Synopsis

IN 1991 THE UNITED STATES trounced the Iraqi army in battle only to stumble blindly into postwar turmoil. Then in 2003 the United States did it again. How could this happen? How could the strongest power in modern history fight two wars against the same opponent in just over a decade, win lightning victories both times, and yet still be woefully unprepared for the aftermath?

Because Americans always forget the political aspects of war. Time and again, argues Gideon Rose in this penetrating look at American wars over the last century, our leaders have focused more on beating up the enemy than on creating a stable postwar environment. What happened in Iraq was only the most prominent example of this phenomenon, not an exception to the rule.

Woodrow Wilson foughtA lawsuit was filed today in the federal court for the District of Columbia challenging Arkansas’s work requirement for many Medicaid recipients.

The suit, with three plaintiffs — Charles Gresham of Harrison and Cesar Ardon and Marisol Ardon of Siloam Springs — names Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Medicare/Medicaid Administrator Seema Verma, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

It is filed in the same court that has ruled a waiver the government allowed for a Kentucky work rule was illegal. This suit, too, wants to enjoin enforcement of the rule as a violation of federal law and Constitution.

The National Health Law Program, Arkansas Legal Aid and the Southern Poverty Law Center have worked on the lawsuit, long anticipated. They