A primer for the ultimate Greek tragedy? On the Ides of September US President Joe Biden shifted the Great Game overnight from Afghanistan (and Europe) to Oceania (and Asia) by announcing a new informal AUKUS defense partnership. The United States…
Losing Afghanistan
Who lost Afghanistan? President George W. Bush, by hubris? Gen. David Petraeus, by his faith in counterinsurgency doctrine? Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose clan skimmed off fortunes from the 90 percent of the Afghan budget funded by the West? Warlord…
Afghan Women on the Eleventh Anniversary
A decade ago, I posed one question to Afghan women, in sewing circles, voting-rights seminars, support groups, impromptu schools, and on the street. What, I asked, do you most want for your country? After 20 years of brutal civil war…