The Matt Mabe Story (II): a Pentagon official comments
I got this interesting note from a Pentagon official about the first post on this blog from Matt Mabe, who is heading back for a second tour in Afghanistan: The “long form email dispatch home” is fast becoming the signature dispatch of the war. Almost everyone I know (including me) has sent these home from ...
I got this interesting note from a Pentagon official about the first post on this blog from Matt Mabe, who is heading back for a second tour in Afghanistan:
The “long form email dispatch home” is fast becoming the signature dispatch of the war. Almost everyone I know (including me) has sent these home from Iraq or Afghanistan when they’ve been there, and I get them all the time from people who forward them. There’s something special about these personal missives. It’d be great if there were some kind of archive for them… they’ll make great material for the Rick Atkinsons and David Halberstams of the future when they write the major retrospective histories of these wars.”
I think he is right — this is the representative literary form of the post-9/11 wars.
More from Foreign Policy


Can Russia Get Used to Being China’s Little Brother?
The power dynamic between Beijing and Moscow has switched dramatically.


Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World
It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.


It’s a New Great Game. Again.
Across Central Asia, Russia’s brand is tainted by Ukraine, China’s got challenges, and Washington senses another opening.


Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing
The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.