Nick Turse

Nick Turse is the managing editor of TomDispatch, a fellow at the Nation Institute, and a contributing writer for the Intercept. His 2017 Harper’s magazine article, “Ghost Nation,” is a finalist for an American Society of Magazine Editors award. His website is NickTurse.com.

For the US Military, ‘Winning’ Now Means Staying at War as Long as Possible

After almost two decades of warfare, the armed forces have lowered the bar for victory to the level of their enemy, the Taliban.

Nick Turse
By Nick Turse
Afghan Special Security Forces (ASSF), advised by U.S. Special Forces, prepare to load an MH-47 Chinook Helicopter in Kapisa province, Afghanistan, Aug. 25, 2018. Photo | DVIDS

4,000,000,029,057. Remember that number. It’s going to come up again later. But let’s begin with another number entirely: 145,000 — as in, 145,000 uniformed soldiers striding down Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue. That’s the number of troops who marched down that very street in May 1865 after the United States defeated the Confederate States of

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America’s Drug Wars in Africa: Missing Money, and a Phantom $500 Million

Both AFRICOM and CENTCOM seem intent on pouring money into Africa’s Drug War, an effort that had produced few successes.

Nick Turse
By Nick Turse
A U.S. Special Forces soldier trains troops from Senegal combat techniques in Kati, Mali, during a joint training exercise with units from several African armies. (AP/Alfred de Montesquiou)

2017 was a year of investigations for U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).  There was the investigation of the two-star commander of U.S. Army Africa who allegedly sent racy texts to an enlisted man’s wife.  There was the investigation into the alleged killing of a Special Forces soldier by Navy SEALs in Mali. There was the inquiry into reports of

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From Afghanistan to Somalia, US Special Ops Are Getting More But Achieving Less

As wars and interventions have multiplied, as U.S. commandos have spread across the planet, and as terror groups have proliferated, the tempo of operations has jumped dramatically.

Nick Turse
By Nick Turse
America’s elite troops were deployed to 149 nations in 2017, according to U.S. Special Operations Command. The map above displays the locations of 132 of those countries; 129 locations (in blue) were supplied by U.S. Special Operations Command; 3 locations (in red) -- Syria, Yemen and Somalia -- were derived from open-source information. (Nick Turse)

At around 11 o’clock that night, four Lockheed MC-130 Combat Talons, turboprop Special Operations aircraft, were flying through a moonless sky from Pakistani into Afghan airspace. On board were 199 Army Rangers with orders to seize an airstrip.  One hundred miles to the northeast, Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters cruised through the darkness

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Sex, Drugs, and Dead Soldiers: What U.S. Africa Command Doesn’t Want You To Know

Six people lay lifeless in the filthy brown water. Three of the dead were American commandos.

Nick Turse
By Nick Turse

Soldiers of the East Africa Response Force (EARF), a Djibouti-based joint team assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, depart from a U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules in Juba, South Sudan. Three of the dead were American commandos.  The driver, a captain nicknamed “Whiskey Dan,” was the leader of a shadowy team of operatives never

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The US Already Running Special Ops Missions In 105 Countries In 2015

Since 2011 American special forces ops have set foot in 150 of the world’s 196 nations.

Nick Turse
By Nick Turse

In this Thursday, June 20, 2013 photo, special operations forces from Iraq, Jordan and the U.S. conduct an exercise as part of Eager Lion multinational military maneuvers at the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center (KASOTC) in Amman, Jordan. Photo: Maya Alleruzzo/AP In the dead of night, they swept in aboard V-22 Osprey

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America’s Black-Ops Blackout: Unraveling The Secrets Of The Military’s Secret Military

U.S. Special Operations Forces are likely deployed in more than 100 countries — roughly 60% of the nations on the planet.

Nick Turse
By Nick Turse

“Dude, I don’t need to play these stupid games. I know what you’re trying to do.”  With that, Major Matthew Robert Bockholt hung up on me. More than a month before, I had called U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) with a series of basic questions: In how many countries were U.S. Special Operations Forces deployed in 2013? Are manpower levels

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