Director Charles Ferguson's hard-hitting documentary expose about the American government's strategic planning, or lack of it, at the outset of the Iraq war, as told by those who were involved. In a frightening parallel with the Vietnam war, American military planners expected hostilities in Iraq to be over within a few months. Just as with Vietnam, however, American forces quickly became engaged in a morale-sapping conflict, under attack from both sides, that offered no easy way out. Chronologically following the chain of events, the film dissects the decisions made by the Bush administration at the outset of the war, questioning why these decisions were made, & asking whether anything can still be done to remedy the situation. Those involved in all areas of the conflict: soldiers, planners, reporters, White House aides & military commanders all give their own personal accounts of the decisions & events that led to the current situation. ...

While the destruction of the World Trade Centre & the strike against the Pentagon shocked the world at large, experts on terrorism couldn't feign complete surprise. In this text, Laqueur attempts to answer the questions about terrorism in the light of 9/11 & the still unsolved anthrax letters. ...

First, what constitutes terrorism? What is new about the 'new' terrorism? Why is the Muslim world the most potent breeding ground of this new terrorism? To what extent is religion itself a factor? Is there a clash of civilizations between the Muslim world & the largely Christian or post-Christian West? Is America at fault?. ...

When the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in December 2010, its recipient, Liu Xiaobo, was serving an eleven-year sentence in a Chinese prison for "incitement to subvert state power." These essays & poems not only chronicle a leading dissident's struggle against tyranny but enrich the record of universal longing for freedom & dignity. ...