When War Isn’t War: Why We’re Failing in Afghanistan
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on March 7th, 2011 5:31 am by HL
When War Isn’t War: Why We’re Failing in Afghanistan
Chris Bray, WP
THE WRONG WARGrit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan By Bing WestRandom House. 307 pp. $28In a new book about the war in Afghanistan, distinguished military affairs writer Bing West argues that hazy objectives, bad political assumptions and a long strategic muddle have burned away whatever structure of success American grunts have built on the battlefield. In this telling, tactical excellence and the considerable courage of frontline troops are forever being rendered nugatory by failed leadership.West spreads the blame widely, but finds a failure of political culture at the heart of…
Why Social Security Is Welfare
Robert Samuelson, Newsweek
WASHINGTON — In a recent column, I noted that Social Security is often “middle-class welfare” that bleeds the country. This offended many readers. In an e-mail, one snarled: “Social Security is not adding one penny to our national debt, you idiot.” Others were more dignified: “Let's refrain from insulting individuals who have worked all their lives and contributed to the system for 50-plus years by insinuating that (their) earned benefits are welfare.” Some argued that Social Security, with a $2.6 trillion trust fund, doesn't affect our budgetary…
Data Shows Why Polarization Abounds in Congress
John Harwood, NYT
The Hollowing Out of America
Paul Krugman, New York Times
It is a truth universally acknowledged that education is the key to economic success. Everyone knows that the jobs of the future will require ever higher levels of skill. That's why, in an appearance Friday with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, President Obama declared that "If we want more good news on the jobs front then we've got to make more investments in education." Paul Krugman But what everyone knows is wrong. The day after the Obama-Bush event, The Times published an article about the growing use of software to…
