Iraq & Afganistan Wars

Charles Tripp is senior lecturer in the Department of Political Studies, at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He's the author of A History of Iraq.

Journalist Thomas Ricks covers the military for The Washington Post. Last week the Senate held hearings about Iraq. Ricks will discuss possible scenarios for a U.S. attempt to topple Saddam Hussein, and the likelihood of such an action. Ricks has also reported on U.S. military activities in Somalia, Haiti, Korea, Kuwait, the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan. Prior to joining The Post, Ricks wrote about the military for The Wall Street Journal. He's also the author of the novel A Soldier's Duty, about a U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan.

Journalist Steven Erlanger is the Berlin Bureau Chief for the New York Times. Hell talk about European reaction to the Bush administration, its planned invasion of Iraq, and its position on the middle east, and its response to September 11th. And about how the European union is changing the lives of Europeans.

Journalist Mark Bowden discusses Saddam Hussein, the subject of his cover story for the May issue of The Atlantic Monthly. The story is –Tales of the Tyrant: The private life and inner world of Saddam Hussein. Bowden is also author of the bestseller Black Hawk Down, which was made into a film. His book Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the Worlds Greatest Outlaw, about the U.S. government's role in bringing down Colombian cocaine kingpin and terrorist Pablo Escobar is now in paperback. It won the Overseas Press Club Award for best non fiction book on foreign affairs.

Rolling Stone's Matthieu Aikins reported on this year's opium harvest — the biggest in Afghanistan's history. He also talks about traveling with a rescue crew in Syria and a Shia militia in Iraq.