An Army War College analyst has released a new report which claims that since 9/11 the the Bush administration has had no clear strategy in its war on terrorism and that ambitious statements have not been followed to their logical end.
The report alleges that the U.S. has failed to understand that terrorism isn’t an enemy [...]

W. Mark Felt reveals he is the annoymous source who fed the Washington Post information that led to the resignation of Richard Nixon.
Hear reaction from one of the president’s men, John Dean.
Guests:
John Dean, former legal counsel to Richard Nixon. He went to prison for his part in the Watergate scandal.

Last Sunday, French citizens went to the polls and voted 55 to 45 percent to reject the European Union constitution. The political, economic, and social upheaval following France’s “no” vote points to a crisis of legitimacy for the constitution, which must be ratified by all 25 union countries to pass.
French President and supporter of the [...]

Every war has its heroes. In the Civil War, one such hero was Charles Russell Lowell, Jr. In the final weeks of that war, he led his regiment into battle and sacrificed his life for the cause of freedom in which he believed so deeply.
Now, Lowell’s great-great-great niece, Carol Bundy, tells his remarkable story [...]

There are more grim news out of Iraq on this Memorial Day. Two suicide bombers detonated themselves in a crowd of policemen in Baghdad, killing twenty-seven. Seventy U.S. troops have been killed in May, making it the deadliest month for the U.S. military since the last January elections.
More than two years after the [...]

Camille Paglia exploded onto the American public scene 15 years ago with her first book, “Sexual Personae.” Since, the cultural critic has argued passionately for feminism and against mainstream feminists, for popular culture and against elitism.
Now, Camille Paglia has the legacy of art, poetry in particular, in her sights. In her new book, “Break, [...]

The year 1776 in American history was one loaded with heroes and villains, patriots and traitors, and a lot of lore. In his new book, “1776,” two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough takes us into that time, but with few of the legendary trappings of many revolutionary histories.
McCullough’s book is a detailed and rare account [...]

Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun stepped down from the high court in 1994. He died in 1999, forever remembered as the justice who wrote the majority decision in the landmark 1973 abortion rights case, Roe v. Wade.
In her new book, “Becoming Justice Blackmun,” Pulitzer Prize winner Linda Greenhouse tells the intimate unlikely story of [...]

Is John Bolton the next ambassador to the United Nations. The Senate has voted this evening to delay a vote on President Bush’s controversial nominee.
Charles Babington, Congressional reporter for The Washington Post, talks about the latest.
Guests:
Charles Babington covers Congress for The Washington Post.

Some of the hottest names in high-tech, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Intel’s new CEO Paul Otellini among them, weighed in at an A-List conference in Southern California this week.
At the top of the agenda was the slickest new digital technology being developed for the 21st century — tablet PCs, coffee-table computers, and 3D satellite [...]

President George Bush met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and pledged $50 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority. This was an opportunity for Bush to revive Middle East peace talks and boost the embattled leader before Parliamentary elections in July.
Julie Mason, White House correspondent for the Houston Chronicle, describes what happened in [...]

The buzz around NASCAR today is more like a roar that sounds as loudly as twenty two stock cars thundering around a track. Sports journalist Jeff MacGregor spent 10 months crossing the country to follow the NASCAR circuit and has written about it in his new book “Sunday Money.”
MacGregor describes the exhilaration of being around [...]

President Bush and Senate majority leader Bill Frist hit a most unlikely buzz saw this week, 14 Senate moderates, including seven Republicans, dramatically intervened in the final hour with a bipartisan compromise that defused the “nuclear option” and derailed the hard right vision of a take-no-prisoners strategy for remaking the Supreme Court.
After years of lockstep [...]

Sue Monk Kidd’s first novel “The Secret Life of Bees” sold more than three million copies. Now she’s out with her second novel “The Mermaid Chair.” Hear Sue Monk Kid read a passage from her new book and discuss the pressure she felt in trying to follow up on her blockbuster first novel.
Guests:
Sue Monk [...]

Six hundred thousand foreign students are studying in American universities. More students come to the United States for graduate studies than to any other country in the world. But America’s famous allure to the world’s best and brightest is dimming. Last year alone, American graduate programs saw an almost 30 percent decline in applications [...]

Two decades after Ronald Reagan’s grand vision of the Star Wars program, top Air Force officials imagine a new generation of space weaponry — from high-tech microsatellites and global space planes to lethal laser beams and radio waves.
Now, the Air Force is seeking administration approval for a national-security directive that would take the United [...]

A dashing hero, great escapes and romance, dark villains and valiant heroes — Isabel Allende, bestselling author of “The House of Spirits,” packs it all into her new novel on swashbuckling icon Zorro.
In Allende’s new novel, Diego de la Vega transforms from a young prankster to the masked Zorro, who fearlessly — and sometimes a [...]

Throughout the month, On Point has been featuring notable commencement addresses from around the country.
Last Sunday, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai spoke at Boston University’s graduation ceremony.
In this segment, hear an excerpt from his speech.
Guests:
Aghanistan President Hamid Karzai who delivered the 2005 commencement address at Boston University.

U.S. Senators have reached a compromise that is avoiding a much-feared filibuster on the part of the Democrats.
Gail Chaddock covers Congress for The Christian Science Monitor and reports live from the press conference.
Guests:
Gail Chaddock, covers Congress for the Christian Science Monitor.

There’s a lot of rumbling from the U.S. Congress these days. As a rules change on filibusters looms large in the U.S. Senate, moderate senators from both sides of the aisle are working to calm the situation. But it’s not clear if their efforts will be enough.
Bitter partisanship is nothing new, but what about [...]