William Astore, Professor of History and author of Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism, discusses his article “Fighting 1% Wars: Why Our Wars of Choice May Prove Fatal;” how willy-nilly US interventions discount the chaotic and unpredictable nature of warfare, virtually guaranteeing blowback; the young Americans who regularly play video war games yet remain ignorant of actual US wars (while military drone pilots, sitting in comfy chairs in front of computer screens, resemble gamers); and how...

Col. William Astore (Ret.), author of the article 'Who’s Military is it Anyway' at TomDispatch.com, discusses the distinction between an all-volunteer and an all-recruited military, the increasing similarities between the U.S. military and the French foreign legion, the misguided push to re-institute the draft as an antiwar measure and how the characterizations of military deployments as 'long wars' become self-fulfilling prophesies.

William Astore, professor of history at the Pennsylvania College of Technology, discusses his career at Cheyenne Mountain Missile Warning Center, the 15 separate buildings within it, its turning from a protective space to target with improvements in nuclear yield and missile accuracy, the continuing danger of accidental nuclear war with Russia, the necessity of the abolition of these obsolete weapons of indiscriminate killing, the dangerous mindset of the average government job-holder, Ronald...