The Taliban

Latest Articles

Bowing to Amalur; Karl vs. Clint; Mitt the nitwit; local color

State of the art
OK, P&J have found a solution to that nasty little dispute about whether or not to include "Providence Plantations" in Vo Dilun's formal name — State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | February 08, 2012

Review: Hell and Back Again

The real-life story of a young marine
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Hell and Back Again offers a potent documentary correlative to the narrative of The Hurt Locker .
By GERALD PEARY | January 05, 2012

Review: The Mill and the Cross

Conceptually confusing
Clever CGI allows the effective recreation of a 16th century Flanders.
By GERALD PEARY | October 18, 2011

Letters to the Boston editor, May 20, 2011

Nose out of joint
Jeez, I go away on vacation and you guys go all Obama on me.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | May 18, 2011

Review: Bangor artist Kenny Cole lights the 'Hellfire' at SPACE Gallery

When there's smoke
"The Hellfire Story" is a tough pill to swallow.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | November 24, 2010

Review: Medal of Honor misses the target

Fog of war
Could this be, at long last, the video game that deals frankly with the morass of war? Don't kid yourself.
By MITCH KRPATA | October 31, 2010

Afghanistan: The war that's killing us

Interview: Former Army colonel and current Boston University professor Andrew Bacevich explains why staying is a big mistake
For several years now, I've been reading Andrew Bacevich's articles and books that argue for a reimagination of how American government conceives of and executes foreign policy.
By PETER KADZIS | August 02, 2010

Review: Restrepo

War in the raw: taking the high ground in Afghanistan
Before his name became that of a hellish outpost on a mountaintop in the Korengal Valley, perhaps the most dangerous place on earth, PFC Juan S. Restrepo was a human being, a 20-year-old single father, an accomplished guitarist, and a medic in the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
By PETER KEOUGH | February 24, 2011

Interview: Sebastian Junger

Getting up close and personal with Restrepo
Not even being held captive by armed militants in Nigeria satisfied The Perfect Storm author Sebastian Junger's need for dangerous assignments.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 30, 2010

Judicial ups and downs

Plus poppy hypocrisy, pressuring the Pope, and even more ‘Buttercup’ trivia
It was about time that Rogeriee Thompson was finally confirmed (unanimously, we might add) by the United States Senate for what amounts to an historic spot on the Federal Court of Appeals.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | March 24, 2010

After Eden

Stick Fly at the Huntington; Paradise Lost at the ART; boom at New Rep
One of the heroines of Stick Fly , a post-doctoral student of etymology, likes to smear honey on the table and then scrutinize the flies that get stuck in it.
By CAROLYN CLAY | March 11, 2010

In the land of the stoner cops

On the front lines of Obama's campaign in Afghanistan
Major Jim Contreras was awaiting his marching orders. Literally.
By NIR ROSEN | March 01, 2010

Ransom Notes

Was the NY Times being hypocritical when it suppressed coverage of its journalist who was kidnapped by the Taliban?
While reporting from Afghanistan two years ago, David Rohde became, for the second time in his career, an unwilling participant rather than an observer. On October 29, 1995, Rohde had been arrested by Bosnian Serbs. And then in November 2008, Rohde and two Afghan colleagues were en route to an interview with a Taliban commander when they were kidnapped.
By ADAM REILLY | February 12, 2010

Crossing the line

Belo Sells out. Plus, talk like a Brit, Chicago Vin acts up, and faithless football.
The news from the Dallas-based A.H. Belo Corp., owners of the Dallas Morning News and our own Providence Urinal, hit home hard and quickly last week in Our Little Towne.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | December 09, 2009

Review: Brothers

Maguire, Gyllenhaal go deer hunting
Operation Enduring Freedom seems to have replaced Vietnam as Hollywood's go-to military quagmire from which to dredge gut-wrenching meditations on the psychological carnage of war.
By SHAULA CLARK | December 09, 2009

An Obama confidant on the surge in Afghanistan

War Dept.
Twenty-four hours before President Barack Obama announced a 30,000-troop escalation of the Afghan War, one of his key foreign policy advisors provided a view of the president’s thinking at Brown University.
By STEVEN STYCOS | December 02, 2009

Pints And Blood On A Saturday Night

The undead
The Reverend Al Zombie, organizer of the Providence Zombie Pub Crawl, climbed on the bar at Fatty McGee’s as the event kicked off Saturday night to offer a disclaimer.
By ABIGAIL CROCKER | October 07, 2010

Afghanistan: Just say no!

Plus, Obama and the Nobel
The idea that the war in Afghanistan has reached a critical junction, a “now-or-never” moment that requires an additional 40,000 troops to win, is rubbish.
By EDITORIAL | October 14, 2009

Remembering 9-11

Eight years later
Eight years ago, on a sunny Tuesday September morning in New York City and Washington, DC, a sickeningly well-orchestrated terrorist attack took flight, in part, from Boston’s Logan International Airport.
By BOSTON PHOENIX STAFF | September 07, 2011

Hey, hey, we're the Monkees

Politics and other mistakes
The law of averages says if you put 100 monkeys in a room with 100 computers, they'll eventually write a workable national health-care bill. Apparently, that rule doesn't apply to 100 US senators.
By AL DIAMON | September 02, 2009

Review: Afghan Star

Moving, chilling
The Russians couldn't conquer Afghanistan, and to this point neither have the Americans, but it seems a televised singing-competition has.
By LANCE GOULD | July 28, 2009

Debating the Middle East muddle

Global Politics
US military aid to Pakistan and Afghanistan is being wasted and should be redirected to the police and moderate non-violent groups working for education and the rule of law, according to two Middle East experts who spoke Sunday at the Community Church of Providence.
By STEVEN STYCOS | June 17, 2009

Full shelf

The best in summer reading
Hot town, summer in the city. . . . or in the country. . . . or at the beach. Wherever you are, don't forget your books.
By BARBARA HOFFERT | June 08, 2009

Right-wing terror

The murder of Dr. George Tiller
Conservatives scoffed in April when the Department of Homeland Security warned that the United States could face another wave of homegrown attacks.
By EDITORIAL | June 03, 2009

An awkward adaptation

Times change, but the frailties of the human heart . . . not so much.
Times change, but the frailties of the human heart . . . not so much. That overworked muscle can be haplessly generous or slammed-door shut. Nathaniel Hawthorne's mid-19th century novel The Scarlet Letter still stands as a perceptive examination of the eternal internal battle between love and hate.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 13, 2009

C.J. Chivers's real journalism

Plus, it's time for same-sex marriage, the PPL on the brink, and some unusual tomes
Phillipe and Jorge were absolutely stunned by the astounding and chilling story on the front page of the April 20 Urinal
By PHILLIPE and JORGE | April 22, 2009

Propping up a puppet

Obama gets it wrong on Afghanistan
"If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer," Yogi Berra once said. President Obama should do the same.
By TED RALL | February 25, 2009

Terror masala

Bollywood’s colorful, multi-genre musicals serve up their most interesting character yet: the singing, dancing terrorist.
After living in fear of terrorism for more than half a decade, it’s something of a relief to sit in the dark at the Somerville Theatre and . . . laugh at it.
By SEETHA NARAYAN | December 02, 2008

California’s shame

Equal marriage rights suffers a setback, but there is hope. Plus, young voters.
The politics of division as practiced by lame-duck president George W. Bush at the connivance of his onetime Svengali Karl Rove are not dead.
By EDITORIAL | November 24, 2008

On the ground

A decade in the war on terror
Through journalistic instincts, hunches, and sheer luck, Dexter Filkins has, for the past ten years, managed to frequently be in the wrong place at the right time.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | November 05, 2008