Katrina vanden Heuvel: Rethinking Perpetual War and How We Wage It

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Rethinking Perpetual War and How We Wage It

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Rethinking Perpetual War and How We Wage It

With covert ops and drone warfare on the rise, we have to ask ourselves about how we fight terrorism.

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When Barack Obama spoke out against “perpetual war” in his inaugural address last week, it gave some hope that our policy of war-mongering could change—even as others pointed out that we continue to expand drone warfare and covert ops.

As part of a panel of experts on Nation blogger Melissa Harris-Perry’s MSNBC show, Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel said we need to ask ourselves if global war is the really the way to fight terrorism. How do we keep tabs on bloated defense spending, escalating drone warfare and special ops?

Alec Luhn

Nation Institute fellow Jeremy Scahill has investigated cover ops in his new documentary, which won the Sundance Cinematography Award.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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