Costa Ricans are both frightened and reassured by the 46 U.S. warships and 7,000 U.S. Marines patrolling its shores.
Costa Rica’s Love-Hate Relationship With Heavy US Military Footprint
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War & Peace
It’s Not an “Anthropology of Afghanistan” We Need, But of Us
Our intervention in Afghanistan should evoke a national soul-searching, as we thought we did after Vietnam.
Picture Obama Authorizing a Nuclear Attack
When it comes to who to retaliate against and how, a nuclear-terror attack presents an almost insoluble dilemma.
The Red Mosque Was Pakistan’s Waco
You wouldn’t be surprised that the Ghazi force, and not the Taliban, are behind recent attacks in Pakistan’s capital city if you knew the story of the Red Mosque and its late leader.
The Land Where Theories of Warfare Go to Die: Obama, Petraeus, and the Cult of COIN in Afghanistan
In December, when Obama decided (for the second time in 2009) to add tens of thousands of additional American forces to the war, he also slapped an 18-month deadline on the military to turn the situation around and begin handing security over to the bedraggled Afghan National Army and police. Speaking to the nation from West Point, Obama said that he’d ordered American forces to start withdrawing from Afghanistan at that time.
Patraeus Circles Two Camps
Nearly a week after the abrupt departure of Washington’s top commander in Afghanistan, United States strategy for reversing the flood of bad news that has been recently pouring out of that strife-torn country remains as unclear as ever.
Here We Go With the Pallets of Cash Again (Remember Paul Bremer?)
On the heels of the firing of Gen. McChrystal, the $3 billion in cash openly flown out of Kabul International Airport in the past three years provides further impetus for the drawdown of our troops from Afghanistan.
A Confirmation for Petraeus Is a Confirmation of the Surge Narrative
Ever since the surge narrative took root, there has been little public debate about the situation in Iraq. Thus, it is no surprise that, instead of an ongoing conflict, Iraq figured into the Petraeus confirmation hearings as an historical event.
U.S. Hijacks ICC conference
The United States managed to foil the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) adoption of the crime of aggression as part of its mandate during this month’s review conference in Kampala, Uganda. But the U.S. presence at the conference demonstrates a new engagement with the ICC, and the Obama administration’s interest in helping to shape international law.
The Guns of August in the Middle East?
Israel risks painting itself into a corner with its talk of preemptive strikes against Iran. Meanwhile, Iran once again finds itself the odd man out in the shopworn Israel-Iran-Arab triangulation game.