Take a load off, Army One of the problems with our educated elite’s failure to serve in the military is their ignorance of the problems of the average soldier, and their resulting inability to pressure the Pentagon to take remedial action. A study by a Navy research committee in 2007 found that Marines carried loads […]
Charles Peters
Charles Peters is the founding editor of the Washington Monthly.
Posted inMagazine, March/April 2011
The ugly truth in twenty-one words… The bakery-industrial complex… Make-believe = survival
Washington at its best I For those of us who came to Washington with John Kennedy, January was a time for both mourning and celebration. On the 20th, a ceremony commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of his inaugural speech was held in the Capitol rotunda. Congressional leaders spoke about how the challenge of “ask not” had […]
Posted inMagazine
Cool Hand Barack … Don’t let sleeping lies dog … Capitalism could break your heart …
Finally, an audience! The members of the Foreign Service owe a great debt to Julian Assange. He got their cables read. One of the major frustrations of Foreign Service officers has been getting their voices heard amid the vast clutter of information arriving in Washington every day. Stanley Meisler, the veteran foreign affairs correspondent of […]
Posted inMagazine
Tilting at Windmills
Jobs versus schools: It’s complicated In January of 1979, Marion Berry was about to take office for his first term as mayor of Washington. A mutual friend mistakenly thought we might hit it off and brought us together for lunch. He asked me what I thought was Washington’s number one problem. I said, “The public […]
Posted inMagazine
Tilting at Windmills
“The system is broken.” This lament is heard constantly these days. But its the same system weve always had. Resistant to change, to be sure, but, as the New Deal and the Great Society proved, capable of major reform. Whats wrong now is us, as Evan Thomas points out in a recent Newsweek article with […]
Posted inMagazine
Tilting at Windmills
It was troubling to see Janet Napolitano and Leon Panetta be so defensive about the obvious failures of their respective agencies. Napolitano has an excellent reputation, and I have admired Panetta for years. But good people can become prisoners of their subordinates. Especially in their first year or so heading an agency, leaders are anxious […]
Posted inMagazine
Tilting at Windmills
Temporary help wanted Obama talks only about creating permanent jobs, but he should not fear temporary jobs that can bridge the gap until private employers begin hiring again. Temporary jobs are exactly what Franklin Roosevelts CCC and the WPA provided. This year, thank goodness, the Census should result in roughly 1 million temporary jobs. Another […]
Posted inMagazine
Tilting at Windmills
As we celebrate the Monthlys forty years, I want to express my gratitude to my successor, Paul Glastris, for the job he has done guiding the magazine during the last eight years. He has demonstrated two gifts that are essential for an editor: a knack for picking talented people to do the reporting and for […]
Posted inMagazine
Tilting at Windmills
Give the government the power to negotiate prices with the drug companies. This could save Medicare a ton of moneythe Veterans Administration cut its drug bill in half when given the right to negotiate. The House bill makes this reform, but the Los Angeles Times reported that the White House has made a deal with […]
Posted inMagazine
Tilting at Windmills
In a haunting reminder of Vietnams body counts, the U.S. Army has begun publicizing every Taliban fighter killed, according to the Wall Street Journal. Another reminder of Vietnam comes from a New York Times report that Army investigators have determined that civilians at Granai, Afghanistan, were attacked in violation of the rules of engagement regarding […]
