Tag Archives: intervention

Iraq : once more unto the breach? (seriously?)

To intervene or not to intervene. It’s one of the great issues of our time for the few countries powerful enough to consider such a thing. But Iraq for a third time? This should be an easy decision. Iraq’s history is once again not going the way we’d like it to go (those of us […]

Afghanistan: No we can’t [June 2010 / CCT]

Ok, the proximate occasion of this column is the firing of the general in charge of our Afghanistan adventure. But that fraught mountain region has been in the media for all kinds of good news, bad news. June 14 headline: “Afghanistan at a turning point …Nation sits on $1 trillion in mineral wealth.” Good news, […]

Afghanistan: no country for young men and women [November 2009 / CCT]

In this season of thanksgiving, you know what I’m thankful for? I’m thankful my cannon fodder-age son is not inclined to serve his country in Afghanistan. It must be the worst thing in the world to lose a child in a war of dubious necessity . We say about the increasing numbers of casualties returning […]

The illusion of intervention American-style [July 2009 / CCT]

President Obama has been drawing fire for the anti-exceptionalism tenor of his foreign policy speeches. He is daring to admit that we are not an exception to the long and sorry cautionary history of self-interested nations. He’s saying we need a little humility, to the extent even of being willing to come down off our […]