The Advocate

In 1913, a young Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote in a private letter that a war among the major European powers would be so deadly and destructive that it could not be imagined. In 1914, he learned differently.

There are so many historic examples of war being so unlikely, so terrible in its prospect that it just "could not" happen. And yet it did.

That is why, in the large sweep of history, people who want to see peace should never underestimate… more

In the evenings, they gather in the Hare and Hound bar "that wouldn't look out of place in Sussex," but that is in fact in the middle of wartime Kabul. The scene is out of a novel.On a visit to Afghanistan, Peter Bergen describes the evening's clientele in a hotel owned by an expatriate Brit: "aid workers speaking English with Nordic accents; security contractors with bulging biceps; film directors making their next big movie in Afghanistan; cameramen fresh… more