The Achilles Heel in the Afghan War
Posted on 29. Oct, 2009 by Editorial Dept in Blog
Back in 2002 during a reporting assignment in Afghanistan, a U.S. helicopter pilot told me that it was important to send a message early on that “we own the skies, night or day”. So at any given point of time if you were at the Bagram air base, north of Kabul, you could see aircraft, mostly choppers taking off, landing or simply idling in the skies above in what became the region’s busiest airfield. (more…)
The Direct Question
Posted on 22. Oct, 2009 by Editorial Dept in Blog
Fairness—and resentment at the perceived lack of it—is an ingrained human instinct. It’s one of the first things children learn to complain about. But it’s more atavistic, even prehuman. In one experiment, scientists at Emory University offered capuchin monkeys food in exchange for tokens. The monkeys were happy to get slices of cucumber, until they saw other monkeys getting grapes, at which point they got angry and stopped cooperating. (more…)
Limbs Pile Up, and Money, Too
Posted on 22. Oct, 2009 by Editorial Dept in Blog
THE setup was as simple as it was perversely diabolical.
Two strangers — a doctor and a photographer — wake up at opposite ends of a windowless bathroom, manacled to a pipe by the ankle. The body of man who has apparently committed suicide is sprawled on the bloody tiles between them, a revolver clutched in one hand, a tape player in the other. (more…)