Review of “The Last Thousand” by Jeffrey E. Stern A 2015 exposé on the Buzzfeed website created a stir by savaging the notion that the massive expansion of education in Afghanistan has been one of the triumphs of the international military effort. It was titled “Ghost Students, Ghost Teachers, Ghost Schools.” “As the American mission faltered, [Read more…]
Essays/Book Reviews
The School Runners (Commentary April 2016)
Essays/Book Reviews, Latest Articles, South Asia
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Jeremy Corbyn and the End of the West (Commentary Magazine December 2015)
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The Portents of Labour’s Extreme New Leader In October 2015, the American novelist Jonathan Franzen gave a talk in London in which he expressed pleasure that Jeremy Corbyn had just been elected leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party. To his evident surprise, Franzen’s endorsement was met with only scattered applause and then an embarrassed silence. Most [Read more…]
The Battle of Britain (Weekly Standard March 12, 2001)
Essays/Book Reviews, Old Articles/Archive
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Is the Sun Setting on the United Kingdom? The Abolition of Britain – From Winston Churchill to Princess Diana, by Peter Hitchens A few years ago, I was hiking up to an observatory in Georgetown on the Malaysian island of Penang. On the steep, winding road to the top, I fell into conversation with a well-dressed [Read more…]
COIN Wars - On Daniel Bolger's "Why We Lost":(Commentary Magazine, April 2015)
Essays/Book Reviews, Latest Articles, Military/Defence
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Why We Lost: A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan WarsBy Daniel P. BolgerEamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 544 pages The shooting wars may be drawing to a close, but the war about the wars continues to rage. The latest salvo is Why We Lost, a provocative book by Daniel P. Bolger, a U.S. Army lieutenant [Read more…]
Afghanistan, We Hardly Knew You (The Daily Beast, Dec 8, 2014)
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It took more than a dozen years for the Afghan and NATO forces to really understand each other, but all that will soon be history. KABUL, Afghanistan — One of the first things you notice at an Afghan National Army training base is that there are roses everywhere. There are lovingly tended flower beds along each [Read more…]
Britain's Heart of Darkness (Commentary, October 2014)
Essays/Book Reviews, Latest Articles, Policing/Urban Policy
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The Rot in Rotherham A scandal involving rape, ethnicity, religion, and the willful failure of Britain’s public authorities to protect thousands of girls from horrific exploitation has become international news. But while some of the revelations of the barbarities practiced in the town of Rotherham in South Yorkshire and elsewhere in England are fresh, the story [Read more…]
The High Tea Party (Commentary Magazine July/Aug 2013)
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It takes a lot to intimidate David Cameron, the ultra-confident “modernizing” leader of Britain’s Conservative Party. After all, he took in his stride the surprising humiliation of having to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats—a third party which had never before known office—in order to become prime minister in 2010 and claimed, almost convincingly, that [Read more…]
Review of 'Behind the Beautiful Forevers' by Katherine Boo (Mail on Sunday, July 1, 2012)
Essays/Book Reviews, Latest Articles, South Asia
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Finding India’s Real Slumdogs July 1, 2012 It is rare to come across a book as garlanded with praise as Behind the Beautiful Forevers. It is yet more rare to find one that deserves it. A page turner with a gripping human interest story, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the real India. It [Read more…]
Review of 'Eight Lives Down' by Chris Hunter, (Daily Mail, November 2007)
Essays/Book Reviews, Military/Defence
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Defusing the Iraqi conflict Few Britons have any idea of what our troops actually do in Iraq. The media’s coverage is generally limited to casualty reports, abuse claims and the odd, ill-informed screed about soldiers having the wrong equipment. In four years no British media organisation, including the BBC, has bothered to establish a bureau in [Read more…]