“History does not exist here anymore,” declared an official of the Basra Museum of Natural History, which was looted and burned last week. He’s right in more than one sense: History has played only a minor role in the drama of Iraqi liberation. I’m not speaking of the coalition’s military campaign, or of the attempt Read More
Avarice and conspiracy invariably smell most foul when they seep into scenes of sacrifice and hope. The stench that made its way into Iraq this week, pulled in amid the powerful currents of triumph and selflessness, was unmistakable in its rankness. What should now be a moment of deep satisfaction-mitigated but not negated by terrible Read More
During the heady opening days, the coalition military effort in Iraq inspired a thunderous scramble among military officers, theorists and analysts to claim authorship of the planning and underlying strategic doctrine. But the clamor heard this week in military, academic and journalistic circles was very different: It was more like the panic of a collection Read More
The ferocious spectacle being played out in the desert, marshes and cities of Iraq is a complicated psychological and spiritual gamble, one that may culminate, during the next few days, in a battle across a ring of chemical fire thrown by Saddam Hussein around Baghdad-his “red line”. This last redoubt may or may not exist, Read More
A particularly brilliant March moon currently illuminates the globe from sunset until almost dawn; yet the wondrous nocturnal scenes it reveals remind us only of approaching peril. Half a world away, in the desert vastness of Iraq, the same brilliant moon will soon light the way to death and destruction; and that violence may rebound Read More
During these last days, or perhaps hours, of our preparation for war with whatever Iraqi forces elect to fight for Saddam Hussein, there is a vital battle of priorities still being waged within the American defense establishment. It is not a battle over the usual Pentagon concerns-bureaucratic turf and budgetary appropriations-but rather over something that Read More
America’s war planners were presented last week with three developments that would seem to call for radical modification or postponement of any military action against Iraq. But in fact these events-the defection of our presumed ally Turkey, the capture of an important Al Qaeda leader and a long-overdue concession on weapons verification by Saddam Hussein-only Read More
Military history is not a discipline congenial to one-way-or-the-other interpretations or for-us-or-against-us philosophies; and the examination of the Iraq crisis in this column will be derived, above all, from military history. Intellectual nonpartisanship is not popular with ideologues on either side of the current war debate, even those of the supposedly more outreaching left: Among Read More
