Today
THE MILITARY PULLED EVERY LAST SOLDIER OUT OF IRAQ AFTER MORE THAN TWO DECADES, THE GOVERNMENT IS LEADING AN EFFORT TO DISMANTLE THE INTERNATIONAL COURT THAT WAS BUILT TO HOLD COUNTRIES ACCOUNTABLE, WORKERS INSIDE A MAJOR AI COMPANY DEMANDED IT CUT ITS GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS — AND THE PRESIDENT TRADED A THREAT TO ANNEX AN ALLY’S TERRITORY FOR A PERMANENT MILITARY BASE

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The last American soldier left Iraq on Wednesday. The Pentagon confirmed that every remaining troop has been withdrawn from the country. The pullout ends a military presence that began with the 2003 invasion and lasted more than 23 years.

The departure happened under an agreement between Baghdad and Washington. The final troops left from an air base in northern Iraq. Democracy Now reported the withdrawal in its Wednesday headlines.

The Iraq invasion was launched on the claim that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction. No weapons were found. The conflict cost more than $3 trillion. More than 4,600 American service members and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians lost their lives. And 23 years later, the last soldier walked out the door.

The machine left Iraq. It did not leave the region. The same week the last soldiers departed, the government is fighting a new conflict in Iran, holding indirect peace talks timed to the midterms, and placing weapons in orbit. The address changes. The machine stays.

Twenty-three years. More than $3 trillion. No weapons found. And the machine is already in the next country.

23 YEARS. MORE THAN $3 TRILLION. NO WEAPONS FOUND. THE LAST SOLDIER LEFT. THE MACHINE IS ALREADY IN THE NEXT COUNTRY.

BREAKING

The Government Is Leading an Effort to Dismantle the International Court That Was Built 80 Years Ago to Hold Countries Accountable

Eighty years after the Nuremberg trials established the principle that countries and their leaders can be held accountable for crimes, the United States is leading an effort to undermine the International Criminal Court. Democracy Now devoted a full segment to the story Wednesday with international law scholar Wolfgang Kaleck.

The administration has sanctioned court officials, revoked visas of investigators, and pressured allies to withdraw cooperation. The court was investigating potential crimes committed by American forces. The government responded not by cooperating with the investigation but by attacking the institution conducting it.

The same government that just left Iraq after 23 years without finding the weapons it used to justify the invasion is now trying to destroy the only international body that could hold it accountable for what happened next.

The machine leaves the scene and then attacks the court. It does not answer for what it did. It dismantles the system that would make it answer.

EXPOSED

Workers Inside a Major AI Company Demanded It Cut Its Contracts with the Military and the Immigration Agency

Workers inside OpenAI staged a public protest demanding the company cut its contracts with the military and the immigration enforcement agency. Democracy Now aired a clip from the protest in its Wednesday headlines.

Protest organizer Yuan Wang said: “We are demanding that OpenAI do the bare minimum, that they cut their contracts with the Pentagon, that they stop allowing ICE to use their technologies to hire new employees, and that they sign the democracy pledge to be one among many businesses who will stand up and defend free and fair elections.”

The same company that scrapped its latest model because it was too dangerous to release still holds contracts with the agencies that run conflicts and detain people. The workers are asking the company to choose: build the technology or power the machine. Not both.

The machine builds the systems. The systems serve the agencies. The workers inside the company said: stop. The company has not responded.

“We are demanding that OpenAI do the bare minimum, that they cut their contracts with the Pentagon, that they stop allowing ICE to use their technologies.”

— Yuan Wang, OpenAI protest organizer, on Democracy Now

DEVELOPING

The President Dropped the Threat to Annex an Ally’s Territory — in Exchange for a Permanent Military Base on It

The president dropped his threat to annex Greenland from Denmark… in exchange for a greater American military presence on the island. Democracy Now devoted a full segment to the agreement on Tuesday.

Greenland is a territory of Denmark, a NATO ally. The president spent months publicly threatening to take it. The resolution is not that the threat was wrong. The resolution is that the machine traded the threat for a base. The island stays Danish. The military stays on the island.

The same week the last soldier left Iraq after 23 years, the government secured a new military foothold on an ally’s territory in the Arctic. One base closes. Another one opens. The map changes. The footprint does not shrink.

The machine left Iraq this week. It arrived in Greenland this week. It is already in Iran. The address changes. The presence does not.

 Connecting the Dots 

▸ The Bigger Picture

Four stories from one Wednesday. The last American soldier left Iraq after 23 years, more than $3 trillion spent, and no weapons of mass destruction ever found. The government is now leading the campaign to dismantle the international court that was built 80 years ago to hold countries accountable for exactly this kind of conduct. Workers inside the company that builds the most powerful AI in the world demanded it cut its contracts with the military and the immigration agency. And the president dropped his threat to annex Greenland in exchange for a permanent military base on the island.

The press covers each on its own page. A “troop withdrawal.” An “international law story.” A “tech protest.” A “diplomatic resolution.” But the thread is the same in every one.

The machine does not leave. It relocates. It left Iraq this week. It arrived in Greenland this week. It is already in Iran. It has weapons in orbit. It holds contracts with the companies that build AI. And when the court that was designed to hold it accountable gets too close, the machine sanctions the investigators and revokes their visas. Every departure is an arrival somewhere else. Every resolution is a new foothold. And every institution that tries to hold the machine accountable is attacked before it can finish the job. The troops leave Iraq. The base opens in the Arctic. The court is under siege. And the workers who said stop have not been answered.

When the last soldier leaves Iraq and a new base opens in Greenland the same week… the machine is not withdrawing. It is redeploying. That’s the Seventh Floor.

They rely on the shadows.
It’s time to turn on the lights.