July 25, 2022 In the Mideast, it’s customary for less important people to go call on their betters, not vice versa. The more important you are, the longer you keep callers waiting. US President Joe Biden ignored all these customs on his recent pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, whose de facto […]
(Originally published in the L.A. Times on June 27, 2006) Intensifying combat and mounting casualties in Afghanistan are growing evidence that what was a sporadic, low-intensity conflict is fast turning into a national uprising against foreign occupation. After the US invasion in 2001, Taliban’s leaders ordered their outgunned fighters to […]
20 June 2022 I’ve seen many coups in my decades as a journalist and connoisseur of exotic, turbulent places. The most exciting coup occurred in Paris under President Charles de Gaulle as I waited at Place de la Concorde with heavily armed paramilitary police as we prepared for an attack […]
