More

Blog Entries by Peter Van Buren from 08/2012

How Not to Reconstruct Iraq, Afghanistan -- or America

| Posted 08.16.2012

Strange that when I do media interviews now, only two years later, nobody even thinks to ask "Did we succeed in Iraq?" or "Will reconstruction pay off?" The question du jour has finally shifted to: "Why did we fail?"

America's Increasingly Irrelevant Concierge Abroad

| Posted 08.22.2012

A new report shows that more than one fourth of all State Dep. Foreign Service positions are unfilled or are filled with below-grade employees. State's somnolent response to what should be a crisis call tells the tale. It really doesn't matter, and even State itself knows.