Hour 1
On today's "Radio Times," Marty will get an update on the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from a trio of distinguished journalists. NPR's Baghdad Bureau Chief QUIL LAWRENCE will update us from Iraq about that country's post-election political upheaval as the withdrawal deadline for U.S. troops nears. Then, TRUDY RUBIN writes the Philadelphia Inquirer's Worldview column, and recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan and Iraq. In Iraq, she reported on the tragic fate of her Iraqi driver Salam, tortured and imprisoned for working with Iraqi authorities against the sectarian slaughter. Fellow Inquirer columnist MARK BOWDEN's most recent article in "Vanity Fair," meanwhile, profiled the architect of the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: General David Petraeus. We'll talk to these journalists about what their reporting tells us about modern U.S. warfare and the way ahead in both wars.

Filed under: military, world |

Hour 2
We're coming into the 150th anniversary of the American South's first organized attempt to secede from the Union. Our guest, University of Pennsylvania professor of history STEPHANIE MCCURRY, looks at the Confederate War through the experience of the South's women and slave struggles in her new book, "Confederate Reckoning." We'll talk to her about how women and slaves influenced the demise of the Confederacy, including how they took on the Jefferson Davis government on government enlistment, and tax and welfare policies.

Filed under: author, military |