The outrageous scene in the Oval Office as Donald Trump ambushed Ukraine’s president Zelenskyy has stirred outrage and increased sympathy for Ukraine. Vile as Trump’s behavior is, it’s important to place it in the long history of US imperialist bullying and to resist the temptation to view the US’s previous position as liberatory for Ukraine.
On New Year’s Day, a US military veteran who identified as a member of the Islamic State rammed and killed 14 late-night revelers with a truck in New Orleans. A Firebrand member and New Orleans resident offers a political perspective on the attack, placing it in context of the US’s bloody wars in the Middle East.
This week, Professor Jodi Dean was dismissed from Hobart and William Smith Colleges over her article in support of Palestinian armed resistance. This is just the latest in a series of attacks on student and academic supporters of Palestine in the US as the ruling class defends the genocidal status quo.
My radicalization began with my time in the military. I served 10 years as an army infantryman. The simplest job description for an infantryman is someone who engages in ground combat. I grew up a poor trailer-trash kid from a small town in Wyoming. As soon as I...