Charles V. Peña

Charles V. Peña is a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, a senior fellow with the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy, a former senior fellow with the George Washington University Homeland Security
Policy Institute, an adviser to the Straus Military Reform Project, and an analyst for MSNBC television. Peña is the co-author of Exiting Iraq: Why the U.S. Must End the Military Occupation and Renew the War Against al-Qaeda and author of Winning the Un-War: A New Strategy for the War on Terrorism.

Still Mesmerized by WMDs

In the aftermath of 9/11, the Bush administration raised the specter of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) – nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons – as the gravest threat to America. In his “axis of evil” State of the Union Address in January 2002, President Bush said: “States like these [North Korea, Iraq, and Iran], and … Continue reading “Still Mesmerized by WMDs”

Why We Can’t Win in Afghanistan

To borrow from Elizabeth Barrett Browning… let me count the ways. First and foremost, we don’t have enough troops. (Yes, yes, I know I’m a broken record to regular Antiwar.com readers.) The accepted standard for successful counterinsurgency operations is 20 soldiers per 1,000 civilians (recognized in the COIN – counterinsurgency – manual written in large … Continue reading “Why We Can’t Win in Afghanistan”

Weapons of Mass Destruction???

Over the weekend, a crude car bomb (a Nissan Pathfinder SUV with propane tanks and gas cans wired to a crude detonator – alarm clocks connected to a can filled with fireworks – and fertilizer in the cargo area, but not the explosive ammonium nitrate fertilizer such as was used by Timothy McVeigh in the … Continue reading “Weapons of Mass Destruction???”