Max Boot Is Very Sorry for Backing the GOP and the Iraq Invasion. Why Is He Being Praised for This?

The Intercept
October 13, 2018

THERE IS AN unforgettable passage in Graham Greene’s classic “The Quiet American” in which the title character, a CIA agent named Alden Pyle, admits that Vietnam is much more complicated than he’d imagined. “I had not realized how tribal ...  (Read more)

America’s War Narrative Focuses on Its Soldiers. Afghans and Iraqis Are Brushed Aside

The Intercept
September 2, 2018

The young newspaper reporter wanted to write a book about the war he was covering. But the editors who read his proposal turned it down, all of them. They said the book wouldn’t sell because Americans were tired of reading about these violent ...  (Read more)

Donald Trump Has Liberated Koreans From the Illusion That America Is Helping Them

The Intercept
May 25, 2018

It’s strange to say, but there is an upside to the goat rodeo way in which President Donald Trump has cancelled, for the moment, his North Korea summit. No president has done a better job of making clear that the United States is an impediment ...  (Read more)

It’s Time to Wage War Against War Movies That Glorify Outdated Models of Masculinity

The Intercept
January 27, 2018

The Hollywood Reporter published a surprising story earlier this month about film studios turning away from movies about sex. A biopic about Hugh Hefner is stalled, gone for the moment is a James Franco film about a 15-year-old Russian prostitute, ...  (Read more)

Brad Pitt’s “War Machine” Offers an Absurd and Scathing Critique of America’s Generals

The Intercept
June 17, 2017

How do military leaders persuade their soldiers to fight an insane war?

Here’s one way. The setting is a bitter outpost of the American war in Afghanistan. The years-long nightmare has no prospect of ending so long as American troops stay in a ...  (Read more)