As a reporter, I have numerous conversations every day with people I don’t know that well or at all. Once in a while, those conversations strike a chord. That’s what happened a few days ago in my 30-minute discussion with Col. Kevin Brown. I’d met Brown in Baghdad in 2005; he was commander of a …
Michael Hastings died Tuesday in a car crash in Los Angeles. The news hit me hard. He was 33. He was a great journalist. He was a friend. Most people know his name for the Rolling Stone story “Runaway General,” the profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal that exposed him as a loose cannon, chiding his …
Carnage: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria. Catwalk: Armani, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent. War is ugly. Fashion is beautiful. War projects the worst of humanity. Fashion displays sartorial splendor in its highest. War is fraught with danger, even for journalists and especially for photographers who must get up close to their subjects to frame an image. Fashion is …
On my last full day in Europe back in Novemeber (yes, I meant to write this eons ago), I hopped on a bus in Prague for an hour ride northwest to Terezin. Joseph II built the city in 1780 and named it after his mother, Maria Teresia. It served as a fortress to protect Prague from …
When I was home in Kolkata several years ago, I climbed aboard a crowded public bus to go across town. The experience was far from pleasant. It was hot and crowded. The bus was filled with the stench of body odor. I could feel the sweat of others on my bare arms as I clawed …
Continue reading “A brutal rape, then outrage. What next for women?”
I visited my friend Archna yesterday. She, like so many others I know, was distraught over the Newtown shootings. What was happening to the world? We embarked on a conversation about many things. Was the world more cruel in medieval times? No, Archna said. Back then at least you knew you were going to be …
The United States invaded Iraq nine years ago. On this anniversary, more violence.A string of deadly car bombings rocked Iraq Tuesday. Forty-three people died; 206 others were injured. The dead included a pregnant woman in Fallujah when bombs exploded around a house belonging to a police officer.Authorities blamed al Qaeda in Iraq, though no one …
Georgia soldiers patrolled western Baghdad in 2006 President Barack Obama made a stunning announcement Friday. The war in Iraq would be over in December when virtually all of the remaining 40,000 U.S. troops will pull out and come home . After nine long, divisive years, the Iraq war is finally coming to an end. I …
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