Q&A: Gen. David Petraeus on Leaving Iraq | Newsweek Iraq War

COVER STORY: INTERNATIONAL
Learning to Live With Radical Islam
Fareed Zakaria 2/28/2009 12:00:00 AM
Pakistan's Swat valley is quiet once again. Often compared to Switzerland for its stunning landscape of mountains and meadows, Swat became a war zone over the past two years as Taliban fighters waged fierce battles against Army troops. No longer, but only because the Pakistani government has agreed to some of the militants' key demands, chiefly that Islamic courts be established in the region. Fears abound that this means women's schools will be destroyed, movies will be banned and public beheadings will become a regular occurrence.
INTERNATIONAL
Afghanistan Is Not Vietnam
Frederick W. Kagan 2/11/2009 12:00:00 AM
Just three months ago, Afghanistan was the "good" war. It was, according to all the conventional wisdom, the "real" central front in the war on terror, the war we had to win, the place to fight Al Qaeda, and the war we should have been focusing on all along. Nothing much has changed in Afghanistan since Barack Obama won the election, but conventional wisdom is swinging fast to the opposite viewpoint. Opinion makers on the left and the right are discovering that Afghanistan is hard to fix, that Al Qaeda is really in Pakistan, and that the "good war" might not be so good after all.
War on Words
Michael Isikoff 2/4/2009 12:00:00 AM
In another effort to undo the legacy of George W. Bush's presidency, the Obama administration is searching for alternatives to the term "war on terror."
INTERNATIONAL
A Turnaround Strategy
Fareed Zakaria 1/31/2009 12:00:00 AM
In May 2006 a unit of American soldiers in Afghanistan's Uruzgan valley were engulfed in a ferocious fire fight with the Taliban. Only after six hours, and supporting airstrikes, could they extricate themselves from the valley. But what was most revealing about the battle was the fact that many local farmers spontaneously joined in, rushing home to get their weapons. Asked later why they'd done so, the villagers claimed they didn't support the Taliban's ideological agenda, nor were they particularly hostile toward the Americans. But this battle was the most momentous thing that had happened in their valley for years. If as virile young men they had stood by and just watched, they would have been dishonored in their communities. And, of course, if they were going to fight, they could not fight alongside the foreigners.
The Editor’s Desk
Jon Meacham 1/31/2009 12:00:00 AM
Not so long ago, everybody, it seemed, believed in the Afghan war. Put in 20th-century terms, Afghanistan was World War II (the Good War) while Iraq was Vietnam (the quagmire). During the campaign, there was hawkish talk of dispatching more troops to fight in the country in which bin Laden had plotted the attacks of September 11, and the arrival of Gen. David Petraeus, fresh from the success of the surge in Iraq, appeared to signal a new day in the war that began in that terrible autumn more than seven years ago.
POLITICS
Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary Of State Nominee
12/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
Hillary Clinton's selection to serve as Barack Obama's secretary of State follows her strong race for the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nomination against him. Clinton was among a number of top national security officials named by Obama on December 1. Obama said he would nominate Robert M. Gates to remain as defense secretary, and nominated Gen. James L. Jones, a retired Marine commandant, for national security adviser, Eric H. Holder Jr. for attorney general, Susan Rice as ambassador the UN, and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano for homeland security secretary.