9/11 was a terrible, horrific, tragic day.

By 2007, Iraqi society had completely collapsed.

Shaped like Texas, but twice as big, Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world. It exports almost nothing - mostly just cotton, gold and livestock - and doesn't have enough money to import much of anything, either.

I don't think I'm invincible.

I don't look for good-news stories or bad-news stories.

I'm basically a pacifist.

Every war has revolutionary justice.

Every war has its demons.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a fundamentalist group.

The Sahara is Africa's great divide.