Remember those generous and sensible promises to rebuild Afghanistan, so that it would not become, after the dismissal of the Taliban, a black hole of chaos and violence? The Washington Post reports that a marquee ...
Author: Peter Maass
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post.
Chick Hearn, R.I.P.
If you grew up in Los Angeles, as I did, you just lost a close friend. Chick Hearn, the play-by-play announcer of the Lakers, died yesterday. He broadcast 3,338 consecutive games, from 1965 until last year, and invented phrases ...
The Saudis: Friend or Foe?
U.S. officials are taking a second look at the oil kingdom, according to The Washington Post: “A briefing given last month to a top Pentagon advisory board described Saudi Arabia as an enemy of the United ...
Rumsfeld for Secretary of State
I admire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He encourages out-of-the-box thinking and is effective at implementing unconventional plans, such as the Special Forces-led war in Afghanistan. In fact, I admire him so much that I think he should resign. His unusual skills are needed at the State Department ...
To Invade Or Not To Invade
Newspaper editorials are boring; I spend little time reading them. But the main editorial in today’s New York Times is worth the effort, because it demands, concisely, an honest debate about the merits of invading Iraq. Its most controversial passage:
“One argument for war often floated ...
Will George Bush Become the Steve Case of Politics?
We’ve had our share of economic bubbles—the Internet, NASDAQ, the Dow—so why not a political bubble? Today’s Washington Post reports the Bush Administration has failed to provide evidence that Iraq has any factory making biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. A few days back, ...
Virgins and Hermaphrodites
Got your attention, didn’t that? Nearly a decade ago Jeffrey Eugenides wrote The Virgin ...
Our Man In Saudi Arabia Doesn’t Speak Arabic
If we can spend billions of dollars (estimated) invading Iraq, might we spend a few million dollars teaching useful foreign languages to our diplomats and students? The New York Times has a brilliant story about a shortage ...
An Act of Genius from Ukraine
Their name is Gogol Bordello and they are a gypsy punk band/cabaret. Seeing is believing.
Has Al Qaeda Failed?
The ideas of Gilles Kepel, a French academic who has written a counter-intuitive book on Islamic extremism, deserve more attention than they are receiving. In a new ...