Modern Art Notes (Free subscription) | 10/26/2009
... obsession with exhibitions of Robert Frank's 1959(ish) classic series 'The Americans,' journalist Fred Kaplan has written a book examining 1959. The book presents the year as a turning point in 20th-century America. Appropriately enough it includes cultural events, including Frank's series, the Beats, erotic literature, the birth of the Guggenheim, the ascent of Rauschenberg, Johns...
Swampland (Free subscription) | 10/22/2009
Fred Kaplan has a piece about the excellent job John Kerry has done persuading Hamid Karzai to allow a runoff and, perhaps, some reform measures in Afghanistan. This reinforces the piece Jay Newton-Small did for Time earlier this year, about Kerry's renewed sense of purpose as a Senator. Meanwhile, Joe Lieberman's bill of unnecessary heresies is, [...]
C-MONSTER.net (Free subscription) | 10/20/2009
1959, by Fred Kaplan. There are years so transformative, they stand out on name alone: 1492. 1776. 1968. On the surface, 1959 would not appear to be one of them. But 1959: The Year Everything Changed, by Slate regular Fred Kaplan, begs to differ. This was the year, after all, that Miles Davis recorded Kind of [...]
C-MONSTER.net (Free subscription) | 10/17/2009
1959, by Fred Kaplan.
Villainous Company (Free subscription) | 10/14/2009
... border with Pakistan — and there is a vast trail network heavily used by insurgents. What Kaplan never bothers to explain is how withdrawing to the 3 cities and allowing the Taliban and insurgency free run of the rest of Afghanistan serves the President's stated objective of denying al Qaeda safe harbor in Afghanistan? Hint: it doesn't. Last time I checked, Osama bin Laden didn't plan...
kevin drum (Free subscription) | 11/24/2009
A couple of weeks ago Fred Kaplan speculated that President Obama might be planning to pursue a tribe-centered counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan rather than one centered on the central government in Kabul. Today, after reading Dexter Filkins' piece in the New York Times that describes an effort already underway to co-opt local militias, Kaplan doubles down: The interest,...
VDARE.com: Blog Articles (Free subscription) | 11/24/2009
... for minimal security needs, it does work.Now, they’re finally thinking feudally in Washington. Fred Kaplan says in :… special-operations forces have begun to help anti-Taliban militias in southern and eastern Afghanistan, where the insurgents are concentrated. These militias have risen up spontaneously in certain tribal groups, but U.S. commanders hope that they can use the example...
The Economist (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
... here.) And this is a time when the army is struggling to retain its young officers. Last year Fred Kaplan flagged the issue after Lieutenant Colonel John Nagl announced that he was leaving the Army
The Daily Dish (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
Fred Kaplan explains why the Afghanistan decision has taken so long: [C]ontrary to the media's incessant focus on numbers, this has never been a decision primarily about troop levels. Last summer, retired Gen. Colin Powell advised Obama that the key...
HealthyWithAIM.com (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
... cause excruciating pain. In its most severe form, a blood test for vitamin D may show zero. Dr. Fred Kaplan, an eminent orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, whose patient had zero D, said this is rare even in Third World countries. Why, in the land of plenty and, now, also in the land of over-consumption, overweight and obesity, can there be an epidemic...
War News Updates (Free subscription) | 11/14/2009
... Obama's Afghanistan options -- Olivia Hampton, The Guardian Obama's Real Afghanistan Decision -- Fred Kaplan, Slate Afghan Enclave Offers Model to Rebuff Taliban -- S. Tavernise, NY Times One Last Chance to Save Afghan Mission -- Nick Clegg, The Times What Bush Inherited, and What He Left Left Behind -- Victor Davis Hanson, National Review
kevin drum (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
Fred Kaplan tries to read the tea leaves in Afghanistan today. Why is President Obama taking so long to decide on a strategy, and what is that strategy likely to be? Counterinsurgency involves protecting the local population from insurgency groups, so that the national government is better able to provide basic services, thus winning popular support and undermining the insurgents' appeal....
Globo Diplo (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
We commemorated a major Cold War event last week with the Berlin Seminar at BYU. Fred Kaplan explains why Berlin mattered. Meanwhile, please share your favorite insight from the 20 year anniversary across the punditsphere or news: The fall of the Berlin Wall did destroy borders between countries, at least physically. Millions of people who [...]
Unca Darrell (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
... a foregone conclusion, Anne Applebaum insists ... Berlin was the centerpiece of the Cold War, Fred Kaplan reminds us ... We still have duties to revolutionaries, says Christopher Hitchens ... Richard Cohen finds it hard not to give Reagan credit ... Never has so great a revolution been won so swiftly and peacefully, says Ross Douthat ... The end of the only world I ever knew, says...
Jesus' General (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
Fred Kaplan 's 1959: The Year That Changed Everything (John Wiley and Sons $27.95) chronicles an extraordinary year. On January 1st, Fidel Castro's revolutionaries took power in Cuba. On January 4th Soviet Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan visited the United States. Fidel would do the same on April 15th, followed by Khrushchev on September 15th. On April 9th, Lenny Bruce appeared on television....
