War, Politics, and Life by Bruce Maulden
End of trust and straight-talk – Walter Cronkite died today at age 92.  (Illustration found here). In memory, Ben Bradlee with a piece posted today in Newsweek on Cronkite and Watergate: In October 1972, Cronkite devoted two segments, back to back, to the Watergate story. The first was 14 minutes, the second eight. I think that second night…
I didn’t think the Emmys had the grapes — not like that time they nominated Vince Edwards: He’s just a damn doctor, Jim. (Illustration found here). Who said Seth MacFarlane is imbecilic? Go ahead, you homo, tell me and I’ll trim his toenails with an axe. A nomination for Best Comedy was heaped upon Family Guy this…
Two US marines were killed Saturday in southern Afghanistan, two more died Monday, while the UK lost eight soldiers in a swift, 24-hour period at the end of last week — a war getting worse and already in apparent bad need of more boots on the ground. An ironic scenerio when coupled with the recent death…
Last fall, I read Frederick Forsyth’s The Afghan, which contains a view of the riot/battle at Qala-i-Jangi fort in November, 2001, exposing the US public to a view of some ferocious insurgency fighting in those panic/dream-days just after 9/11. A work of fiction, but Forsyth’s novel has more truth in it than what the US…
As the US slogs its way through two disastrous wars, the ones doing the fighting are killing themselves. At record numbers, 88 so far this year, 21 more than the same time in 2008: “Every soldier suicide is different and tragic in its own way,†said Brig. Gen. Colleen McGuire, director, Army Suicide Prevention Task…