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Redacted papers falling to the ground.

The War Crimes That the Military Buried

This large database of possible American war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan shows that the military-justice system rarely punishes perpetrators.
by Parker Yesko via The New Yorker on September 10, 2024
Two white containers from English colonists, with a backdrop of a Virginia map.

Was the 1623 Poisoning of 200 Native Americans One of the Continent's First War Crimes?

English colonists claimed they wanted to make peace with the Powhatans, then offered them tainted wine.
by Peter C. Mancall via Smithsonian Magazine on May 22, 2023
George w. Bush delivers a speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln under a banner reading "Mission Accomplished."

The Worst Crime of the 21st Century

The United States’ destruction of Iraq remains the worst international crime of our time. Its perpetrators remain free and its horrors are buried.
by Noam Chomsky, Nathan J. Robinson via Current Affairs on May 12, 2023
Town council leader and lawyer Khalid Salman by the graves of his sister and her children, who were among the twenty-four Iraqi civilians killed by US Marines in the 2005 Haditha massacre, Haditha, Iraq, 2011.

Our Hypocrisy on War Crimes

The US’s history of evasiveness around wartime atrocities undermines the very institution that could bring Putin to justice: the International Criminal Court.
by Fintan O’Toole via New York Review of Books on May 5, 2022
Exhibit

Crimes of War

Stories about the civilian victims of past wars, and the extent to which Americans have acknowledged and accounted for atrocities committed in their name.

Wrath of the Centurions

A new book about the My Lai massacre raises the question: how much of an aberration was the infamous wartime episode?
by Max Hastings via London Review of Books on January 17, 2018
Soldiers pose with a human skull.

The Violence Is the Victory

The history of American expansion can be traced through the severed body parts left in its wake.
by Jessie Kindig via n+1 on May 31, 2017
Bertrand Russell.

‘Vietdamned’

Can a new book rescue Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre’s activism from irrelevance?
by Yuan Yi Zhu via History Today on April 4, 2025
A Guatemalan police officer standing in front of a memorial to Guatemalan civilians murdered during the country's civil war that depicts their photographs.

By Rejecting Evidence of Genocide in Gaza, the US Is Following a Familiar Pattern

For decades, Washington has denied, downplayed and rationalized atrocities by its allies.
by Stephen Zunes via New Lines on February 14, 2025
Destroyed buildings in Gaza.

Can Genocide Studies Survive a Genocide in Gaza?

A discipline born from the study of the Holocaust faces its contradictions as Israel stands accused of the “crime of crimes.”
by Mari Cohen via Jewish Currents on December 19, 2024
Hideki Tojo in a courtroom testifying at the Tokyo Trial, guarded by American soldiers.

The Hypocrisies of International Justice

A recent history revisits the Tokyo trial.
by Colin Jones via The Nation on September 18, 2024
Lieutenant William Calley walking alongside his civilian attorney, with two other men following behind.

Was William Calley MAGA’s Founding Father?

He committed mass murder at My Lai. He was also its fall guy.
by Timothy Noah via The New Republic on July 31, 2024
Campus police struggle with anti-war demonstrators in Berkeley, California 1967.
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The Protests That Anticipated the Gaza Solidarity Encampments

With the Dow sit-ins of the 1960s, students drew attention to links between the campus, war, and imperialism.
by Adam Tomasi via Made By History on May 10, 2024
Sera Koulabdara and four members of a Laos demining team scanning the ground in grassy area.

Fifty Years of Living with America’s Unexploded Bombs

Laos was collateral damage in the U.S.' secret war. The wounds are visible in the land and in generations still waiting on justice.
by Sera Koulabdara via Zócalo Public Square on December 21, 2023
Two protestors holding a Palestinian flag with "stop genocide" written on it, surrounded by red handprints.

The War in Gaza Has Exposed the Limits of the Word “Genocide”

The term is 80 years old. Everyone is still fighting over its meaning.
by David Faris via Slate on December 13, 2023
Japanese prime minister and minister of war Hideki Tojo on trial in 1947.

Japan’s Incomplete Reckoning With World War II Crimes

Gary Bass’s new book asks why the tribunal in Tokyo after World War II was so ineffective.
by Aryeh Neier via The New Republic on December 7, 2023
Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America's Ruling Class, Finally Dies

In a demonstration of why he was able to kill so many people and get away with it, the day of his passage will be a solemn one in Congress and newsrooms.
by Spencer Ackerman via Rolling Stone on November 30, 2023
Henry Kissinger, 1975.

Henry Kissinger: The Declassified Obituary

The primary sources on Kissinger’s controversial legacy.
by Peter Kornbluh, Tom Blanton, William Burr via National Security Archive on November 29, 2023
The shrouded bodies of people killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

“Genocide” Is the Wrong Word

We reach for the term when we want to condemn the worst crimes, but the UN’s Genocide Convention excuses more perpetrators of mass murder than it condemns.
by James Robins via The New Republic on November 21, 2023
Black and white picture of 7 scientists around a table. In the back, a poster of the Saturn Rocket is visible.
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The Forgotten History of Nazi Immigration to the U.S.

Canada's politicians accidentally honored a Nazi immigrant. The U.S. has frequently done the same.
by Claire E. Aubin via Made By History on October 12, 2023
Burkhard Bilger’s uncle (as a baby) and grandfather, Gernot and Karl Gönner, Aulfingen, Germany, early 1930s.

The Trouble with Ancestry

Two family histories by Americans connected to Europe’s twentieth century through their fascist grandfathers seek to occupy the void between history and memory.
by Fintan O’Toole via New York Review of Books on August 31, 2023
The nuclear bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945.

The Atomic Bombings of Japan Were Based on Lies

On the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan, we should remember that deploying the bomb wasn’t necessary to win the war.
by Taylor C. Noakes via Jacobin on August 9, 2023
Outline of Henry Kissinger with his face made of skulls.

Blood on His Hands

Survivors of Kissinger's secret war in Cambodia reveal unreported mass killings.
by Nick Turse via The Intercept on May 24, 2023
Black and white photo of Geronimo

How Grief and Revenge Made Geronimo Into a Legendary War Chief

Before Geronimo met any white Americans or came to think of them as enemies of the Apaches, he spent years fighting Mexicans.
by H. W. Brands via Literary Hub on November 8, 2022
A digital composite images shows troops landing at Anzac Cove in Turkey during the Gallipoli campaign in World War I.

Ukraine’s War Is Like World War I, Not World War II

The West is using the wrong analogy for Russia’s invasion—and worsening the outcome.
by Anatol Lieven via Foreign Policy on October 27, 2022
US Soldiers in armored cars in Iraq.

Our Invasions

If we’re never going to hold U.S. war criminals accountable, what moral credibility do we have when we condemn Russia and others?
by Nathan J. Robinson via Current Affairs on August 29, 2022
illustration including "Napalm Girl" photo and photo of the photographer

The View from Here

Fifty years on, Nick Ut’s Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph, “Napalm Girl,” still has the power to shock. But can a picture change the world?
by Errol Morris via Air Mail on June 4, 2022
US military pilots operating Predator drones from the ground control station.

The Forgotten Crime of War Itself

A new book argues that efforts to humanize war with smarter weaponry have obscured the task of making peace the first goal of foreign policy.
by Jackson Lears via New York Review of Books on March 31, 2022
A drone flying low

Slouching Toward Humanity

Samuel Moyn contends that efforts to conduct war humanely have only perpetuated it. But the solution must lie in politics, not a sacrifice of human rights.
by Anthony Dworkin via Boston Review on September 16, 2021

The Case Against Humane War

How the turn toward “precision” combat promoted endless war.
by Daniel Bessner via The New Republic on September 8, 2021
Blood over image of Afghan security in Kabul

The War on Terror: 20 Years of Bloodshed and Delusion

From the beginning, the War on Terror merged red-hot vengeance with calculated opportunism. Millions are still paying the price.
by Tariq Ali via The Nation on September 7, 2021
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