CGalvan says:
I just came off a contract at the US Dept. of State.I have never been combat-deployed, but have plenty...
Michael DeFoe says:
I’m 25 – I’m young and I haven’t produced much in life. Mostly I look to...
Sandra Parrotto says:
Not only do I enjoy your the rhythym of your writing, the message in this is spot on. I deal...
olivier blanchard says:
This helps a lot. What if the sticking point has nothing to do with fear? I mean… Once...
Kevin George Carey says:
I am a sticking point place for sure. For the second day in a row, I’ve sat down to...
Subscribe to SPO.
Mangwel and the Konar River Valley
[Friends, with apologies, a stomach virus has laid the blog low. Here's a re-run of a post that has been a reader favorite. We'll be back on Wednesday!] (more…)
Site of the tribal gathering in Zazi, Paktia province
They say that every enterprise, from D-Day to a kitchen remodel, takes three times as long as you think and costs three times as much. I must apologize: our two new series have run afoul of this same syndrome. Here’s the latest: (more…)
A guest blog by Michael Brandon McClellan
[Mike McClellan is a graduate of Yale and Georgetown Law and a Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute. His articles on politics and foreign policy have appeared in the WSJ, the Weekly Standard and on TCS Daily. It's our pleasure to welcome him as a contributor.]
Three items will be coming up this week (and in the following weeks) in this space that I think will be extremely interesting and provocative. I can say that with confidence because none of them will be coming from me.
First, in the next day or two, we’ll post a response from Michael McClellan to George Will’s recent “This Week” comments and Washington Post column. Mike is an extremely thoughtful and articulate young lawyer and Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute. I don’t know what he’ll say but I’m really looking forward to seeing it. (more…)
Discussion of the problems created by tribalism in Afghanistan often provokes from our own compatriots such outraged responses as, “Hey, who are we Americans to talk? We have our share of tribes too!” There’s no arguing with that. Here at home we’ve got the Bible-thumping cracker tribe, the latte-sipping liberal tribe and dozens more, all of which have to be catered to by the political process. To me though, the most useful American parallel to Afghan tribalism goes back to 1491—before the first European sail appeared off these virgin shores.
Tribal America (more…)
