If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
I have expressed increased concerns about our continued "involvement" in Afghanistan. I have mourned our casualties and fretted about our huge financial costs. But -- perhaps insensitively so -- I have not mentioned much about the suffering of the Afghan people.
Last week the Obama administration sent clear signals that it was planning to fold its tents in Afghanistan earlier than previously advertised. That set off a flurry of speculation as to why and whether we were giving up on the mission. Most of the talk is about how a retreat could be accomplished with credibility intact. After all, Afghanistan is where the "war on terror" began more than ten years ago. Once again, though, we are focusing on means and modalities without specifying the ends. And the bitter truth is that the Obama administration's foreign policy team is witless about too many things. There is a strong case to made that it is not competent to be the custodian of the nation's welfare in the larger world; nor is it honest about its shortcomings.
"Western soldiers will no longer be dying on a daily basis and, frankly, who will care any more about the deaths of Afghans after 2014? Can we honestly believe that, in this likely scenario, combating the abuse of poor children will be a priority?"
Let's for the moment think outside the game and assume the worst-case scenario: Iran covertly manufactures and tests a nuclear device. Then what?
Over the last several months, at great risk to his career and personal life, LTC Davis has documented the deliberate misleading of the American people and Congress by the leaders of the Department of Defense. He has done his nation and the U.S. Army a tremendous service.
That a man in an eminently civilized country like Canada could invoke an ancient practice like honor killing in the 21st century is frightening. The mores that seem to be at work cut to deeply felt attitudes about families and women.
Mitt Romney just made it clear: While the president will begin to transition us out of Afghanistan, a President Mitt Romney would keep us there in an open-ended commitment.
U.S. infantrymen have been given the idea that poetry isn't for tough guys. It's also our loss as soldiers because it has robbed many of us of the chance to grasp what it means to be so fiercely human that we are willing to kill each other and to die.
What is it about women that the men of deeply conservative religions find so threatening? What runs so deep that it justifies traumatizing an innocent eight-year-old like Naama Margolese in Beit Shemesh?
Imagine that a man who said there should be no freedom of religion for Muslims, or Mosques in America, and that America is in a religious war that pits America, a "Christian Nation," against Islam was invited to address our men and women in uniform? Well, it's happening.
Veterans have a distinct place in our society as those who have carried the heavy load of sacrifice. They have a distinct place in the world of philan...
Army Sgt. First Class Leroy Petry was just over a month into his sixth war deployment when he got the nod to be part of a daylight raid to capture a "high value" Taliban leader.
There is a critical matter that sheds light on the potentially disastrous and costly ramifications of a military operation against Iran: the damages to peace and stability in Afghanistan.
You may call me a flip-flopper, but after supporting our efforts in Afghanistan for so many years, and in view of recent developments, I now have some serious concerns about that war.
As all eyes turn to Capitol Hill tonight for the State of the Union address, I'll join 20 fellow Iraq vets on the House floor and millions nationwide and overseas who are looking for crucial promises from the president.
Teddy Roosevelt once said: "Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft." President Obama has mastered that lesson and we are all safer for it.
