Recent Stories
Army may as well put soldiers in strait jackets
To keep former Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna behind bars until 2024 for the “unpremeditated murder” of an insurgent during the war in Iraq, U.S. military prosecutors have resorted to strange and disturbing twists of law, logic and morality.
Race should not color our outrage over crimes
Is there any interest in discovering the facts about the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman? Facts, after all, can undermine ideology. They have the power to dispel fantasy. They can put the brakes on error. They lead, sometimes, to logical conclusions. All of which means, in this particular case, that when the facts come out, they might well undermine "the cause."
Zero civilian casualties possible?
I am looking at a heartwarming 1945 photograph of a Canadian-liberated town in the Netherlands, all joyous spontaneity and relief as townspeople (two wearing wooden shoes) celebrate their liberation from Nazi Germany. Nearly 70 years later, this snapshot in time is relevant to events currently swirling around a tragic, aberrational incident in which a U.S. Army staff sergeant apparently walked off base and killed 16 Afghan civilians.
Nonchalance about U.S. Marines' safety is appalling
This week, a bombshell wrapped in an SOS landed on the desk of the inspector general at the Pentagon.
Why is the U.S. apologizing for Qurans?
After all these years of official stumbling over what to call the mission the United States has spearheaded in the Islamic world in response to the 9/11 attacks, I've come up with a name -- not to brag or anything -- that I believe brings much-needed clarity to our cause.
Chalk up another one for Islam
Even after all these years, journalist-socialite Sally Quinn still embodies a Washington way of thinking -- a heart-of-Georgetown, A-list set of salon-tested assumptions "everyone" knows that provides attitudes for any occasion.
Don’t blow ‘Abu Ghraib 2’ out of proportion
Granted, it’s not civil palace etiquette or, more important, U.S. military doctrine to urinate on battle-killed enemy fighters — in this case, three dead Taliban in Afghanistan. But could we just move on?
Russia may be covering up crash’s crash
In 1952, Congress investigated the Katyn Forest massacre and proved Soviet guilt; in 2010 and 2011, there were calls in Congress for an independent investigation into the Smolensk crash. Such an investigation is urgently required in 2012, and not only to solve the mystery of a vexing crash. We must find out whether the West has once again been party to a Big Lie out of Moscow.
Iraq hawks leave a door open that should be slammed shut
I wish I could find the perfect label for the depths of denial and the heights of delusion manifested in Frederick and Kimberly Kagan’s latest declarations on Iraq, published this week in The Washington Post as “opinion.”
It’s time to stop keeping secrets
Last month, I noted that Democratic Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jim Webb of Virginia had written to national archivist David S. Ferriero on Nov. 7, asking him to open the records of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, which Ferriero has summarily sealed for 20 years. Guess what? Webb’s office tells me it still hasn’t received a reply. Where’s WikiLeaks when you need it?
