Significant events he portrays include the ongoing "cleanup" operations in Afghanistan and the search for the elusive Osama bin Laden; controversy over the detention of al-Qa'eda and Taliban forces in Camp X-Ray; preparations for bringing John Walker Lindh to trial for treason; and America's return to complacency, with its politicians resumption of partisan bickering.
Brodsky follows President Bush's shift in emphasis, away from Afghanistan and toward the next theater of war: the "Axis of Evil" -- Iran, North Korea, and, especially, Iraq, where our leaders hope to initiate a "regime change" within a short time. Yet, the focus remains in the Mideast, on the escalating attacks and retaliations raging between Palestinians and Israelis -- acts only fueling the Muslim world's hatred of the U.S. Many of the poems depict the increasingly frequent suicide bombings and their bloody aftermaths. This book culminates with Israel's full-scale incursion into the West Bank and Gaza, its sieges of Arafat's Ramallah compound and the Church of the Nativity, seized by Islamic militants.