By SCOTT SHANE of the New York Times Published: February 27, 2011 For nearly two decades, the leaders of Al Qaeda have denounced the Arab world’s dictators as heretics and puppets of the West and called for their downfall. Now, people in country after country have risen to topple their leaders — and Al Qaeda [...]

What has happened in Egypt and is happening in other parts of the Middle East is (of course) profoundly important for that region, but it also brings lessons to the so called First World, struggling with it’s reworking of financial structures (both in Europe and in the US). As we watch Obama (who has increasingly [...]

Why not? Why can’t I ask that? This graceful phrase has rung in my head ever since the dazzling JFK spoke it (I remember he did it with the white-haired poet Robert Frost by his side). Who could argue with those elegiac words? Except, what about those other words? “…a government of the people, by [...]

I find it hard to start writing about stuff here again. First, I’m pretty tired, yeah, finishing directing the movie, Grassroots. Followed by a couple of days in LA and then on to NY, where I’m now starting to shoot the TV show Blue Bloods, about to premier on CBS. Again, I find myself drifting [...]

By Glenn Greenwald In late January, I wrote about the Obama administration’s “presidential assassination program,” whereby American citizens are targeted for killings far away from any battlefield, based exclusively on unchecked accusations by the Executive Branch that they’re involved in Terrorism. At the time, The Washington Post’s Dana Priest had noted deep in a long [...]

And so as the war digs-in in Afghanistan (and Iraq, not to mention Pakistan) it should be no surprise that more and more articles are appearing that revisit our adventure in Vietnam, discussing how there are lessons to be learned so that now we might win a similar war. Some articles (one by John Kerry) [...]

Funny how history keeps repeating herself. Afghanistan. Who would’ve thought this President, after all his campaign talk about pulling troops out of the Middle East, would end up pulling a Lyndon Johnson. I’m old enough now (60, not bad) to see it all happening again. Exactly the same story. Exactly. Massive corruption in a country [...]