nomination of General Barry McCaffrey as drug czar symbolizes the nation's dramatic retreat from the principle of separation of military and civilian power. It further demonstrates the degree to … Continue reading The militarization of American life
Sam Smith's Essays 