Afghanistan

Latest Articles

Afghanistan: Just say no!

Plus, Obama and the Nobel
The idea that the war in Afghanistan has reached a critical junction, a “now-or-never” moment that requires an additional 40,000 troops to win, is rubbish.
By EDITORIAL | October 14, 2009

Course correction

Out of school and out of work? Don’t enroll in a grad program just yet — adult-education coures could do (and land you) the job.
So it unfolded on Facebook, the story of this down-on-his-luck recent graduate in possession of a bachelor’s degree in the liberal arts from a respected area school.
By VANESSA CZARNECKI | October 14, 2009

Disclosure: not a dirty word

Menino's shame and Kerry's blunder. Plus, Olympic follies.
The City Hall e-mail scandal that has scored headlines in recent weeks exemplifies Mayor Thomas Menino's antagonistic — almost contemptuous — attitude toward public accountability.
By EDITORIAL | September 30, 2009

Pottery, Potter, mummies, and a 'Rare Bird'

Museums and galleries gather their objets d'art
The art of 2000 BC Egypt, visions from the Iraq War and AIDS activism, and the magic of a digital technology and Harry Potter make up the highlights of Boston's autumn art calendar.
By GREG COOK | September 15, 2009

Remembering 9-11

Eight years later
Eight years ago, on a sunny Tuesday September morning in New York City and Washington, DC, a sickeningly well-orchestrated terrorist attack took flight, in part, from Boston’s Logan International Airport.
By BOSTON PHOENIX STAFF | September 15, 2009

Onward, Christian governor!

Carcieri gets "loose"; plus, farewell to Tedy, and mind-boggling Bush
It's nice to see Governor Don "Laughing Boy" Carcieri loosening up by sharing the real Donnie Boy with the people of Vo Dilun. Initially (certainly in his first campaign for governor in 2002) Don tried to come across as a moderate conservative, not unlike his immediate predecessor, Linc Almond.
By PHILLIPE & JORGE | September 02, 2009

Hey, hey, we're the Monkees

Politics and other mistakes
The law of averages says if you put 100 monkeys in a room with 100 computers, they'll eventually write a workable national health-care bill. Apparently, that rule doesn't apply to 100 US senators.
By AL DIAMON | September 02, 2009

Rx for Barack

It's time for a dose of reality
President Barack Obama is taking his vacation not a moment too soon. As his painfully poor performance in the health-care debate shows, he is way off his game. He clearly needs some time to recharge his batteries.
By EDITORIAL | August 19, 2009

Found, and created

Rebecca FitzPatrick and Owen F. Smith illustrate the present
While aesthetically there is little to compare between Rebecca FitzPatrick's "Thread" show and "Multiples" by Owen F. Smith, together on view at Whitney Art Works this month, both artists appropriate found materials, are impressively prolific, and identify with a post- or anti-war movement of the previous century.
By ANNIE LARMON | August 12, 2009

Review: Afghan Star

Moving, chilling
The Russians couldn't conquer Afghanistan, and to this point neither have the Americans, but it seems a televised singing-competition has.
By LANCE GOULD | July 28, 2009

Power puffs

Letters to the Boston editor, July 24, 2009
Regarding “ Weed Picking Up Speed ”: if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | July 22, 2009

Robert McNamara, RIP

Memories of Vietnam should speed Obama's exit plans for Iraq and Afghanistan
As secretary of defense under President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara prosecuted the Vietnam War on a day-to-day basis, just as Donald Rumsfeld orchestrated the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for George W. Bush.
By EDITORIAL | July 08, 2009

(10) days of celluloid

From the gridiron to gritty realism at the Maine International Film Festival
Among the many treats at last year's Maine International Film Festival were a future Oscar winner (James Marsh's documentary Man on Wire ) and one of the biggest art-house hits of 2008 (Scandinavian teen-vampire flick Let the Right One In ).
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | July 08, 2009

Benign neglect?

It's time Obama moved vigorously to advance gay and lesbian rights
If you are gay or lesbian, or if you care about realizing social justice, you must be wondering when Obama is going to turn his attention to the fact that one in 10 of the nation's more than 230 million adults are second-class citizens.
By EDITORIAL | June 24, 2009

Debating the Middle East muddle

Global Politics
US military aid to Pakistan and Afghanistan is being wasted and should be redirected to the police and moderate non-violent groups working for education and the rule of law, according to two Middle East experts who spoke Sunday at the Community Church of Providence.
By STEVEN STYCOS | June 17, 2009

Full shelf

The best in summer reading
Hot town, summer in the city. . . . or in the country. . . . or at the beach. Wherever you are, don't forget your books.
By BARBARA HOFFERT | June 08, 2009

Under attack

Civil liberties' limits grow
Recent decisions by President Barack Obama and Maine Governor John Baldacci have dampened progressive hopes that the Republican-inspired war on civil liberties might be winding down.
By JEFF INGLIS | June 10, 2009

Greetings and salutations

Aging and patriotism in The Way We Get By
The film, a decidedly unlikely crowd-pleaser, has had a charmed year so far. It won a Special Jury Award upon its world premiere at Austin, Texas's SXSW Film Festival, and an Audience Award at the prestigious Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in North Carolina, becoming something of a "little documentary that could" on the festival circuit.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | June 10, 2009

Best in show

Making the picks at the Newport Film Festival
Tom Hall, the new artistic director of the Newport International Film Festival (June 3-7), had the usual hard time culling more than 600 submissions — some invited but most over the transom — down to 90 films — 17 narrative features (plus five Hollywood classics), 17 feature-length documentaries, and 56 shorts.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 27, 2009

C.J. Chivers's real journalism

Plus, it's time for same-sex marriage, the PPL on the brink, and some unusual tomes
Phillipe and Jorge were absolutely stunned by the astounding and chilling story on the front page of the April 20 Urinal
By PHILLIPE and JORGE | April 22, 2009

Include everyone

Letters to the Portland editor, April 17, 2009
"Voting Frights" (by Shay Stewart-Bouley, April 3) is xenophobia dressed up to look nice. The assertion that people who are not full citizens are disproportionally less likely to have "learned what is going on" is without factual basis.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | April 16, 2009

The way they tell stories

Local film
Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly's documentary The Way We Get By has its official Maine premiere in Orono this weekend with an unusual amount of fanfare.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | April 08, 2009

Fold or float

How to save the Portland Press Herald
It doesn't matter who the new owner of the Portland Press Herald is, or whether there even is one. The state's largest-circulation daily newspaper simply cannot survive in its current form.
By JEFF INGLIS | April 02, 2009

AIC crosses cultural divide

Fun with Islam
Dina Abkairova is a Muslim whose high heels and long flowing hair reveal her secular preference.
By PETER PIATETSKY | March 19, 2009

Gulf War vet 'saved' by Phoenix article

Portland Marine Corps vet shares his heart-wrenching story
Yesterday, we published "Soldiers Committing Suicide," by Jason Notte, and just hours later, Mike Fitzgerald left our Portland editor a voicemail saying he's experiencing the same things a man described in the story had.
By JEFF INGLIS | March 17, 2009

Culture wars

The Army's controversial anthropology program
American anthropologist Paula Loyd was in Afghanistan, discussing living costs with a local man when suddenly he doused her with fuel from a jug he was carrying and set her on fire.
By PETER PIATETSKY | March 16, 2009

Soldiers committing suicide

US troops are killing themselves in record numbers
On July 22, 2004, unable to handle the intensity anymore — the daily vomiting, the feeling that he was a murderer — Lucey wrapped a garden hose around his neck and hanged himself.
By JASON NOTTE | March 17, 2009

[MUSIC] Portugal. The Man + Drug Rug + Hockey

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