Fiction, Essays, and Other Things

  Entire courses in both military and civilian academies could and should be devoted to the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan as the rippling consequences for the three main nations involved continue to make waves. Ironically, the Soviet invasion and subsequent defeat at the hands of the Mujahideen and their American allies marked the end of an era that had sown bitter resentment for over thirty years. True, by the time the Red Army withdrew in 1989 the Cold War was in its dying embers, but losing this final foothold proved almost as devastating for the USSR as the loss of the Spanish-American War proved for Spain, leading to sunken national moral, economy and the coup de grace for the Soviet Union before its collapse. Perhaps, however, the United States ultimately fared worse, the abandonment of Afghanistan ushering a new era of geopolitical terrorism armed by the very weapons we left behind. But the people of Afghanistan fared worst of all, the nation left ruined by war finding itse...

  In July of 2008 the last name was added to the official list of September 11 th victims perishing at the World Trade Center. To this day, however, there is no evidence that Sneha Philip was anywhere near the Twin Towers on that day and the case remains among the most baffling mysteries surrounding the attacks. As in most emotive cases, inconsistencies have fueled resentment among the most intimately involved. After nearly seven years of investigation, both by Ken Gallant, a private investigator hired by Philip’s husband Ron Lieberman, and, later, the NYPD, Philip’s family found solace in her name being listed among the casualties of the attack. This was the story they were hoping for, that Philip died when the towers collapsed while trying to assist the injured. This was a stark contradiction to the findings of the NYPD who uncovered a sordid secret life of substance abuse and professional misconduct in the months leading up to her disappearance. In this scenario, Sneha Philip...