First Draft » War in Afghanistan

On the delusions and meanness that grew in the years after 9/11.

https://first-draft.com/2023/09/11/all-we-lost-on-9-11/

The first time I read John Irving’s novel A Prayer for Owen Meany I was younger, Catholic, and not quite connecting with the narrator’s obsession with the Reagan administration. This time aro...

https://first-draft.com/2021/10/20/made-for-television/

Craig Whitlock's Secret History Of The War.

https://first-draft.com/2021/09/27/book-review-the-afghanistan-papers/

I never watch any 9/11 anniversary television coverage. I was in DC on 9/11 and for all of the months after it. I watched the Pentagon burn from the roof of my office building, just a few blocks ...

https://first-draft.com/2021/09/11/9-11-history-in-a-vacuum/

The MSM's Trump fetish.

https://first-draft.com/2021/08/25/afghanistan-the-media-tantrum-continues/

The latest installment in the Afghanistan Chronicles.

https://first-draft.com/2021/08/23/the-katrina-kabul-connection/

In praise of Lawrence O'Donnell.

https://first-draft.com/2021/08/20/the-last-sane-person-on-cable-news/

Everyone here at First Draft has been expounding on the events in Afghanistan this past week or so. If, dear reader, you are so inclined (and I highly recommend it) take a look at Cassandra’s p...

https://first-draft.com/2021/08/20/the-next-war/

Freedom, man

https://first-draft.com/2021/08/19/righteous-indigination/

Our fearless leader has written 2 thorough and excellent pieces about the Afghanistan War and how we got where we are. If you haven’t read them, please do:  here and here. I have some thoughts...

https://first-draft.com/2021/08/18/i-wont-forget/

A sequel to The Inevitable Ending.

https://first-draft.com/2021/08/17/another-bright-shining-lie/

There are no happy endings in the Great Game.

https://first-draft.com/2021/08/16/the-inevitable-ending/

Finally some finality.

https://first-draft.com/2021/04/15/finally-3/

There ain't no cure for the sommelier blues.

https://first-draft.com/2020/06/29/bountygate-nouveau/

When Trump tweeted about the peace conference with the Taliban, I assumed he was lying. Meeting at Camp David with the terrorist group that sheltered Osama Bin-Laden this close to the 18th annive...

https://first-draft.com/2019/09/09/the-boy-aint-right-taliban-ho/

Adrastos on Trump's crazy vs. crazy face off with Kim Jong-un.

https://first-draft.com/2017/04/17/moab-dick/

We are arguing about how much of the house is on fire, with the refugee/immigrant ban. We are arguing closet versus attic versus living room, instead of picking up a damn bucket and putting the ...

https://first-draft.com/2017/01/31/save-one/

Last night we watched the American Experience documentary Last Days In Vietnam. It’s quite simply an amazing film, and one doesn’t have to have supported that war to be moved by the tales of ...

https://first-draft.com/2015/04/29/the-fog-of-history-last-days-in-vietnam/

This is the one I think of:  Washington (CNN)One former employee of the private Blackwater Worldwide security company was sentenced Monday to life in prison and three others to 30 years each beh...

https://first-draft.com/2015/04/14/remembering-the-war-the-way-we-have-to/

Fuck Jeb and his entire family sideways with a rake:  Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) isn’t interested in talking about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially as it relates to his broth...

https://first-draft.com/2015/02/15/the-past-isnt-even-past/

By the right’s newfound concern for reporters’ lives: “Whatever” seems to be President No Strategy’s standard operating procedure. What now, Obama? As Twitchy reported, horrifying new...

https://first-draft.com/2014/09/02/lest-you-be-taken-in/

It’s about fucking time:  He said service members leaving the military who are being treated for mental health conditions would now be automatically enrolled in a program in which mental healt...

https://first-draft.com/2014/08/26/obama-enters-week-one-of-presidency/

Not that it would matter if he was: Rumsfeld and McNamara seem to be very different kinds of people. They couldn’t be more different. But they presided over disastrous wars. That’s not OK. Yo...

https://first-draft.com/2014/03/30/rumsfeld-isnt-sorry-6/

Not that it would matter if he was: Rumsfeld and McNamara seem to be very different kinds of people. They couldn’t be more different. But they presided over disastrous wars. That’s not OK. Yo...

https://first-draft.com/2014/03/30/rumsfeld-isnt-sorry-5/

Not that it would matter if he was: Rumsfeld and McNamara seem to be very different kinds of people. They couldn’t be more different. But they presided over disastrous wars. That’s not OK. Yo...

https://first-draft.com/2014/03/30/rumsfeld-isnt-sorry-4/

Not that it would matter if he was: Rumsfeld and McNamara seem to be very different kinds of people. They couldn’t be more different. But they presided over disastrous wars. That’s not OK. Yo...

https://first-draft.com/2014/03/30/rumsfeld-isnt-sorry-3/

Not that it would matter if he was: Rumsfeld and McNamara seem to be very different kinds of people. They couldn’t be more different. But they presided over disastrous wars. That’s not OK. Yo...

https://first-draft.com/2014/03/30/rumsfeld-isnt-sorry-2/

Not that it would matter if he was: Rumsfeld and McNamara seem to be very different kinds of people. They couldn’t be more different. But they presided over disastrous wars. That’s not OK. Yo...

https://first-draft.com/2014/03/30/rumsfeld-isnt-sorry/

Not that it would matter if he was: Rumsfeld and McNamara seem to be very different kinds of people. They couldn’t be more different. But they presided over disastrous wars. That’s not OK. Yo...

https://first-draft.com/2014/03/30/rumsfeld-isnt-sorry-7/

Athenae and I rarely post about the same thing on the same day. It's that time again. The whole Bowe Bergdahl incident seems to be the apogee of Obama Derangement Syndrome. The GOP reaction is OT...

https://first-draft.com/2014/03/06/fear-itself/