Afghanistan

Is it possible that Iraq is still sucking up all the best intelligence and counter-insurgency assets of the U.S. Government and leaving only the scraps to deal with the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan? New America Fellow Nick Schmidle, whose New York Times Magazine cover story got him and his wife expelled from Pakistan by the Musharraf government, looks at the state of play in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas in this piece in Sunday's Washington Post. With unmanned Predator strikes killing civilians and senior military advisors trying to replicate Iraq's Anbar Awakening, the answer seems clear.

Tonight, Frontline airs Part II of Bush's War on PBS. With interviews from our own Steve Coll and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, the show promises the most in-depth look at the decisions that brought us to the five year anniversary of the invasion. Click on the image below to view Part I, available online now.

The United States loses 10 Bradley fighting vehicles a week in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition to the tragic loss of our fighting men and women this figure represents, this loss rate translates to a cost of $30.7 million dollars. Add it all up and we're spending about $3.5 billion per week, but only $350 million on pay for our troops. Writing in TomDispatch, New America's Bill Hartung helps us all get a handle on this large, large number.