https://znetwork.org/author/nickturse/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Fri, 17 Oct 2025 19:44:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/nickturse/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-war-within-on-the-precipice-of-authoritarian-rule/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-war-within-on-the-precipice-of-authoritarian-rule/#respond Fri, 17 Oct 2025 18:16:00 +0000 Earlier this month, President Donald Trump threatened to unleash the armed forces on more American cities during a rambling address to top military brass. He told the hundreds of generals and admirals gathered to hear him that some of them would be called upon to take a primary role at a time when his administration [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-war-within-on-the-precipice-of-authoritarian-rule/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-real-outrage-about-the-yemen-signal-group-is-that-it-called-for-attack-on-civilian-home/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-real-outrage-about-the-yemen-signal-group-is-that-it-called-for-attack-on-civilian-home/#respond Thu, 27 Mar 2025 15:49:00 +0000 The American political landscape has been rattled by revelations that the Trump administration discussed plans to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen in a chat group containing a journalist from The Atlantic. Senior Trump administration officials are facing tough questions about their operational security, use of consumer technology, and even their emoji usage. So far, however, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-real-outrage-about-the-yemen-signal-group-is-that-it-called-for-attack-on-civilian-home/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/as-civil-war-heats-back-up-u-s-troops-are-still-deployed-in-syria/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/as-civil-war-heats-back-up-u-s-troops-are-still-deployed-in-syria/#respond Fri, 06 Dec 2024 18:46:15 +0000 A rebel blitzkrieg against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in northwestern Syria reignited that nation’s dormant civil war last week, when a coalition of militant groups united behind Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — a former Al Qaeda affiliate known as the Al Nusra Front that the U.S. considers a terrorist group — and captured Syria’s largest city, Aleppo. The rebel army, which [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/as-civil-war-heats-back-up-u-s-troops-are-still-deployed-in-syria/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-you-bring-my-dad-and-give-me-my-hand-back/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-you-bring-my-dad-and-give-me-my-hand-back/#respond Tue, 22 Oct 2024 16:00:00 +0000 “War is not healthy for children and other living things,” reads a poster titled “Primer” created by the late artist Lorraine Schneider for an art show at New York’s Pratt Institute in 1965. Printed in childlike lowercase letters, the words interspersed between the leaves of a simply rendered sunflower, it was an early response to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-you-bring-my-dad-and-give-me-my-hand-back/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-blood-money-isnt-enough-raytheon-admits-to-defrauding-pentagon/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-blood-money-isnt-enough-raytheon-admits-to-defrauding-pentagon/#respond Sat, 19 Oct 2024 15:23:49 +0000 RTX Corporation, the weapons giant formerly (and better) known as Raytheon, agreed on Wednesday to pay almost $1 billion to resolve allegations that it defrauded the U.S. government and paid bribes to secure business with Qatar. “Raytheon engaged in criminal schemes to defraud the U.S. government,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kevin Driscoll of the Justice Department’s [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-blood-money-isnt-enough-raytheon-admits-to-defrauding-pentagon/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-u-s-has-dozens-of-secret-bases-across-the-middle-east-they-keep-getting-attacked/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-u-s-has-dozens-of-secret-bases-across-the-middle-east-they-keep-getting-attacked/#respond Wed, 07 Aug 2024 15:07:26 +0000 U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria have come under repeated attack in recent weeks, including a rocket attack on al-Asad Air Base in Iraq on Monday that reportedly injured five U.S. military personnel and contractors. The renewed strikes, which began in July, mark a resumption of a low-level war between America and Iran’s proxies in the Middle [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-u-s-has-dozens-of-secret-bases-across-the-middle-east-they-keep-getting-attacked/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/epic-fail/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/epic-fail/#respond Wed, 03 Apr 2024 18:00:19 +0000 Dressed in green military fatigues and a blue garrison cap, Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane, a spokesperson for Niger’s ruling junta, took to local television last month to criticize the United States and sever the long-standing military partnership between the two countries. “The government of Niger, taking into account the aspirations and interests of its people, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/epic-fail/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/remote-warfare-and-expendable-people/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/remote-warfare-and-expendable-people/#respond Tue, 30 Jan 2024 06:22:00 +0000 In war, people die for absurd reasons or often no reason at all. They die due to accidents of birth, the misfortune of being born in the wrong place – Cambodia or Gaza, Afghanistan or Ukraine – at the wrong time. They die due to happenstance, choosing to shelter indoors when they should have taken cover outside [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/remote-warfare-and-expendable-people/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-pentagon-proclaims-failure-in-its-war-on-terror-in-africa/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-pentagon-proclaims-failure-in-its-war-on-terror-in-africa/#respond Wed, 15 Nov 2023 17:00:00 +0000 America’s Global War on Terror has seen its share of stalemates, disasters, and outright defeats. During 20-plus years of armed interventions, the United States has watched its efforts implode in spectacular fashion, from Iraq in 2014 to Afghanistan in 2021. The greatest failure of its “Forever Wars,” however, may not be in the Middle East, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-pentagon-proclaims-failure-in-its-war-on-terror-in-africa/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pentagon-misled-congress-about-u-s-bases-in-africa/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pentagon-misled-congress-about-u-s-bases-in-africa/#respond Sat, 09 Sep 2023 15:28:13 +0000 Since a cadre of U.S.-trained officers joined a junta that overthrew Niger’s democratically elected president in late July, more than 1,000 U.S. troops have been largely confined to their Nigerien outposts, including America’s largest drone base in the region, Air Base 201 in Agadez. The base, which has cost the U.S. a total of $250 million since construction [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pentagon-misled-congress-about-u-s-bases-in-africa/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/niger-junta-appoints-u-s-trained-military-officers-to-key-jobs/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/niger-junta-appoints-u-s-trained-military-officers-to-key-jobs/#comments Wed, 16 Aug 2023 16:09:29 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1252049 U.S.-TRAINED MILITARY OFFICERS have been appointed to head five of eight regions of Niger by a junta that includes at least five U.S.-trained military officers, The Intercept has learned. While the Pentagon claims its instruction doesn’t lead to mutinies, innovative research by a former Pentagon analyst indicates the opposite could be true. The Nigerien junta, which [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/niger-junta-appoints-u-s-trained-military-officers-to-key-jobs/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/blood-on-his-hands/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/blood-on-his-hands/#comments Wed, 24 May 2023 17:47:58 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1246518 TA SOUS, CAMBODIA — At the end of a dusty path snaking through rice paddies lives a woman who survived multiple U.S. airstrikes as a child. Round-faced and just over 5 feet tall in plastic sandals, Meas Lorn lost an older brother to a helicopter gunship attack and an uncle and cousins to artillery fire. For [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/blood-on-his-hands/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/africom-chief-to-congress-we-share-core-values-with-coup-leaders/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/africom-chief-to-congress-we-share-core-values-with-coup-leaders/#respond Mon, 10 Apr 2023 15:35:15 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1243237 In Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire last month, 1,300 U.S., NATO, and African troops met for tactical training and mock raids as part of Flintlock 2023, an annual exercise sponsored by U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, or SOCAFRICA. Among the countries participating was Burkina Faso, which has been restricted from receiving substantial U.S. security aid since an officer trained [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/africom-chief-to-congress-we-share-core-values-with-coup-leaders/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/new-report-sheds-light-on-pentagons-secret-wars-playbook/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/new-report-sheds-light-on-pentagons-secret-wars-playbook/#respond Fri, 04 Nov 2022 15:08:03 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1224781 The United States has fought more than a dozen “secret wars” over the last two decades, according to a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law. Through a combination of ground combat, airstrikes, and operations by U.S. proxy forces, these conflicts have raged from Africa to the Middle [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/new-report-sheds-light-on-pentagons-secret-wars-playbook/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/getting-to-yes/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/getting-to-yes/#respond Mon, 24 Oct 2022 12:50:56 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1223470 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/getting-to-yes/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-s-played-secret-role-in-nigeria-attack-that-killed-more-than-160-civilians/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-s-played-secret-role-in-nigeria-attack-that-killed-more-than-160-civilians/#respond Fri, 29 Jul 2022 13:11:08 +0000 https://zcomm-staging.work/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1197625 The United States played an unacknowledged role in the 2017 bombing of an internally displaced persons’ camp in Nigeria that killed more than 160 civilians, many of them children. A surveillance plane circled above the Rann IDP camp, which housed 43,000 people and was controlled by the Nigerian military, before a jet arrived and bombed the area [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-s-played-secret-role-in-nigeria-attack-that-killed-more-than-160-civilians/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/war-torn/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/war-torn/#respond Fri, 04 Mar 2022 12:15:41 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1055685 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/war-torn/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/down-and-out-on-the-smugglers-road/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/down-and-out-on-the-smugglers-road/#respond Tue, 15 Feb 2022 11:55:02 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1054997 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/down-and-out-on-the-smugglers-road/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-if-the-u-s-hadnt-gone-to-war-after-9-11/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-if-the-u-s-hadnt-gone-to-war-after-9-11/#respond Sat, 12 Feb 2022 11:01:45 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1054932 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-if-the-u-s-hadnt-gone-to-war-after-9-11/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-names-youll-never-know/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-names-youll-never-know/#respond Mon, 27 Sep 2021 09:01:05 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1050493 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-names-youll-never-know/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/who-lost-afghanistan/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/who-lost-afghanistan/#respond Thu, 19 Aug 2021 09:03:04 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1049442 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/who-lost-afghanistan/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-s-military-asks-airstrike-victims-to-file-complaints-online/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-s-military-asks-airstrike-victims-to-file-complaints-online/#respond Sun, 27 Jun 2021 09:00:36 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1047889 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-s-military-asks-airstrike-victims-to-file-complaints-online/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-wide-world-of-war-porn/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-wide-world-of-war-porn/#respond Fri, 11 Jun 2021 09:02:19 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1047471 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-wide-world-of-war-porn/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-the-biden-administration-shine-light-on-shadowy-special-ops-programs/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-the-biden-administration-shine-light-on-shadowy-special-ops-programs/#respond Sat, 20 Mar 2021 09:02:44 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1044749 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-the-biden-administration-shine-light-on-shadowy-special-ops-programs/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-they-ever-be-over/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-they-ever-be-over/#respond Fri, 08 Jan 2021 09:02:46 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1041959 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-they-ever-be-over/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-convergence-of-calamities/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-convergence-of-calamities/#respond Fri, 13 Nov 2020 09:04:29 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1040297 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-convergence-of-calamities/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-vanishing-moment-and-our-vanishing-future/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-vanishing-moment-and-our-vanishing-future/#respond Thu, 24 Sep 2020 09:02:59 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1038761 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-vanishing-moment-and-our-vanishing-future/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-the-death-of-george-floyd-mark-the-rebirth-of-america/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-the-death-of-george-floyd-mark-the-rebirth-of-america/#respond Mon, 15 Jun 2020 09:03:43 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1035149 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-the-death-of-george-floyd-mark-the-rebirth-of-america/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/exceptionally-dire/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/exceptionally-dire/#respond Tue, 05 May 2020 09:01:50 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1032947 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/exceptionally-dire/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-obsession-with-reopening-the-economy-ignores-public-health-experts/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-obsession-with-reopening-the-economy-ignores-public-health-experts/#respond Fri, 17 Apr 2020 09:02:52 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1032200 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-obsession-with-reopening-the-economy-ignores-public-health-experts/feed/ 0