Us or Them in Afghanistan?
In Washington, calls are increasing, especially among anxious Democrats, for the president to commit to training ever more Afghan troops and police rather than sending in more American troops. Huge numbers for imagined future Afghan army and police forces are now...
Is America Hooked on War?
How 9/11 Should Be Remembered
Measuring a War Gone to Hell
Here may be the single strangest fact of our American world: that at least three administrations – Ronald Reagan's, George W. Bush's, and now Barack Obama's – drew the U.S. "defense" perimeter at the Hindu Kush; that is, in the rugged, mountainous lands of...
Whatever Happened to Gary Cooper?
The More Things Change
A presidential candidate opposed to the Iraq War is elected and enters the Oval Office. Yet six months later, there are still essentially the same number of troops in Iraq as were there when his predecessor left, the same number, in fact, used in the original invasion...
From My Lai to Lockerbie
On this one-way planet of ours, it's hard sometimes to imagine things any other way, but for a moment let's try. Imagine, for instance, that in recent years the director of Iranian intelligence oversaw a program of "extraordinary rendition" aimed at those who were...
