Fred Reed

Fred Reed is author of Nekkid in Austin: Drop Your Inner Child Down a Well and A Brass Pole in Bangkok: A Thing I Aspire to Be. His latest book is Curmudgeing Through Paradise: Reports from a Fractal Dung Beetle. Visit his blog.

Soap Opera Over Kabul

Oh Lordy, Lordy, how I love the Afghan war: it just goes on and on, without end. By comparison, death and taxes seem long shots. In the latest episode of this long-running sitcom, the Afghan army is killing GIs. Yes. Blowing them away right and left. In Washington, the Five-Sided Wind Tunnel is in shock … Continue reading “Soap Opera Over Kabul”

Honor, Sacrifice, and Other Civilian Delusions

I read frequently among the less neuronal of the supposed honor of soldiers, of the military virtues of courage, loyalty, and uprightness — that in an age of moral decomposition only the military adheres to principles, and that our troops in places like Afghanistan nobly make sacrifices to preserve our freedoms and democracy. Is not … Continue reading “Honor, Sacrifice, and Other Civilian Delusions”

Cairo and the Impossibility of Intelligent Foreign Policy

Let’s see. We have a minor political dustup underway in London, in which some master diplomat on Top Gear, a British car show, said, “Mexican cars are just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as … Continue reading “Cairo and the Impossibility of Intelligent Foreign Policy”

Children With Matches

Oh, good. I see that Sen. Lindsey Graham wants to attack Iran. The U.S., he says, should “sink their navy, destroy their air force, and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard.” Sen. Graham has the brains of a tapeworm, making him eminently qualified for the Senate. Tapeworms, I note, do not have brains. … Continue reading “Children With Matches”

Damn the Torpedoes, Fools’ Greed Ahead

I wonder whether Americans realize that they have a Vienna sausage military at filet mignon prices. The sorry performance in recent wars is just one example of the ongoing rot, but the whole enterprise has become unbalanced, aimed at fighting the kinds of enemies we don’t have instead of the ones we have recently chosen … Continue reading “Damn the Torpedoes, Fools’ Greed Ahead”

Killing America’s Kids

The Web is covered in stink today because of a reporter for the Associated Press, Julie Jacobson, who photographed the death of a Marine whose legs had just been blown off. The kid was Joshua Bernard, a lance corporal of 21 years. When the photo appeared, Robert Gates, the secretary of defense [sic] furiously tried … Continue reading “Killing America’s Kids”