Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Department of War: What’s new is so old
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
10 Sep 2025
🖨️ Print Article
US War Department Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
US War Department Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

“War is only a cowardly escape 
from the problems of peace.” 
—Thomas Mann

“War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only
one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”
 —Major General Smedley D. Butler

Slaughtering Seneca, Seminole;
Slaughtering Creek, Choctaw, Mohawk, 
Cayuga, Blackfeet — like some demonic
Department Of War. It was always Department of War.

Slaughtering Sioux, Shawnee, Chickasaw; 
Slaughtering Chippewa, Lakota, Ohlone—
Like some demonic Department Of War. It was
Always Department of War.

Capturing bodies; and looting labor of Ashanti,
Fulani, Huasa, Wolof, Yoruba, Ibo, Kongo,
Mongo, Hutu, Zulu … Like some demonic
Department Of War. It was always Department of War.

Great oceans east and west.
Friendly neighbors north and 
South — Department of Defense 
Never made sense. It was always Department of War.

It was always Department Of War. Always 
Class war with Offal Office in War House!
Class war with Capitalist Hill! Class war with
White Supreme Courtesans in revealing black robes!

Does dull thud of boot heels goose-stepping down
D.C. streets to “Dixie” surprise you? Have you been
Attaching Fox-box electrodes to skull; stuffing pizza 
Hole; self-lobotomizing for decades on the La-Z-Boy?

It was always Department Of Cooked Books. Department Of Can’t
Pass An Audit. Department Of Greasy-Thumbed Grifters. Always
Department Of $500 hammers and $10 pencils billed as “impact
Fasteners,” and “portable hand-held transcribing devices” on our dime!

It was always ‘Luftwaffe’ dropping 2,000 lb. bombs on
Hospitals and homes. Making pools of blood bloom from babies’ heads —
And rechristening children, ‘Civilian Casualty,’ and ‘Collateral Damage’ 
With lethal lies.

It was always ‘Wehrmacht’ with nightmarish music of moans—
Hair-raising, heart-pounding shrieks. With unlimited capacity for
Cruelty and savagery— like cutting off fingers of fallen fighters 
For souvenirs … and urinating on their bodies …

It was always confederacy— champion of chains and whips. Blood-
Thirsty warfare state — unleashed on neighbor, inhabitant alike. It
Is also glorious, technicolor, dream! Will we rise, realizing it? Or,
Will we fall, presenting ‘Nobel War Prize’ to traitor-pedophile-Führer?

© 2025. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet, BAR's Poet-in-Residence, and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can vote for his work at GoFundMe and PayPal.

Haiti Occupation
imperialism
Genocide
War and Empire

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Wolfgang Bronner
North Nashville's Reckoning: The Fight for Sovereignty in the Shadow of a Data Center
19 August 2026
Fisk University, an HBCU, is presenting a $400 million A.I. data center as progress for the North Nashville community.
Gary Wilson
From Louisiana to Havana: Law as a weapon against Black power and liberation
20 May 2026
The same legal machinery that once protected Jim Crow segregation has found a new way to strip Black voters of political power without touching
Petros Bein
Internal Colonialism and the Reproduction of Capital
15 April 2026
The United States operates as an internal colonial system.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
SPEECH: Reporting the News in the Heartland of Empire, William Worthy, 1970
21 January 2026
“From journalists…the greatest need of the moment is sound analysis of the U.S.
Dr. Gerald Horne , Anthony Ballas
Shadowboxing with Ghosts: Whiteness, Jake Paul, and the Crisis of U.S. Imperialism
21 January 2026
Jake Paul’s ascent in boxing is a cultural symptom of an empire in decline.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Autocracy in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Eric D. Walrond, 1923
14 January 2026
“[T]he United States on March 31, 1917,...acquired the three Danish West Indian isles…subsequently rechristened “the Virgin Islands o
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
The Domestic Global South and The Need for Climate and Environmental Internationalism
14 January 2026
True environmental liberation demands south-to-south solidarity against racial capitalism, linking the struggles of oppressed communi
We Charge Genocide
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Genocide Stalks the U.S.A., Paul Robeson, 1952
08 October 2025
“We, the people, charge genocide.”
Erica Caines
The Chicago Raid in Context: Connecting the Wars at Home and Abroad
08 October 2025
The fight against fascism is a fight against racism and capitalism.
Djibo Sobukwe
Malcolm X: Foundational Black Internationalism and the Anti-Imperialism of the Black Alliance for Peace
21 May 2025
Malcolm X didn’t just fight for Black liberation—he waged war on empire itself. As U.S.

More Stories


  • BAR Book Forum: Gao Yunxiang’s “Arise Africa! Roar China!”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Gao Yunxiang’s “Arise Africa! Roar China!”
    11 May 2022
    This week’s featured author is Gao Yunxiang. Gao Yunxiang is Professor of History at Ryerson University. Her book is Arise, Africa! Roar, China!: Black and Chinese Citizens of the World in the…
  • To Honor Odessa Anti-Fascists, Stop Weapons to Ukraine!
    John Parker
    To Honor Odessa Anti-Fascists, Stop Weapons to Ukraine!
    11 May 2022
    Statement by John Parker, Socialist Unity Party candidate for U.S. Senate in California on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. Parker is on a fact-finding trip observing the U.S./NATO proxy…
  • Investigation Shows Hundreds of US Cops Being Trained by Far-Right Extremists
    Kenny Stancil
    Investigation Shows Hundreds of US Cops Being Trained by Far-Right Extremists
    11 May 2022
    Policing in the United States is inherently racist and right wing. But individual members of right wing groups are also training police officers across the country.
  • Cost of the Ukraine War Felt in Africa, Global South
    Ramzy Baroud
    Cost of the Ukraine War Felt in Africa, Global South
    11 May 2022
    US/NATO sanctions against Russia have resulted in food shortages and price increases throughout the Global South. 
  • Cape Verde: Ulisses Correia Admits Kidnapping of Alex Saab was an Exchange for Cooperative Security
    Orinoco Tribune
    Cape Verde: Ulisses Correia Admits Kidnapping of Alex Saab was an Exchange for Cooperative Security
    11 May 2022
    The Trump and Biden administrations violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations by arresting and kidnapping Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab. Cape Verde was under U.S. pressure to participate…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us