US Opinion and Commentary

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9/11 15 Years Later

Posted September 12th, 2016 at 3:28 pm (UTC-4)
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15 years later, the scourge of terrorism is still with us.
Granted, we haven’t seen an attack on the scale of what happened on September 11, 2001. But terrorism continues to consume a large amount of this nation’s resources and seep into the consciousnesses of many Americans.
Osama bin Laden has been killed, but al Qaida is still an active threat.
Saddam Hussein was captured and executed, but Iraq is now the nesting ground for Islamic State, which started as an al Qaida offshoot.
What have we learned in the past 15 years that can make the next 15 years safer for America and the rest of the world?

A U.S. Strategy Beyond the Cold War

Posted May 16th, 2016 at 9:21 am (UTC-4)
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Since the Cold War, the United States has been at a loss to define its national strategy. It attempted to respond to 9/11 as it did to Pearl Harbor, with a multi-theater campaign built on conventional force.  It tried to create an alliance structure to support its efforts….But this approach has not worked.

The Blame Game

Posted October 20th, 2015 at 2:23 pm (UTC-4)
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Love him, hate him or simply be appalled, Donald Trump knows how to goose his fellow Republicans running for president. His latest sound bite to go viral — a criticism of President George W. Bush because the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened on his White House watch — was clearly intended to get a rise out […]

9/11 in 2015

Posted September 11th, 2015 at 3:12 pm (UTC-4)
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Cloudless blue skies with a hint of the coming autumn temperatures greeted Washingtonians Friday morning, delivering an eerie familiarity of how the day began Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Among the big news stories expected that day, Michael Jordan’s announcement he was coming out of retirement to play for the Washington Wizards. That and much more was rendered insignificant as the day’s events unfolded. Everything changed after the four-pronged attack on New York and Washington, killing nearly 3,000 people and leaving physical and emotional scars on countless more. The United States waged a war on the terrorists who launched these attacks, a war that endures 14 years later, with no end in sight. On this day of service and remembrance, some ask when the war will end while others find new ways to keep alive the memories of those who died for future generations.