Why We Fight

It's no Kony 2012! I'm enough of a cynic to know that no one learns anything from the past, at least Eugene Jarecki can sleep well knowing he was right. While Jarecki's documentary "Why We Fight" was released in 2005, it (sadly) seems just as fresh as it did seven...

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Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead

In an otherwise OK report on the attorney general's assassination address, Adam Serwer of Mother Jones quips, "There won't be any drone strikes in Denver anytime soon." I say, "Wanna bet?" I mean it. I assume that "Denver" is a synecdoche, so Serwer just needs to...

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Beltway Braces for a Very Cratchit Christmas

Today's Washington Post informs us that "for the holidays, the spies say they’ll scrimp." [W]ith budget cuts looming, party plans are being pared back for the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA. … Under then-director Leon E. Panetta last year, the CIA...

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The Future Affordability of US National Security

That's the title of a timely paper by MIT researcher Dr. Cindy Williams [.pdf]. The summary points: 1. The United States currently devotes about 4.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to national defense and another 1.5 percent to broader security efforts,...

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