The Fromson File

The United States has never before had a Foreign Legion like the hired guns the French used as enforcers during the days when the tri-color flew over their colonial empire in the 19th and 20th Centuries. They were soldiers of fortune, cherry-picked from some of the most ruthless military resources anywhere in the world. In [...]

Those were the dying words uttered by Colonel Walter Kurtz, the half-crazed Special Forces officer portrayed by Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, the classic war film about Vietnam. It could have been a precursor to Afghanistan or Pakistan. From my encounters in all three countries going back more than 50 years the future is not [...]

A few days ago, I wrote critically about continuing U.S. support for Afghanistan that was being endorsed by both presidential candidates. I was perhaps more tougher on Barack Obama who I reasoned was advocating getting out of one war and involving ourselves even more deeply in another, the drug captal of the world. Now, I [...]