The WikiLeaks documents seem to confirm our worst fears about Iran’s involvement with the Iraqi insurgency.
WikiLeaks: Pouring Fuel on the Iran Fire?
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Of Horns and Beaks and the Afghanistan War
There is always another “strategic” battle — in Afghanistan, as in Vietnam — that’s “key” to winning a war against an insurgency. But there are millions of hills and valleys and they are as meaningless in Afghanistan as they were in Vietnam.
Will Rockets or Schools Tell the Tale of Afghanistan?
Even at its most successful, a military-led counterinsurgency campaign remains inherently unsustainable.
Would Dramatic Disarmament Impress Iran or Not?
Many believe that substantive disarmament measures on the part of the West would have no bearing on any aspirations Iran may have to nuclear weapons.
Spitting in the Face of U.S. Troops
Anti-war protesters targeting individual troops for abuse, much less gathering at their funerals like the homophobic Rev. Fred Phelps, is as much of a myth as protesters spitting on returning Vietnam veterans.
Not-So-Magical Realism
Writing about it didn’t, alas, prevent it from happening.
In the late 1940s, Gore Vidal lived in Guatemala, where he shared a house with the writer Anaïs Nin, lived on the cheap, and wrote Dark Green, Bright Red. Published in 1950, this undeservedly obscure novel describes how the operatives of the World Banana Company work behind the scenes in an unnamed Central American country to help a smooth-talking dictator depose a president committed to land reform and free elections.
What Makes a Great Power Like China So Casual About Aiding and Abetting Nuclear Proliferation?
Apparently reluctant to take any measures that curb economic growth, China looks the other way when Chinese businesses help Iran with its nuclear program.
U.S. in Afghanistan: a Perpetual Motion Machine for the Generation of Grief
While Americans die in Afghanistan, the democracy we’re attempting to instill there is but an abstraction to most Afghans.
We’re Hemorrhaging Jobs From the “War Wound” of Defense Spending
The One Nation Working Together rally reminded us that the solution to our economic crisis lies in drastically reducing our military budget.
Do Nuclear Weapons Keep India and Pakistan From Each Other’s Throats?
Is the possession of nuclear weapons by India and Pakistan the second “successful” deterrence story after the Cold War?