Drone Race to a Known Future
For drone freaks (and these days Washington seems full of them), here's the good news: Drones are hot! Not long ago – 2006 to be exact – the Air Force could barely get a few armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the air at once; now, the number is 38; by 2011, it...
Who Will Be Sent to Afghanistan?
2014 or Bust: The Pentagon’s Afghan Building Boom
Too Big to Fail?
Why Obama’s Iran Policy Will Fail
There's an old joke that goes something like this: A self-absorbed fellow, meeting a friend, launches into an endless soliloquy about himself, then abruptly stops and says, "Well, enough about me. Now, tell me what you think of me." Sometimes Washington has...
The Great Superpower Meltdown
Think of us as just having passed through the failed era of "must" in Washington. For almost eight years, George W. Bush made speeches and appearances in which he hectored this or that country, or enemy, or people about what they "must" do. Never, I suspect,...
Obama’s Choice
Three Cheers for the War Dividend
[Note to TomDispatch readers: I'll be on the road for the next week with limited e-mail access. I may not be answering letters and requests. Be patient. For those of you living in the Santa Fe, New Mexico, area, this Wednesday night (Oct. 21) at 7 p.m. at the Lensic...
Who’s Next? Lessons From the Long War and a Blowback World
Is it too early – or already too late – to begin drawing lessons from "the Long War"? That phrase, coined in 2002 and, by 2005, being championed by CENTCOM Commander Gen. John Abizaid, was meant to be a catchier name for George W. Bush's "Global War on Terror." That...
