Reuters
Columnist for Reuters and the Atlantic; two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner; author of Beyond War: Reimagining American Influence in a New Middle East and co-author, with his wife, Kristen Mulvihill, of A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides; former reporter for the Christian Science Monitor
Defending Obama’s Political Legacy Recent polls by ABC News show that 51% of Americans see President Obama more as a failure than a success. Democratic candidates in next month’s crucial Senate elections are not inviting the President in to campaign. Nobel Prize winner and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has been Obama’s relentless critic—all the way back to the campaign of 2008. But, Krugman concedes, he’s always been “out of sync.” Now, he’s written that Obama “has emerged as one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history.” That’s a quote from a lengthy piece in the latest Rolling Stone magazine.
Is Our Fear of al Qaeda More Damaging than al Qaeda Itself? Since September 11, the US has engaged in two wars, killed innocent civilians with unmanned drones and conducted massive, secret surveillance at home and abroad. Three disclosures in the past week show how "sweeping government efforts to stop attacks are backfiring abroad and infringing on basic rights at home." David Rohde, columnist for Reuters and the Atlantic , two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of Beyond War : Reimagining American Influence in a New Middle East, says the US is "losing its way in the struggle against terrorism."
War Crime Fugitive Ratko Mladic Arrested in Serbia Since 1995, former Bosnian Serb General Rotko Mladic has been on the run after the massacre of at least 7500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the city of Srebrenica. This massacre was the worst atrocity in Europe since the end of World War II. Today he was arrested, in northern Serbia, where he’s been living under an assumed name. The process of extradition has begun for trial at the Hague.
Two Perspectives on a Reporter's Kidnapping Two months after his marriage to artist-photographer Kristen Mulvihill, New York Times correspondent David Rohde was abducted by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Since kidnapping isn't an ordeal for the victim alone, his seven months in captivity changed both their lives. They've co-written a book about their experiences, A Rope and a Prayer : A Kidnapping from Two Sides.
Anthropologists Help Military in Afghanistan, Iraq The Pentagon has deployed some very different kinds of soldiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Military officers say that anthropologists and other social scientists are making their jobs easier. Today's New York Times reports on what it calls "a crucial new weapon in counterinsurgency operations" in Afghanistan: "a soft spoken civilian anthropologist named Tracy. Pulitzer Prize-winner David Rohde, who wrote the story , explains how it all works as well as the controversy in academic circles over what some denounce as "mercenary anthropology."
How was the trip? President Trump's travels got less fun as he went from the Middle East to Europe.
Will the Senate write a healthcare bill in secret? While Democrats and Republicans argue White House relations with Russia, another question is being decided behind closed doors: who gets help buying health insurance and who doesn't? We hear how the pros and cons are being shrouded in secrecy.
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.