The American military has installed an elaborate system of barricades and checkpoints ... the enclaves created by this system, which American commanders frequently call “gated communities" ...

In a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed ...

"If your country was occupied by Iraq, would you fight?" he asked. "Enough said."

Their plans may have been dreamy. But at least, they had plans.

American officials readily acknowledge that they have entered an uncertain marriage of convenience ...

"The relationship ... is like a Catholic marriage ..."

She smiled much of the time, but also shifted in her seat, clenched her jaw muscles and fiddled with her hair.

She declared her atheism as a girl, and later, her intolerance for pretension. (“I have had enough of these dinners where people say ‘I think’ all the time,” she wrote. She wanted to know.)

Officials are wondering if the longtime reliance on him has begun to outlive its usefulness.

Basically, the company was willing to bet $500 or $750 that if he heard the same drug pitch all day, by the end of the day he’d be so brainwashed that he could not possibly prescribe any other drug but ours.

... at the end of the day, he almost always did the right thing.