Eric Stoner is a New York-based freelance journalist, and an adjunct professor at St. Peter's College. His articles have appeared in The Guardian, Mother Jones, The Nation, In These Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Indypendent. He has worked at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C., the War Resisters League and most recently as a researcher for Jeremy Scahill’s New York Times bestseller, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. He edits and writes for Waging Nonviolence, a blog that covers nonviolent actions and campaigns around the world.

Blog Entries by Eric Stoner

Obama Is No FDR

Posted September 30, 2009 | 03:42 PM (EST)


On the eve of the G-20 summit last week, President Barack Obama gave a long interview to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in which he said that even during his days as a community organizer in Chicago he was never a big fan of mass protests.

With the clear intention...

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Mercenaries and Murder in Iraq

10 Comments | Posted August 14, 2009 | 04:22 PM (EST)


It would be nice to celebrate the recent withdrawal of the remaining British troops from Iraq as the end of the UK's direct involvement in the military occupation there. But such festivities would unfortunately be premature.

The killing last Sunday in Baghdad's Green Zone of two armed contractors...

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The Dawn of Robot Wars

Posted April 18, 2009 | 06:10 PM (EST)


With little public scrutiny, robotics is quickly revolutionizing not only how war is fought, but who fights in war. While the U.S. military first began to experiment with remote-controlled weapons during World War I, the Pentagon had no robots on the ground when it invaded Iraq in 2003, and only...

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The Pentagon's Monster in the Mirror

Posted April 15, 2009 | 04:00 PM (EST)


With the release of its annual report on China's military capabilities at the end of March, the Pentagon is doing its part to keep alive the threat of the red menace.

China's official military budget jumped to $60 billion, an 18 percent increase over last year, but US...

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No Mercy for Mercenaries

Posted February 18, 2009 | 01:55 PM (EST)


After raking in more than a billion dollars from its contracts in Iraq, Blackwater is finally being forced to leave the country that it has terrorised for so long. But the notorious mercenary firm's departure will likely have more symbolic significance than any real impact on the day-to-day lives...

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Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils

Posted October 31, 2008 | 03:44 PM (EST)


Those skeptical of voting - at least for either major party - are invariably confronted with some version of the "lesser of two evils" argument. It's usually the last line of defense for Democrats, after they concede that their party has a long way to go on many of the...

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Voting Is Not a Panacea

Posted October 25, 2008 | 03:00 PM (EST)


"If you don't vote, then you can't complain." So goes a refrain that is reflexively regurgitated to anyone who questions the efficacy of voting. Generally it's accompanied by a smug look, indicating that in their eyes you're hopelessly out of touch with reality. But after cutting through the hype, are...

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Criminal Health Care

Posted March 10, 2008 | 08:59 PM (EST)


Health care has become the top domestic issue for most Americans this electoral season -- and for good reason. By nearly any measure, the system simply does not work. Heart-wrenching stories of its shortcomings can be read ad infinitum. And while they rightly evoke feelings of empathy and anger, experiencing...

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So You Think You're Antiwar?

Posted October 2, 2007 | 01:39 PM (EST)


While recent polls reveal that 60 to 70 percent of Americans have soured on the war in Iraq, most of these people should not be mistakenly labeled "antiwar."

Many of those calling for the troops to come home could more properly be called "anti-this-war." "We...

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Living by the Sword

Posted September 19, 2007 | 02:23 PM (EST)


In the United States, where the vast majority of the population (82 percent according to a recent Newsweek poll) identify themselves as Christians, one of the most important steps we can all take to ending not only the war in Iraq, but all war, is to remind people of faith...

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Bush's Crude Intentions in Iraq

Posted August 31, 2007 | 02:55 PM (EST)


With the U.S. consuming a quarter of the world's petroleum, President Bush courageously admitted the obvious during his 2006 State of the Union address: "America is addicted to oil."

While recognizing that you have a problem is laudable, and the first step on the road to recovery, we must now...

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