Yes, Gen. Petraeus got off lightly, but the real issue is the harsh punishment for others whose offenses were negligible.
Breaking the Cycle of Counterinsurgency
This September marked a potential turning point in America’s long and seemingly bottomless appetite for war. The Obama administration made a pitch for U.S. military intervention against Syria, and the American public didn’t buy it. Across the country, people...
What Drove Michael Hastings to His Death?
“Conspiracy theories” or not, it’s worth looking into his death more closely.
After Iraq, Climbing Out of the Moral Abyss
Empires decline due to moral decay from within. Ten years after the invasion of Iraq, our nation is looking at the moral abyss. If lies have delivered us to this place, then only the truth will begin our journey back.
Maybe David Brooks Could Teach Gen. Petraeus and the Kagans a Thing or Two About Humility
Were conservative Washington think-tankers helping determine U.S. strategy in Afghanistan?
The Fall of the American Empire (Writ Small)
It couldn’t be clearer now that, from the shirtless FBI agent to the “embedded” biographer and the “other other woman,” the “fall” of David Petraeus is playing out as farce of the first order. What’s less obvious is that Petraeus, America’s military golden boy and Caesar of celebrity, was always smoke and mirrors, always the farce, even if the denizens of Washington didn’t know it.
Petraeus Biographer Strokes More Than Just His Ego
Conservatives are now using one-time favorite General Petraeus to pillory the Obama administration.
Gen. Petraeus Makes McChrystal Look Like a Pacifist
Does anybody really know what counterinsurgency is anymore?
Could Gandhi Have Halted Night Raids?
Just Foreign Policy’s Robert Naiman wonders whether Gandhi’s satyagraha can work in Afghanistan.
Attempts by Petraeus to Turn Soldiers Into Boy Scouts Disingenuous at Best
Soldiers’ recent backlash against restraint in Afghanistan is the most recent example of the clash between the demands of counterinsurgency and conventional military culture.