Description

Robert P. Weiss and Gregory Shank, eds.

Contributors to this issue of Social Justice offer a searing indictment of how continuity has triumphed over change in any assessment of the Obama administration vis-à-vis the Bush-Cheney era in terms of national security issues. Articles on torture, counterinsurgency tactics, and “just war” theory demonstrate that neoliberalism and neoconservatism transcend election cycles, making these issues as important today as at any time in American history. There are two sections: “Obama’s Wars” and “Professional Ethics and Interrogation.” The first calls for a revitalized antiwar movement and makes clear that there are no “good wars,” a fact often disguised by humanitarian and counterterrorism rhetoric. The second examines the role of the military, private contractors, and psychologists and anthropologists in “enhanced interrogation,” contributing to America’s descent into torture under the cover of antiterrorism and counterinsurgency.

Purchase articles (click on the author link to read the abstract and buy the pdf):

Robert P. Weiss, Introduction: Imperial Obama–A Kinder, Gentler Empire? [Free Download]

Tariq Ali, Obama’s War: A Lecture

Jeremy H. Keenan, The Sahara Emirate: Al Qaeda in the West, for the West?

William F. Felice, President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Speech: Embracing the Ethics of Reinhold Niebuhr

Daniel C. Maguire, The ‘Just War’ Theory: Application to United States and Israeli Militarism

Tyler Wall, Imperial Laughs: A Soldier’s Song and the Colonial Present

Torin Monahan, The Future of Security? Surveillance Operations at Homeland Security Fusion Centers

Wm. C. Peters, Addendum for the War on Terror–Somewhere in Switzerland, Dilawar Remembered, and Why the Martens Clause Matters

Michael Welch, Illusions in Truth Seeking: The Perils of Interrogation and Torture in the War on Terror

J. Patrice McSherry, Review of The Trauma of Psychological Torture

Jeremy H. Keenan, The Counter-Counterinsurgency Manual: Or, Notes on Demilitarizing American Society–A Review

Amy Mountcastle and James Armstrong, Obama’s War and Anthropology: Ethical Issues and Militarizing Anthropology

Bryant L. Welch, Moral Drift and the American Psychological Association: The Road to Torture