Hit the Ground by the Editors
There is something exceedingly strange about America's war in Afghanistan. It appears to be a war that involves little in the way of real American combat. The reason is plain: combat implies casualties, and according to the reigning dogma, the American people are soft and sentimental, and cannot abide battlefield losses...."

Correspondence
Grover Norquist v. Franklin Foer on Islam, terrorism, and the GOP.

TRB: Life Support by Peter Beinart
Our civilian casualties, and theirs.

Notebook
Is Osama bin Laden gay? &c.

On the Hill: Personal Time by Michael Crowley
Pat Leahy's dark side.

Native Speakers by Michelle Cottle
The extreme ambivalence of black Muslims.

Infinite Justice by Jason Zengerle
Can America let its 9/11 detainees out?

Amman Dispatch: Slide Rule by Stephen Glain
A fading hope in the Arab world.

Double Take by Ryan Lizza
Charles Taylor's friends in Al Qaeda, and Washington.

Gulbahar Dispatch: Run Out by Elizabeth Rubin
Saber Ali's dead end.

On Films: Old Leading Men by Stanley Kauffmann
The victim-hero of The Man Who Wasn't There is pathetic; the hero-victim of Otomo is monumental.

Bulworthism by Joe Klein
Political Fictions by Joan Didion.

Poem by Sandra Kohler
Counterpoint

A Room With a View by Jeffrey Rosen
A Trial by Jury by D. Graham Burnett

Germ Colonies by Alan Taylor
Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1175-82 by Elizabeth A. Fenn

Alone Together by Stephen Holmes
After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order After Major Wars by G. John Ikenberry

Washington Diarist: Push and Pull by Hope Roberts