Andrew Cockburn, author of Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy, discusses his article “Search and destroy: The Pentagon’s losing battle against IEDs;” the $70 billion “Manhattan Project” to combat $20 homemade landmines – that remain as effective as ever; how the military rejects cheap low-tech solutions and keeps the cash flowing to defense contractors; and the battle of wits between a Taliban bomb-maker and an American explosive ordnance technician.

Andrew Cockburn, author of Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy, discusses his review of Joy Gordon's Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions, how innocuous-sounding sanctions fail to engender the popular opposition that a war does even though the death and destruction levels are on par and how the Clinton administration changed the requirements to end sanctions to depose Saddam Hussein and score domestic political points.

Andrew Cockburn, author of Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy, discusses the historical and continuing US support for Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, how the CIA and State Department stymied attempts to stop A.Q. Kahn early on and how US safeguarding efforts allow Pakistan's nukes to be more fully and rapidly deployed.