After conquering Kabul in April 1996, the Taliban established the ultra-conservative Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, enforcing a radical interpretation of…
“Military overreach cannot be offset by diplomatic incapacity”
2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, the devastating “war to end all wars.” While…
Blessed — An Encounter with Mother Teresa
Born in Albania on August 26, 1910, Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, later known as Mother Teresa, devoted the majority of her…
PTSD in the Foreign Service — The Embassy Beirut Bombing
In an unprecedented suicide attack on Americans, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was bombed on April 18, 1983. The tragedy…
An Iraq War Dissent
In 2001 Ann Wright served as the first political officer in the newly reopened U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Two years…
“It’s not Washington’s job to tell Iraq who its leaders should be”
In his lengthy article for the Washington Post, Ali Khedery contended that the U.S. backed Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki long…
An Enemy of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia
King Fahd ruled Saudi Arabia from 1982 to 2005, leading it in a strong alliance with the United States and…
Why We Stuck with Maliki — and Lost Iraq
To understand why Iraq is imploding, you must understand Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — and why the United States has…
The Iraqi Revolution — of 1958
In 1958, the 14 July Revolution ended the thirty-seven-year Hashemite monarchy of Iraq in a coup d’état and established the…
The Fog of War – Investigating a U.S. Airstrike on an Afghan Wedding Party
On July 1, 2002, a U.S. airstrike in the town of Deh Rawood, Afghanistan killed dozens of civilians at a…