Norman Solomon

Audio of interview with Norman Solomon on KQED

May 13, 2010: KQED Radio's "Forum" Program, hosted by Michael Krasny

Bay Area-based progressive author and media critic Norman Solomon joined us in the studio to talk about Afghan president Hamid Karzai's visit to Washington and other recent political developments.

To listen, click here.

A Bomber Jacket Doesn't Cover the Blood

President Obama has taken a further plunge into the kind of war abyss that consumed his predecessors -- named Johnson, Nixon and Bush. 

On Sunday, during his first presidential trip to Afghanistan, Obama stood before thousands of American troops to proclaim the sanctity of the war effort. He played the role deftly -- a Commander-in-chief, rallying the troops -- while wearing a bomber jacket...

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War in a Box

The event on the House floor Wednesday afternoon was monumental -- the first major congressional debate about U.S. military operations in Afghanistan since lawmakers authorized the invasion of that country in autumn 2001. But, as Rep. Patrick Kennedy noted with disgust on Wednesday, the House press gallery was nearly empty. He aptly concluded: "It's despicable, the national press corps right now."

Sure enough, the Thursday edition of the New York Times had no room for the historic debate on its front page, which did have room for a large Starbucks ad across the bottom...

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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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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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Norman Solomon on war, conformity, and the Democratic Party

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

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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