Norman Solomon

War Made Easy on DVD

War Made Easy has gone into national home-video release. The DVD is also available online.

Reviews of the War Made Easy documentary

War Politics: Numb and Number

Playwright Lillian Hellman said, "I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions."

The statement was in a letter to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The year was 1952. We tell ourselves that the McCarthy era was vastly different than our own - but what about the political fashions of 2010?

This year's fashions cut mean figures on Washington's runways. Conformities lie, and people die..

A dozen years after Hellman defied HUAC, a senator defied the fearful conformity of 1964. Seeing the escalation of the Vietnam War on the near horizon, Wayne Morse spoke truth to - and about - power. The contrast with today's liberal baseline on Capitol Hill is painfully evident if you watch footage of Senator Morse for two minutes...

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An Update and Some Political Reflections from Norman

During the last couple of weeks, I've spoken to Democratic Party clubs and other activist groups from Santa Rosa and San Rafael to San Mateo County and the East Bay -- some chartered by the state party, others affiliated with Democracy For America or Progressive Democrats of America, still others with no partisan affiliation.

In the process, I've listened to hundreds of pointed questions and deeply felt comments. And I can tell you this: Many people at the progressive base of the Democratic Party are getting very upset with the direction of the Obama administration.

While they haven't forgotten that we need to do all we can to defeat Republican candidates in November, it's painfully clear that progressives must build grassroots political power -- to move the White House and Congress away from current policies.

Policies such as escalation of war in Afghanistan; tepid responses to the global warming emergency; massive bailouts to Wall Street; huge new federal subsidies for nuclear power; feeble job-creation programs, heavily reliant on GOP-style tax cuts and credits for businesses; disregard for habeas corpus and other basic civil liberties; "healthcare reform" largely crafted by the insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital industries . . .

A few days ago, responding to President Obama's latest embrace of Wall Street, the Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote in his New York Times blog: "How is it possible, at this late date, for Obama to be this clueless?"

Sad to say, the title of my article this week -- "Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life" -- was not hyperbolic.

The major military offensive that the Pentagon launched on Presidents Day weekend in southern Afghanistan made me think about young refugees who I met at a miserable camp in Kabul last summer. I wrote about one of them in an article titled "A Little Girl in Kabul."

I hope you'll take a couple of minutes now to click and watch some rare and stunning footage of Senator Wayne Morse as he spoke about war and congressional responsibility -- at the outset of escalation of the Vietnam War -- in ways that are not being heard today on Capitol Hill.

I'd be surprised if Senator Morse doesn't move you. His spirit is still with us.

Please share with others.

Best wishes,

Norman

P.S. -- You might want to sign up as a "fan" of the new Facebook page Progressive Democrats - North Bay, hosted by the PDA chapters in Marin and Sonoma counties. It's already a lively and profuse source of news, analysis and organizing info from progressives in the North Bay and beyond.

Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life

When the US military began a major offensive in southern Afghanistan over the weekend, the killing of children and other civilians was predictable. Lofty rhetoric aside, such deaths come with the territory of war and occupation.

A month ago, President Obama pledged $100 million in US government aid to earthquake-devastated Haiti. Compare that to the $100 billion price tag to keep 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan for a year.

While commanders in Afghanistan were launching what The New York Times called "the largest offensive military operation since the American-led coalition invaded the country in 2001," the situation in Haiti was clearly dire...

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Don’t Call It a 'Defense' Budget

This isn't "defense."

The new budget from the White House will push U.S. military spending well above $2 billion a day.

Foreclosing the future of our country should not be confused with defending it.

"Unless miraculous growth, or miraculous political compromises, creates some unforeseen change over the next decade, there is virtually no room for new domestic initiatives for Mr. Obama or his successors," the New York Times reports this morning (February 2).

It isn't defense to preclude new domestic initiatives for a country that desperately needs them: for healthcare, jobs, green technologies, carbon reduction, housing, education, nutrition, mass transit...

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Speaking Schedule

Norman will be speaking at these events in the Bay Area... You are invited!

** SATURDAY, March 13 -- 8 p.m. -- Petaluma Community Center, 320 N. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma

Norman will speak at this V-Day Petaluma / Stop the Violence Against Women and Girls event, a benefit for Petaluma area organizations that will include a performance of "The Vagina Monologues."  More information

** THURSDAY, April 8 -- 7 p.m. -- Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland (between Telegraph and Broadway)

"Wasting Lives and Money in Afghanistan: A Progressive Response." That's the focus of this event, sponsored by the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club. Norman will speak alongside another author, foreign corespondent Reese Erlich. They co-authored the book "Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You."

** TUESDAY, April 13 -- 7 p.m. -- Community Room, Corte Madera Town Center, 770 Tamalpais Dr., Corte Madera

Democracy for America-Marin and Progressive Democrats-Marin are the hosts of this event, where Norman will speak on "Expanding the Silver Lining: Progressives in the Age of Obama." The focus will be on obstacles and opportunities for "discouraged progressives" in 2010. Further information: mediabeat@igc.org

Norman Solomon on war, conformity, and the Democratic Party

Norman Solomon interview 1/27/10 from Jon Stiffler on Vimeo.

Democrats Boosting Right-Wing Populism

In his triumphant speech on election night, the next senator from Massachusetts should have thanked top Democrats in Washington for all they did to make his victory possible.

For a year now, leading Democrats have steadily embraced more corporate formulas for "healthcare reform." In the name of political realism, they have demobilized and demoralized the Democratic base. In the process, they've fueled right-wing populism.

The Democratic leadership on healthcare and so much else -- including bank bailouts, financial services, foreclosures and foreign policy -- has been so corporate that Republicans have found it easy to play populist...

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Also, listen to Norman Solomon on FAIR's radio program, Counterspin.

Letter in The Press Democrat: "Anti-Union Tactics"

EDITOR: It saddens me that the management of Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital continues its policy of trying to block the rights of workers to form a union.

I’ve often visited a friend at the hospital. It’s an impressive institution, most of all because of its employees. All the people who work there deserve to be treated with respect — and that should include respect for labor rights.

For several years, the hospital management did what it could to obstruct and delay a vote on unionization. Finally, in mid-December, an election happened, with more than 500 workers voting. The election was close, and when all the votes were counted, victory went to the National Union of Healthcare Workers.

Now, the Memorial Hospital management is trying to get the National Labor Relations Board to nullify the election. That move is the latest in a long series of shameful anti-union tactics.

NORMAN SOLOMON

Point Reyes Station

(This letter, headlined "Anti-Union Tactics," was printed in the January 23, 2010 edition of The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, California.)

Vast change is essential

Read the full op-ed from the Marin Independent Journal

Also see Green New Deal

Flares in the Political Dark

The winter solstice of 2009 arrived as a grim metaphor for the current politics of healthcare, war and a lot more. “In a dark time,” wrote the poet Theodore Roethke, “the eye begins to see.”

After a year of escalation in Afghanistan, solicitude toward Wall Street and the incredible shrinking healthcare reform, we ought to be able to see that the biggest problem among progressives has been undue deference to the Obama administration...

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Norman Solomon on C-SPAN's Washington Journal: December 13, 2009

More videos of Norman Solomon on C-SPAN

Mr. President, War Is Not Peace

Eloquence in Oslo cannot change the realities of war.

As President Obama neared the close of his Nobel address, he called for "the continued expansion of our moral imagination." Yet, his speech was tightly circumscribed by the policies that his oratory labored to justify.

Lofty rationales easily tell us that warfare is striving for the noble goal of peace. But the rationales scarcely intersect with actual war. The oratory sugarcoats the poisons, helping to kill hope in the name of it.

A few months ago, when I visited an Afghan office for women's empowerment, staffers took me to a pilot project in one of Kabul's poorest neighborhoods. There, women were learning small-scale business skills while also gaining personal strength and mutual support...

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Afghanistan on Counterspin and KPFA

Norman Solomon was interviewed on FAIR's radio program Counterspin.

Sunday Sedition - December 6, 2009 at 9:00am

Click to listen (or download)

A discussion of the Afghanistan war escalation with Aimee Allison on "The Morning Show" on KPFA Radio. The 20-minute conversation comes after nine minutes of news.

The Morning Show - November 30, 2009 at 7:00am

Click to listen (or download)

The Hollow Politics of Escalation

An underlying conceit of the new spin about benchmarks and timetables for Afghanistan is the notion that pivotal events there can be choreographed from Washington. So, a day ahead of the president’s Tuesday night speech, The New York Times quoted an unnamed top administration official saying, "He wants to give a clear sense of both the time frame for action and how the war will eventually wind down."

But "eventually" is a long way off. In the meantime, the result of Washington’s hollow politics is more carnage.

The next days and weeks will bring an avalanche of hype about insisting on measurable progress and shifting burdens onto the Afghan army - while the US military expands the war...

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Afghanistan: Endless War

Listen to the October 14, 2009 talk by Norman Solomon on his trip to Afghanistan which aired on Alternative Radio

One year later: Unrest within the Obama base

On election night a year ago, celebrations across the North Bay included dancing in the streets. The voters had spoken — loudly — for Barack Obama, who won 74 percent of ballots in Sonoma County and 78 percent in Marin. Spirits were sky high, and so were expectations.

That evening, as he spoke to the nation from Chicago’s Grant Park, Obama repeated his campaign mantra: “Yes we can.” But a year later, the words are less uplifting.

“If this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers,” Obama declared in his election-night speech. Yet Wall Street is now doing quite a bit better than Main Street...

Read the full op-ed in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Biggest State Party to Obama: Get Out of Afghanistan

This week begins with a significant new straw in the political wind for President Obama to consider. The California Democratic Party has just sent him a formal and clear message: Stop making war in Afghanistan.

Overwhelmingly approved on Sunday by the California Democratic Party's 300-member statewide executive board, the resolution is titled "End the US Occupation and Air War in Afghanistan."

The resolution supports "a timetable for withdrawal of our military personnel" and calls for "an end to the use of mercenary contractors as well as an end to air strikes that cause heavy civilian casualties." Advocating multiparty talks inside Afghanistan, the resolution also urges Obama "to oversee a redirection of our funding and resources to include an increase in humanitarian and developmental aid."

While Obama weighs Afghanistan policy options, the California Democratic Party's adoption of the resolution is the most tangible indicator yet that escalation of the US war effort can only fuel opposition within the president's own party - opposition that has already begun to erode his political base.

Participating in a long-haul struggle for progressive principles inside the party, I co-authored the resolution with savvy longtime activists Karen Bernal of Sacramento and Marcy Winograd of Los Angeles...

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The full text of the resolution (scroll down)

The War Stampede

Disputes are raging within the Obama administration over how to continue the US war effort in Afghanistan. A new leak tells us that Washington's ambassador in Kabul, former four-star Gen. Karl Eikenberry, has cautioned against adding more troops while President Hamid Karzai keeps disappointing American policymakers. This is the extent of the current debate within the warfare state.

During a top-level meeting Wednesday afternoon in the White House, The Washington Post reports, President Obama "was given a series of options laid out by military planners with differing numbers of new US deployments, ranging from 10,000 to 40,000 troops. None of the scenarios calls for scaling back the US presence in Afghanistan or delaying the dispatch of additional troops."

No doubt, there are real tactical differences between Eikenberry and the US/NATO commander in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, the ultra-spun, brainy Spartan who wants to boost the current US troop level of 68,000 to well over 100,000 in the war-afflicted country. But those policy disputes exist well within the context of a permanent war psychology...

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The Next Phase of Healthcare Apartheid

In Washington, "healthcare reform" has degenerated into a sick joke.

At this point, only spinners who've succumbed to their own vertigo could use the word "robust" to describe the public option in the healthcare bill that the House Democratic leadership has sent to the floor...

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Norman Solomon on his trip to Afghanistan on KQED's This Week in Northern California

On the October 23rd This Week in Northern California