*Republicans seethe with violence and lies. Texas is part of a bigger war they’re waging.*

The ultimate goal is to put an end to freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and democracy. Calling them the American Taliban is a good comparison.

*Estimated Cost of Post-9/11 US Wars Hits $8 Trillion With Nearly a Million People Dead.*

I am pretty sure that the total of one million is based on an underestimate of the number of Iraqis killed — for instance, the the figure from Iraq Body Count, which counted only the deaths which could be individually verified.

The legacy of past segregation in housing often manifests itself in racist allocation of pollution.

The plan for an oil pipeline running through black neighborhoods illustrates systemic racism. However, it is an atypical example because an additional oil pipeline is bad no matter what path it takes. If we allow fossil fuel extraction to continue unchecked, no one will be safe.

The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry, capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make exceptions for some articles which give important information about racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the exceptions.

*The Long-Lasting Consequences of the War on Terror.*

The US government may not use that term any more, but the surveillance and assassination systems remain in operation.

The lead producer says that the last drone strike in Kabul targeted a car filled with explosives and destroyed it, and the explosion also killed ten members of an Afghan family who were near it at that moment.

If that is correct — I don't have any other source of information about this point — then I won't criticize the US Army for firing a missile at those armed terrorists. Indeed, if they had not been stopped, they might have killed a hundred Afghan civilians instead of ten. The fact that bystanders were near them at that moment was something random and uncontrollable.

Rather than a war crime, it is an example of what war implies. Fighting a war sometimes kills civilians. Sometimes because a soldier vents hatred, sometimes by an accident that everyone regrets.

We should keep this in mind when we consider whether to start a war, and whether to end one.

*Let's Open the Books: We Need a Truth Commission for the Afghan War.*

*Climate Groups Target Congress With 'Gas Is Not Clean' Campaign.*