Book Review: The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals.  Jane Mayer. Doubleday: New York, 2008.                                                                                                                                                               Prepare to be shattered. This is a difficult book to read. Mysteries of Bush Administration Response Post 9/11 Revealed Jane Mayer’s meticulous dissection of the actions of the Bush administration post 9/11 is an extraordinary service to Americans and to the world. Many of us have been trying to understand how this presidency went so wrong.

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Understaffed, Under-funded Diplomatic Corps Nicholas Kristof’s column in ( 8/10/08) New York Times, “Make Diplomacy, Not War” was an interesting piece of journalism, both for what it said and for what it didn’t say.  Kristof makes the case that the American Foreign Service is woefully under-staffed and under-funded.  The US has more musicians in its military bands than it has diplomats. Something is seriously out of whack, he suggests, especially when it comes to fighting terrorism. Firepower Isn’t Effective Against Terrorists The US is still doing the same thing it’s  been doing since 9/11. It has continued a habitual pattern of using firepower against terrorists. We still haven’t learned that this approach is ineffective.

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(Editor’s Note: While I take a little summer vacation, I thought some of you might enjoy reading this letter I found in my files recently. It is dated 9/22/02 and it is the text of a letter I wrote, but did not send to President Bush in the early days of the build-up to the Iraq War. This blog is much longer than my usual blogs, so read it at your leisure! Headings have been added to make reading a bit easier.  Questions at the end for those who stick around! )                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Dear President Bush; I know you are a man who loves his family, and his country.

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  (Editor’s Note: Today’s interview is with John Fair, a former Air Force officer who once worked in the Pentagon planning for war and who left that career to become a minister and peacemaker.  John’s ministry is focused on the need for planning for a sustainable peace. )                                                               Life in the Air Force and Planning for War Q: John, I understand that you were a career officer in the Air Force. Help me to understand what led you to eventually leave the Air Force to become a minister and then a peacemaker. How did the conviction that you must work for peace, not war, evolve inside you? JF: I grew up in a church-going family.   I learned to fly at an early age. I became an Air Force fighter pilot and gradually began to see things on a larger scale.  I found it foolish chasing Russian bombers around the arctic icepack.

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The Long Hunt Is Over                                                                                                                                                                Radovan Karadzic, one of the most wanted war criminals in the world, was arrested Monday in Serbia, ending a 13 year manhunt. He will be transferred soon to the Hague for trial at the International Criminal Court. I hope that Ratko Mladic, the third chieftain of evil in the Bosnian wars, will also be arrested soon. All societies create agreements for people to live together. When someone breaks one of those agreements he or she is “called to account” by the community. He must satisfy the group that he will be safe for everyone to live with.

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 To Catch a Terrorist The lead article in the New York Times on June 22nd, Inside the Interrorgation of a 9/11 Mastermind, is a great piece of journalism. In the frightening days and months after 9/11 the CIA worked desperately to capture the terrorists responsible for it and to prevent another such attack on the US. They were very successful, capturing both 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, logistics manager for Al Qaeda. This article reveals the operations of the CIA and ordinary people trying to do their work under extraordinary circumstances. Both these men were interrogated at a secret black site where they were subjected to harsh treatment and waterboarding before being moved to Guantanamo.                                                                                                                   Good Cop/Bad Cop The fascination of this article is in the interrogation details.

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