Nick Turse

Green Zones of the Mind, Guerrillas, and a Technical Knockout in Afghanistan

Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

Recently, after insurgents unleashed sophisticated, synchronized attacks across Afghanistan involving dozens of fighters armed with suicide vests, rocket-propelled grenades, and small arms, as well as car bombs, the Pentagon...

How the U.S. Fanned the Flames in Afghanistan

Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

Is it all over but the (anti-American) shouting -- and the killing?  Are the exits finally coming into view?

Sometimes, in a moment, the fog lifts, the clouds shift, and you can finally see...

The Pentagon’s Afghan Basing Plans for Prisons, Drones, and Black Ops

Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

In late December, the lot was just a big blank: a few burgundy metal shipping containers sitting in an expanse of crushed eggshell-colored gravel inside a razor-wire-topped fence. ...

What 70 Downed Drones Tell Us About the New American Way of War

Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

American fighter jets screamed over the Iraqi countryside heading for the MQ-1 Predator drone, while its crew in California stood by helplessly.  What had begun as an ordinary reconnaissance mission...

What a Busted Robot Airplane Tells Us About the American Empire in 2012 and Beyond

Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

The drone had been in the air for close to five hours before its mission crew realized that something was wrong.  The oil temperature in the plane’s turbocharger,...

The Pentagon’s Secret Training Missions in the Middle East

Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

As the Arab Spring blossomed and President Obama hesitated about whether to speak out in favor of protesters seeking democratic change in the Greater Middle East, the Pentagon acted decisively.  It...

Its Full Extent Revealed for the First Time

Cross-posted from TomDispatch.com.

They increasingly dot the planet.  There’s a facility outside Las Vegas where “pilots” work in climate-controlled trailers, another at a dusty camp in Africa...

Destabilizing the World One Region at a Time

Cross-posted from TomDispatch.com

It’s a story that should take your breath away: the destabilization of what, in the Bush years, used to be called “the arc of instability.”  It involves at least 97 countries, across...

The Pentagon’s New Power Elite

Cross-posted from TomDispatch.

Somewhere on this planet an American commando is carrying out a mission.  Now, say that 70 times and you’re done... for the day.  Without the knowledge of the American public, a secret force within the U.S. military is...

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com

If you follow the words, one Middle East comes into view; if you follow the weapons, quite another.

This week, the words will take center stage.  On Thursday, according to administration officials, President Obama will “reset” American policy in the Middle East with...

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com

In recent weeks, Yemeni protesters calling for an immediate end to the 32-year reign of U.S.-backed President Ali Abdullah Saleh have been met with increasing violence at the hands of state security forces.  A recent pledge by Saleh to step down, one of many that...

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com.

The men walking down the street looked ordinary enough.  Ordinary, at least, for these days of tumult and protest in the Middle East.  They wore sneakers and jeans and long-sleeved T-shirts.  Some waved the national flag.  Many held their hands up high.  Some flashed peace...

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com.

In the future, the power of magnetism will be harnessed to make today’s high explosives seem feeble, “guided bullets” will put the current crop of snipers to shame, and new multi-purpose missiles will strike targets in a flash from high-flying drones.  At least, that’s part...

The United States has 460 bases overseas!  It has 507 permanent bases!  What is the U.S doing with more than 560 foreign bases?  Why does it have 662 bases abroad?  Does the United States really have more than 1,000 military bases across the globe?

In a world of statistics and precision, a...

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com.

The construction projects are sprouting like mushrooms: walled complexes, high-strength weapons vaults, and underground bunkers with command and control capacities -- and they're being planned and funded by a military force intent on embedding itself ever more deeply in the Middle East.  

If Iran...

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com.

Some go by names steeped in military tradition like Leatherneck and Geronimo.  Many sound fake-tough, like Ramrod, Lightning, Cobra, and Wolverine.  Some display a local flavor, like Orgun-E, Howz-e-Madad, and Kunduz.  All, however, have one thing in common: they are U.S. and allied forward operating...

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com.

Quick -- name the five most important, influential, and best known books on the Afghan War.  Okay, name three.  Okay, I’ll settle for two.  How about one?

While the American war in Vietnam raged, publishers churned out books whose titles still resonate.  In 1967 alone,...

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com.

Yes, it would be funny if it weren’t so grim.  After all, when it comes to squandering money and resources in strange and distant places (or even here at home), you can count on the practitioners of American-style war to be wildly over the top.

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com.

With the arrival of General David Petraeus as Afghan War commander, there has been ever more talk about the meaning of “success” in Afghanistan.  At the end of July, USA Today ran an article titled, “In Afghanistan, Success Measured a Step at a Time.” Days later, Stephen...

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com.

I’ve never heard a shot fired in anger.  But I might know a little bit more about war than Sebastian Junger.

Previously best known as the author of The Perfect Storm, Junger, a New York-based reporter who has covered African wars and the Kosovo...