Nick Turse, associate editor of TomDispatch.com, discusses his article “A Drone-Eat-Drone World;” the Pentagon’s eager anticipation of autonomous drones that decide when and where to rain death from above; why drones are rapidly proliferating even though they aren’t effective in fighting and winning wars; the 1-to-1 UAV flight time to maintenance ratio; and the ability of drones to evade rifle-wielding tribesmen – but not semi-modern air defenses (or Pakistani public opinion).

Nick Turse, author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives, discusses his article “Uncovering the Military’s Secret Military;” how JSOC became “an almost industrial-scale counterterrorism killing machine” and the president’s own private army; rebuilding US special operations after the 1980 Iran hostage embarrassment and greatly expanding them after 9/11; how SOCOM has developed the clout and influence of an independent military branch, like the Navy or Army; the war-porn...

Nick Turse, author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives and editor of The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan, discusses his research that shows the Pentagon has over 1000 foreign bases — taking care to exclude the golf courses, resort hotels and family housing from the final count; the 88 bases (at least) remaining in Iraq that comprise lots of facts on the ground impeding the SOFA-agreed 2011 'for real' withdrawal deadline; inferring the presence of secret bases from...

Nick Turse, author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives and editor of The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan, discusses US contingency plans to maintain a large Persian Gulf regional influence should the Iraq occupation ever end, Qatar’s successful $1 billion 'if you build it, he will come' gambit that the US military would be drawn to an unused air base (Qatar has no air force) and the current estimate that the US military now has over 1000 bases worldwide.

Nick Turse, author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives and editor of The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan, discusses the construction boom in U.S. military bases that puts the scheduled 2011 Afghanistan drawdown in doubt, how Obama has abdicated his role of commander in chief to his generals and why it remains difficult to understand the purpose of the huge waste of blood and treasure in Afghanistan.

Nick Turse, author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives, discusses how today's military-industrial complex far exceeds the one Eisenhower warned of, the Pentagon's influence in Hollywood that often includes vetting rights on movie scripts in exchange for access to taxpayer funded weapons of war, the early-and-often bombardment of young people with military propaganda, why far too many businesses and workers are reliant on Pentagon spending and the five jaw-dropping and...

Nick Turse, associate editor and research director of TomDispatch.com, discusses the future weaponization of animals by the Pentagon, the new cyborg-insects, moves by different local police agencies to deploy Predator drones, the 'hey, it’s simply value-free research going on here' attitude of the DARPA researchers and the rise of the military industrial-everything complex.