Washington Is Burning: The Corruption, Lies, and Ignorance That Fuel the Flames

Journalist Cockburn (The Spoils of War) targets military brass, corporate miscreants, and the politicians who service them in this vigorous collection of muckraking articles originally published in Harpers, the London Review of Books, and elsewhere. His subjects include the Pentagon’s obsession with high-tech weaponry, like AI systems and the Air Force’s KC-56 refueling plane, that generate huge profits for defense contractors but don’t work well; America’s support of unsavory foreign leaders from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez, (convicted of drug trafficking before being pardoned by Trump in 2025); political consultants’ fondness for expensive campaign television ads that earn them lucrative commissions but don’t move voters; and the exorbitant legal settlements cities are paying because of police shootings. Cockburn also launches left-populist critiques at American politicians, including Joe Biden for his pre-presidential tough on crime and corporate-friendly legislative efforts, and centrist Democrats for schmoozing with wealthy Hindu nationalist donors and exiling pro-Palestine speakers from the 2024 DNC stage, as well as Donald Trump for just about everything. Cockburn’s expertise on national security issues makes his critiques of the military particularly sharp, while some of his bugbears on the domestic front get less mileage (his anti–nuclear energy stance will likely leave some readers unconvinced in this moment of ever ratcheting upward oil prices). Still, the result is an incriminating portrait of a ruling class mired in corruption and ineptitude. (Mar.)