Featured Antiwar.com columnist Kelley B. Vlahos discusses her coverage of the mainstream Democratic interventionist CNAS conference, the unprecedented politicization of military policy, public relations stunts disguised as war strategy initiatives and why think tanks that function only as echo chambers are not part of the reality-based community.

Featured Antiwar.com columnist Kelley B. Vlahos discusses the resurgence of Bacha Bazi and the sexual exploitation of boys in Afghanistan, Canadian soldiers who were rebuffed by superiors when reporting abuse by their Afghan comrades, US withdrawal from a long-held remote Afghan outpost and the increasingly obvious futility of US and NATO humanitarian efforts and the occupation in general.

Kelley B. Vlahos, contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine, discusses the indirect U.S. and NATO funding of the Taliban, David Kilcullen's mixed bag of Afghanistan policy assessments, Obama's lack of allies in the State Department, the military's seizing of initiative from the indecisive Obama administration and how the U.S. embrace of India prompts Pakistan to increase support for the Taliban.

Kelley B. Vlahos, a Washington, D.C.-based freelance writer, discusses how the CIA successfully undermined Somalia's Islamic Courts Union and created something much worse, the paltry U.S. troop contingent in Afghanistan compared to the 600,000 troops needed to pacify the country, the generally counterproductive Global War on Terror and how military failures become justifications for expanded and prolonged occupations.

Kelley B. Vlahos, contributing editor at The American Conservative, discusses the health problems caused by open-air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ingrained military habit of underreporting injuries and illnesses, multiple lawsuits against KBR for endangering the health of soldiers and the bureaucratic games played by the military and VA to avoid paying health care costs.