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It is tempting to compare Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's criticism of Obama administration officials to Gen. Douglas MacArthur's defiance of President Truman during the Korean War. But something important has changed over the last 60 years. Although MacArthur challenged Truman, the larger officer corps was then thoroughly committed to principles of civilian control. But today, McChrystal's actions are symptomatic of a broader politicization of the military command. During the early 20th century, strict nonpartisanship was the professional norm.

An upcoming assessment of Afghanistan by the top U.S. commander there will not include a request for additional U.S. troops, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday. But Gates did not rule out the possibility that the commander, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, might make such a troop request later. The report due after next week's Afghan national elections is intended to assess conditions in the country and the effect of a new Obama administration security strategy. Any request for more troops "will be considered separately and subsequent to his assessment," Gates said.

U.S. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal formally assumed command Monday of American and North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops in Afghanistan, taking charge at one of the most violent junctures of the 8-year-old conflict. In addition to confronting an increasingly powerful Taliban insurgency and presiding over the largest American troop buildup of the war, the four-star general faces rising Afghan anger over civilian deaths and injuries in the course of the fighting.

In a new magazine profile, the top commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, and his advisors appear to ridicule Vice President Joe Biden and are portrayed as dismissive of civilian oversight of the war. The article, in Rolling Stone, said McChrystal's staff frequently derided top civilian leaders, including special envoy Richard C. Holbrooke and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry. The detailed report on the top command in Afghanistan could worsen tensions with the White House, which in the past has felt boxed in by military commanders anxious to get more troops for the war. The article said that only Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton received good reviews from McChrystal's inner circle.

Few figures in the nuclear era have had a more remarkable impact, be it for good or ill, or been more controversial, and thus worthy of honest appraisal, than Edward Teller. The principal advocate of the development of the H-bomb, a primary opponent of virtually all arms-control agreements and the godfather of "Star Wars," Teller has shaped this era as have few others. His pivotal role in the destruction of J.

It's easy to understand why a sky full of country and folk stars--headed by Bob Dylan, Dwight Yoakam and Vince Gill--would want to pay tribute to bluegrass giant Ralph Stanley by joining him on this two-CD set of stone-traditional bluegrass, country and gospel nuggets. The attraction of songs expressing primal human desires, dreams, fears and sorrows is even stronger given contemporary country music's evasion of those themes in favor of warm and fuzzy feel-goodism.

So obscure that his conviction for four murders barely made headlines, death row inmate Stanley Tookie Williams owes his notoriety as much to a determined woman who stood by him and to committed death penalty opponents as to his shift from gangster to anti-gang activist. During a jailhouse visit in 1993 to research a book on gangs, writer Barbara Becnel discovered that Williams, who is scheduled to be executed Dec. 13, had renounced his gang past.

Jan Harlan didn't make the documentary, "Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures," to clarify any misconceptions about the visionary filmmaker who died two years ago at the age of 70. "They were not his concern and they were not my concern," says Harlan, Kubrick's brother-in-law and executive producer of Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon," "The Shining," "Full Metal Jacket," "Eyes Wide Shut" and the upcoming project Kubrick didn't live to film, "A.I.

Among boxing fans, Stanley Ketchel is a legend, thought by many to be the greatest middleweight of all time: 49 knockouts in 64 fights with only four losses, lady's man and mama's darling, dapper, handsome and dead in 1910 at age 24 -- all of this reflected in James Carlos Blake's new novel, "The Killings of Stanley Ketchel." Fans still debate what actually happened during his fabled bout with African American heavyweight champion Jack Johnson.

A U.S. military investigation has harshly criticized a Nevada-based Air Force drone crew and American ground commanders in Afghanistan for misidentifying civilians as insurgents during a U.S. Army Special Forces operation in Oruzgan province in February, resulting in the deaths of as many as 23 civilians. Six U.S. officers will be punished and a sweeping review of counterinsurgency training will be undertaken, U.S. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said Saturday.