Tammy Swofford

Last month, Sudan was roiled by a backlash of anti-austerity demonstrations. A media blackout was imposed after the seat of governance Khartoum became the bull’s-eye of the target for irate citizenry. I made an appointment to sit down with a man who lives in my area, a Sudanese who is well acquainted with the political […]

It is time to play a game of ‘Corruption Trivia’. The category is ‘USAID’. Question: What is the name of a road in Afghanistan with a $ 176 million dollar price tag? Answer: It is the Gardez-Khost Highway. Let’s take a quick look back at the history of this debacle. USAID awarded the contract for […]

In the aftermath of the Westgate Mall attack there is a second story that is brewing. Did certain members of the Kenyan military devolve into marauding bands of brothers as they looted the retail spaces and stripped the corpses of anything of real value? Damn yes! Is military corruption tied into operational response time? In […]

From Andalusia to Medievalism. From algebraic equations to anarchy. From science to slaughter. These are the thoughts that floated through my mind as the nation of Kenya endured an assault on the dignity of their civilisation. What transpired at Westgate Mall in Nairobi was not amorphous in the truest sense of the word. It had […]

“The Institute for the Study of War has learned and confirmed that, contrary to her representations, Ms Elizabeth O’Bagy does not in fact have a PhD degree from Georgetown University. ISW has accordingly terminated Ms O’Bagy’s employment, effective immediately.” The factual aspects of the rapid fall from grace of a pro Syrian-opposition analyst are laid […]

The conference of the mice was now fully assembled in the city of Qom. These were no ordinary mice, of course. They were a special breed with jet-black coats and piercing scholarly eyes. Each one had a distinctive white patch on his head that resembled a turban. The mice had recently ventured forth from the […]

There is no successful argument or a real doctrine of military defence that provides support for the entry of the US into a limited field of operations against President Bashar al-Assad. The Obama administration spin cannot supplant theory-based best practices for the US armed forces. Best practices include a policy of restraint that does not […]

You are a celebrity attending the MTV Video Music Awards. What a great night for media exposure and self-adulatory prancing. It is time to fawn for the photojournalists and display the latest Haute couture. So let there be music and let there be dance! Let there be crude obscenity and slutty behaviour! It is a […]

A shared lunch with a literary companion can be a delightful momentary pause from the real world of career and family. What we choose to read is up to each of us. But I contend those who have a passion for books share common traits. We read primarily for enjoyment. But we also read a […]

The July 28, 2013 The New York Times had the following headline: “Crackdown in Egypt kills Islamists as they Protest.” The news of this second military crackdown and killing of civilians in less than a month rolled into the Dallas time zone on Saturday evening, July 27, via a series of tweets and images posted […]