The Pentagon’s public relations machine is working overtime these days trying to sell a theme of “progress” in Afghanistan to push back against calls to end the war. The message machine behind this push is gargantuan, costing $547 million and employing more than 27,000 people. But, as our latest Rethink Afghanistan video shows, all that [...]

In his speech to the nation Tuesday night, President Obama essentially claimed to be ending the U.S. war in Iraq, and preparing to wind up U.S. domination in Afghanistan and by implication, elsewhere. Nothing could be further from the truth. Taking a look at Iraq alone, the violence that the United States illegally initiated seven [...]

From this week’s Washington Post: Afghanistan’s Central Bank has taken control of the country’s biggest and most politically potent private bank and ordered its chairman to hand over $160 million worth of luxury villas and other real estate purchased in Dubai for well-connected insiders, according to Afghan bankers and officials. Farther down the page the [...]

On August 31, 2010, President Obama declared the “end of our combat mission in Iraq.” President Obama said, “Like all Americans, I am awed by [U.S. troops'] sacrifice, and by the sacrifices of their families.” What were those “sacrifices”? As I reflect on my time as a Marine in Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, I [...]

Hamid Karzai’s older brother wants the U.S. to guarantee deposits at Afghanistan’s largest bank to stop a developing bank run fueled by fears of fraud. Mahmoud Karzai, Kabul Bank’s third-biggest shareholder, told The Washington Post that “America should do something”: Action by the United States, said Mahmoud Karzai, would prevent a run on Kabul Bank [...]

Yesterday, I spent doing what I love best: connecting people. I had a delightful lunch with two very interesting and accomplished people: Eli Wilner (renowned framer of priceless art) and Patricia Greenwald (pioneering businesswoman now the driver behind the Friar’s Club Foundation Wounded Warriors Program Gift of Laughter.) They shared a love of art and [...]

DENVER — A chaplain killed in Afghanistan this week was the first Army clergyman killed in action since the Vietnam War, the military said Thursday. Capt. Dale Goetz of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colo., was among five soldiers killed by an improvised bomb on Monday. Read more: Fort Carson, Air Force Chaplain, [...]

If the draft was reinstated, the U.S. would have a harder time fighting unpopular wars like the one currently being waged in Antarctica. An all-”volunteer” military (“volunteer” as in you better enlist because there are no other jobs in this rotten economy) means only a tiny segment of America is directly affected by wars. Which [...]

When I first arrived in Afghanistan, I spent much of my time swatting away flies that lived on my pediatric patients. Now I let them sit, unless they are on a baby’s face. Soon I think I will just ignore them, knowing that they are drooling multitudes of filthy bacteria on my patients. Shrug. I [...]

On Tuesday, September 7, HBO airs the documentary My Trip to Al-Qaeda by Alex Gibney and Lawrence Wright. It should not be missed. Wright’s most recent book, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, won the ’07 Pulitzer for General Non-Fiction. It’s the best book yet about the complexities surrounding that tragedy, and [...]