From Salon, Bush knew Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction: Two former CIA officers say the president squelched top-secret intelligence, and a briefing by George Tenet, months before invading Iraq. From Foreign Affairs, did the Bush administration disregard military expertise before the Iraq war? Should military leaders have done more to protest in response? If Rumsfeld really wants people to read his book, here are just a few questions that he should answer. Challenging the Generals: America's junior officers are fighting the war on the ground in Iraq, and the experience is making a number of them lose faith in their superiors. The private soldiers who die for America: A review of Blackwater: the Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill. A review of House To House: An Epic of Urban Warfare by David Bellavia. Shankar Vedantam on the insurgency's psychological component.
From New Left Review, Regis Debray on Socialism, a Life-Cycle: The ecosystem of socialism, seen through the material forms in which its principles were transmitted — books, newspapers, manifestos — and the parties, movements, schools and men who were its bearers; Robert Wade on A New Global Financial Architecture? As the world economy shows growing signs of vulnerability, what mechanisms exist for averting repeats of the Asian or Mexican crises?; and a review of Capitalism Unleashed: Finance, Globalization, and Welfare by Andrew Glyn. A review of Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life by Robert B. Reich. From The Economist, rocky terrain ahead: How much will the credit crunch hurt the world economy? William Greider on Waiting for The Big One: Nobody knows if the current financial crisis could become the type of economic unraveling that makes history.
A review of Hopscotch and handbags: The Essential Guide to Being a Girl by Lucy Mangan (and more). A review of Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. A man who gets angry at work may well be admired for it but a woman who shows anger in the workplace is liable to be seen as "out of control" and incompetent, according to a new study. Stripper poles as new feminism? Some argue that the frat-house toy allows young women, sober or not, to flaunt their liberation. "Hi, Slut!" The first chapter from Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect and Find It's Not Bad to Be Good by Wendy Shalit. A review of Split Decisions: How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism by Janet Halley.
