David Swanson

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie and When the World Outlawed War. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015, 2016, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.

Colin Powell’s Own Staff Had Warned Him Against His War Lies

In the wake of WMD-liar Curveball’s videotaped confession, Colin Powell was demanding to know why nobody warned him about Curveball’s unreliability. The trouble is, they did.

David Swanson
By David Swanson
Colin Powell holds up a vial he said could contain anthrax as he presents evidence of Iraq's alleged weapons programs to the United Nations Security Council in this Feb. 5, 2003 file photo. (Photo: AP/Elise Amendola)

(DavidSwanson.org) — In the wake of WMD-liar Curveball’s videotaped confession, Colin Powell was demanding to know why nobody warned him about Curveball’s unreliability. The trouble is, they did. Can you imagine having an opportunity to address the United Nations Security Council about a matter of great global importance, with all the world’s

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How Are You Gonna Pay For It? Stop Giving Money to Israel

Israel is not a poor country. It is certainly not the poorest in the world. So why is it the top recipient of US military “aid?”

David Swanson
By David Swanson
Pence AIPAC Feature photo

(DavidSwanson.org) —Did you know that the U.S. government has done something odd with your tax dollars? The ones you get so furious and indignant about when they’re used to feed anybody who’s hungry? It has given over 280 billion of those dollars to the government of Israel (not counting classified hush-hush super-secret amounts). Israel is

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As the US Grapples with Coronavirus, Congress Leaps into Action… On a New Military Draft

What is the dumbest thing Congress could do at this moment? How about pushing a bill to force young women to register for a military draft. Meet HR 6415.

David Swanson
By David Swanson
Coronavirus military draft feature photo

(DavidSwanson.org) — I know it’s stiff competition, but hear me out. The threat of nuclear apocalypse is higher than ever. The threat of irreversible climate collapse is higher than ever and massively contributed to by militarism. The trillions of dollars being dumped into militarism are desperately needed for actual defense against these dangers

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Is American Exceptionalism Shaping Our Scientific Response to the Coronavirus?

While New York City suffers through coronavirus, it’s worth recalling that in the name of science in 1966, the U.S. government released bacteria in the New York subways. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

David Swanson
By David Swanson
coronavirus response feature photo

(DavidSwanson.org) — What’s the matter with science? By that, do I mean, why don’t we turn away from corrupt politics and religion and follow the way of science? Or do I mean, why have we allowed science to so corrupt our politics and our culture? I mean, of course, both. We don’t need an uneducated jackass telling people how to control a viral

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Imagining a Department of Actual Defense in a Time of Coronavirus

The microscopic little coronavirus is showing once again the failure and limitations of militarism in addressing the pressing issues facing humanity.

David Swanson
By David Swanson
coronavirus Army Feature photo

(DavidSwanson.org) -- When a few thousand people were murdered on September 11, 2001, I was actually stupid enough – I kid you not – to imagine that the general public would conclude that because massive military forces, nuclear arsenals, and foreign bases had done nothing to prevent and much to provoke those crimes, the U.S. government would need

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Murder Incorporated, A Critique of US Imperialism

Dreaming of Empire does not try to leave the past in the past. Instead, it proposes to explain current wars, the weaponization of outer space, and the rhetoric of contemporary U.S. politics through a myth-busting hard look at the past.

David Swanson
By David Swanson
Murder Incorporated & Dreaming of Empire

Murder Incorporated is a three-book series by Mumia Abu Jamal and Stephen Vittoria, which I can highly recommend based on the first book. The other two are not out yet. Book One, “Dreaming of Empire,” is a critique of U.S. imperialism, a debunking of U.S. nationalist myths, a corrective or alternative history of the U.S. nation. Politically, a

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Is Trump Pushing Neutral Groups Like the ACLU Towards an Anti War Stance?

Large, well-funded organizations are beginning to edge toward opposition to at least certain wars, organizations that didn’t oppose any wars when George Bush II was president, much less when Obama was.

David Swanson
By David Swanson
Peace activist Marilyn Cornell, of Strongsville, Ohio, holds an American flag with a peace sign on it during an anti-war protest in Washington, on March 20, 2010, where thousands of protesters marched through Washington to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the seventh anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

For those of us who fully expected most U.S. peace activists to vanish once Barack Obama became president but expected them to come back once Donald Trump ascended the throne, the failure of our second expectation has been hard, crushingly hard. But there are a few silver linings. First, there is now a multi-issue campaign that, unlike the

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