Terrific article, amazing photos in the New York Times about President Obama‘s vantage on the killing of Osama bin Laden: “On Sunday afternoon, as the helicopters raced over Pakistani territory, the president and his advisers gathered in the Situation Room of the White House to monitor the operation as it unfolded. Much of the time …
Is this the end of The Global War on Terror? asks Jim Fallows on theatlantic.com. “For years anti-terrorism experts have stressed the decentralized, self-sustaining nature of al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations around the world. The elimination of the celebrated symbol and inspiration of the movement will certainly not mean the end of terrorist threats, …
Navy Seals killed the terrorist Osama bin Laden in a compund in Abbottablad yesterday. “Justice has been done,” said President Obama, and though long delayed, it has been. Good riddance. Writing in the Times today, Ross Douthat says “This is a triumph for the United States of America, for our soldiers and intelligence operatives, and …
Richard Cohen had a useful article in The Washington Post the other day, in which he takes on the myth around Robert E. Lee. “It’s about time Robert E. Lee lost the Civil War,” writes Cohen. “The South, of course, was defeated on the battlefield in 1865, yet the Lee legend — swaddled in myth, …
I had a great Civil War Centennial. I was eight years old in 1961, and my parents took our family on trips to Gettysburg and Antietam and Manassas. I had blue and gray toy soldiers, and Civil War trading cards, and I watched Johnny Shiloh and Johnny Yuma. From this, a life-long interest was born. …
. . .although talking about fighting might be best of all. I had a great time last night moderating a TimesTalk discussion at, natch, The New York Times, on the subject of Disunion and the Civil War. I had an excellent panel to work with–Adam Goodheart, a Disunion series mainstay and author of a new …
Stories In The New York Times How retro: 2011’s hot new trend is. . . anti-semitism! just today, in the front section alone: Yemen’s beleaguered president Ali Abdullah Saleh blames Israel and the US for uprisings in the Arab world; hotshit Dior designer John Galliano (now ex-) is going to face charges for saying that …
I am sorry to see that a couple hundred dead-enders met in Montgomery, Alabama on Saturday to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the inauguration of Jefferson Davis. I am sorry not because I object to grown-ups playing dress-up or even to people admiring aspects of the bravura Confederate spirit, but I do hate to see bad …
On Day Two I was immersed in Williamsburg, and I continued to have a great time. In the morning, we attended a performance by some of Williamsburg’s historic character interpreters, most of whom were playing slaves in the Colonial Era. The scenarios did an excellent job bringing to life the conflicts and pressures experienced by …
Somebody at Colonial Williamsburg, I’m flattered to say, likes me. Or perhaps to be more precise, like the Disunion Series, because I was extended an invitation to visit the the famous museum/educational center/resort and attend a conference entitled Storm on the Horizon: Slavery, Disunion, and the Roots of the Civil War. I had a terrific …